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Jacksie Lewis was an Irish boy, embarrassed by his grandfather's highly emotional and frequently weepy sermons. When he was 9, his mother died, and shortly thereafter his unhappy father sent him and his brother to a boarding school run by a sadistic headmaster. When he was a young man, he saw the horrors of trench warfare and had his dearest friend ripped from him by World War I.

These early life experiences seem to explain why Lewis, like Freud, turned away from belief and toward aggressive atheism. Yet late in life, Lewis was content, fundamentally happy, and a believer. Lewis was offered an Order of the British Empire, one of Britain's highest civilian honors, and (unlike his friend J. R. R. Tolkien) turned it down. This is the picture of self-confidence. Freud was bitter and had made enemies of his onetime disciples. And despite his enormous influence, he was angry that he hadn't received greater recognition. He believed he was due a Nobel Prize. This is the picture of depression.

Nicholi's book proceeds in an orderly fashion: from biographical introduction to topical comparisons of Freud and Lewis on a variety of issues of belief and behavior. Is there a Creator? Is there a universal moral law? What is the source of happiness? The meaning of love? Of sex? Of suffering? Of death?

Yet in these topical investigations, Nicholi never lets go of the biographical thread, but weaves it through every chapter. He is thoroughly conversant with his subjects' personal papers and letters. From this familiarity emerges an intimate understanding of how belief and biography are entwined.

Freud, who fought religion as an illusion, emerges as a disappointed soul on a never-ending search for acceptance and meaning, but never quite seeing the full picture. Lewis, who wrote fantasy stories from childhood on, emerges as a realist, with tremendous insight into his own psyche. He wrote of a character in one of his adolescent tragedies: It was "a projection of myself; he voiced that sense of priggish superiority whereby I was, unfortunately, beginning to compensate myself for my unhappiness."

Amazingly, Lewis got such insight into himself without the help of Freud.

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A ready-to-download Bible Study on this article is available at ChristianBibleStudies.com. These unique Bible studies use articles from current issues of Christianity Today to prompt thought-provoking discussions in adult Sunday school classes or small groups.

Also appearing on our site today:

Two Cultural GiantsBoth Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis were emotionally wounded as boys and struggled with depression as men. But a worldview can make a tremendous difference. An interview with Armand Nicholi Jr.

The Question of God by Armand Nicholi Jr. is available at Amazon.com.

Related articles by Nicholi include:

When Worldviews Collide (Part One, Part Two) — Christian Leadership Ministries' The Real Issue

How Does the World View of the Scientist & the Clinician Influence Their Work? — Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith

In 1999, Christianity Today sister publication Books & Culture interviewed Paul Vitz, the author of Sigmund Freud's Christian Unconscious (1988) about Freud and his legacy. Another Books & Culture article looked at C. S. Lewis' writings in relationship with postmodernists including Freud.

If it's Lewis you're interested in, Into the Wardrobe should fill your every desire. Beliefnet also has a series of Lewis-centric articles, including a C.S. Lewis essay contest.

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April 22 2002, Vol. 46, No. 5