The Apologetics of Joy: A Case for the Existence of God from C.S. Lewis's Argument from Desire

Among all the arguments for the existence of God there may be none more personal and intimate than C. S. Lewis’s Argument from Desire. This book attempts to explain what the Argument from Desire is and why we believe that the argument is an inductively strong one.
In the spirit of C. S. Lewis, Augustine, and Pascal, this book invites both the head and the heart of the reader to consider the case for God’s existence. While many arguments look out to the external world for evidence of God’s existence, this book calls the reader to look inward to the human heart. While learning from classical thinkers (particularly C. S. Lewis) The Apologetics of Joy will bring both intuition and experience together to demonstrate the truth of divine presence in the world. The reader will walk away with either a newfound faith or a reinforced conviction that has a strong intellectual and experiential dimension.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Introduction

Part 1 C. S. Lewis and the Argument from Desire
1 The Argument as Presented in Selected Works of C. S. Lewis
2 Defining "Joy" as Sehnsucht
3 Plantinga and Lewis: Balancing the Mystical and the Natural in Sehnsucht
4 A Word on the Different Forms that the Argument Can Take

Part 2 Examining Beversluis’s Objections to the Argument
5 Does Lewis "Beg the Question"?
6 Does the Quality of Sehnsucht Lack Innateness?
7 If "Joy" Is So Natural and Desirable Then Why Did Lewis Run Away from It?
8 Does the Concept of Sehnsucht Contradict the Bible?
9 Why Do Some People Never Experience what C. S. Lewis Calls "Joy"?

Part 3 Haunted by Desire
10 Echoes and Evidences of the Second Premise
11 Imagination and the Heart’s Deep Need for a Happy Ending
12 In the Defense of Beauty
13 Lewis, Leisure, and Sehnsucht

Part 4 Concerning the Conclusion of the Argument from Desire
14 The Evolutionary Objection
15 Is there a Human Gene for Sehnsucht?

Conclusion
Appendix: The End of Human Desire
Bibliography
Subject/Name Index