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The World's Last Night and Other Essays

The World's Last Night and Other Essays is a collection of essays by C. S. Lewis published in the United States in 1960. The title essay is about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The volume also contains a follow-up to Lewis' 1942 novel The Screwtape Letters in the form of "Screwtape Proposes a Toast." The second, fourth and fifth pieces were published in the U.K. in a volume called Screwtape Proposes a Toast and other pieces (1965); the first, sixth and seventh were published in the U.K. in Fern-seed and Elephants and other essays on Christianity (1975). All the pieces were later collected in the comprehensive Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces (2000).

1. Are there animals anywhere else besides earth?

2. If yes, do any of these animals have what we call ‘rational souls’? That is, are they spiritual beings?

3. If there are such spiritual beings, are any or all of them, like us, fallen?

4. If any of them have fallen, have they been denied Redemption by the Incarnation and Passion of Christ? Christ could have come to those worlds also.

5. Finally, if all of the first four questions could be answered yes, is it certain that this is the only possible mode of Redemption?

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The World's Last Night and Other Essays

Survey of C.S. Lewis's essays, stories and other short pieces as published in collections since 1939