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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the author say that people react to someone in a room with them?

2. What does the author conclude is God's nature?

3. How many books does the author use to record his reflections?

4. In Chapter Three, to what does the author compare faith?

5. In Chapter Four, what does the author suddenly feel walking through nature?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Lewis admit that he goes about restoring his faith?

2. How does the consolation that previously so wearied Lewis, "She is in God's hands", strike Lewis by the last chapter?

3. What question does Lewis ask to begin to reason his way through his pain? How does this question lead Lewis onto new ground?

4. In addition to a sword, what other metaphor does Lewis use to describe H. to establish a balanced view?

5. What feelings follow from Lewis's experiences when he is not thinking about H.? How is his feeling related to his grief?

6. What does Lewis want when it comes to reality vs. ideas about reality?

7. In Chapter Three, what does Lewis come to see about his love for H. and his faith in God?

8. What enormous gain in his sense of God and of H. has Lewis made by the fourth chapter?

9. What is the difference between how Lewis earlier understood biblical consolations and how he came to understand them?

10. At the beginning of Chapter Three, when does Lewis acknowledge that he does not think about H.? What is life like when Lewis is not thinking about H.?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Lewis must deal with his children as they all struggle through their loss. As Lewis tries to open up to his sons, he is confronted with their great disturbance.

1) How does Lewis attempt to communicate with his children? What topics of conversation does he introduce?

2) How do the children respond to Lewis's advances to build a bridge that connects them? Specify how Lewis interprets the children's responses. Give at least three examples of Lewis's impressions.

3) With what experience does Lewis relate his sons' emotions about their mother's death?

Essay Topic 2

Lewis begins his reflections in the midst of great pain. His wife, H., has died. Describe three examples of Lewis's pain, as he describes it throughout the book.

Essay Topic 3

For the first two chapters, Lewis is immersed in emotions, in raw agony. In the third chapter, he takes a significant turn. As Lewis points his ability to reason toward his grief, he begins another stage in the process of his grieving.

1) What questions does Lewis ask about H.'s death and what it means for the whole of life? When Lewis writes about the "problem of the universe," what does he mean?

2) Describe the difference between what Lewis believed before H. died and what he questions after she dies. What is the main difference between the two conditions of belief? What is important about the difference for the possibility of a sane and rational life of faith?

3) Regarding faith, what Lewis believed prior to H.'s death has everything to do with his faith in God and in what he had been taught. How does Lewis think about his faith after H. died?

(see the answer keys)

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