The "Great War" was a prolonged debate between Lewis and Barfield, fraught with subtle metaphysical and philosophical distinctions. Even Lewis scholars find the arguments and their implications difficult to grasp. Author Stephen Thorson began writing this book over 30 years ago and published parts of it in articles during Barfield's lifetime. Barfield wrote to Thorson in 1983 saying, ..".you have surveyed the divergence between Lewis and myself very fairly, and truly in depth..."

This book looks at the role of Lewis's recurrent experiences of Joy and Poetic Imagination in his...