ABSTRACT
One of the recurring themes in C. S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man concerns the threat that humans pose to themselves and the natural world. One of Lewis's commentators, Gilbert Meilaender, cites the Tao as a major concept in That Hideous Strength. There are also interesting parallels between The Abolition of Man and the themes in The Chronicles of Narnia. The Abolition of Man, an attack on moral relativism originally devised as a set of three evening lectures, was published in 1943; this period during World War II was an especially productive time for Lewis. Having enjoyed success with The Screwtape Letters, Lewis was also renowned at that time for his lectures on BBC radio on Christian matters. Lewis used the lectures to attack moral relativism and scientific reductionism, philosophical viewpoints he denounced in many of his works, and to defend the idea that moral principles have an objective source beyond human argument.
