The Great Divorce (Renovare Book Club)

Finished: January 9 

I must admit, I read this "on the go" while traipsing through Singapore and Malaysia in early January, enjoying a Singapore Sling, fellowshiping with good friends of 40+ years, and practicing my 25-year-old "rusty" Malay. 

So, it was not a totally focused time to read this short but profound book. I liked it. How can you not like anything C.S. Lewis writes? But I must return to it and all the tremendous Renovare Book Club resources. 

I had planned to do this the weekend I returned from Malaysia/Singapore in preparation for leading a discussion on it the following Monday, but I was given the gift of COVID-19, and they soldiered on without me leading and without me taking a deeper dive.

I hope to return to the Renovare resources soon. 

The gist of the book: 

C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’ The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil. (From Goodreads)

Renovare Book Club Ponderings:

I love all the extra things they give you: podcasts, articles, webinars, articles. I love reading books I would not ordinarily pick up and read. I HIGHLY recommend it for ongoing growth and spiritual formation. 

Leading a group is a lot more work. But if this book is any indication, if I don't lead it, I don't dig as deeply! 

I had thought about not leading this book club as I will be going into my ninth year. I didn't have a formal group during the 2016-2017 year, but I did meet with one other woman. This required travel to Newberg. The next year, I put it out to two women in the Book Babes that summer for the 2017-2018 year, and the local Corvallis Chapter of the Renovare Book Club was born! We have had up to nine people. People come and go, but there is now a core group of seven. 

I think I need to keep leading, and I seem to have been able to carve out time to prepare, even though it can be time-consuming, and the Lord knows, I am leading enough groups! 

So, I think I will go another year. For the most part, I really liked all the books we read this year. I think The Eternal Promise has been my favorite. (I am finally getting to writing this review four months after finishing reading it.)