During the last 3 decades of the 20th Century, Dr. Armand Nicholi (psychiatrist to the New England Patriots for 15 years) taught a course at Harvard University to both undergraduates and medical students on Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis. He captures that course in the book The Question of God (Free Press: New York, 2002).
Nicholi speculates on a meeting between Lewis and Freud at Freud's home in London sometime in 1938-1939. Playwrite Mark St. Germain wrote Freud's Last Session which enjoyed a successful Off Broadway run in New York, winning the Best Play Award from the Off Broadway Alliance in 2011.
Houston's Alley Theater is hosting a Freud's Last Session through February 23, 2014. For the Houston Chronicle's review, "Class on religion is in 'Session,'" show times and admissions, see the Lifestyle section, January 30, 2014, page 1. The Chronicle has a better article published on the 27th entitled "'Session' Imagines a Meeting of the Minds." The Houston Press also has a brief review.
PBS picked up Nicholi's work, producing four hour program, The Question of God, which aired in 2004. The whole program is available on DVD. Significant portions of the program are available online.
So What?!
If you're having discussions with friends about the question of God and Jesus, or you would like to have such a discussion, consider the following.
- Read the Houston articles linked above.
- Watch and read goodly portions of The Question of God online at PBS.
- Invite your friend(s) to join you at the Alley Theater and dinner afterwards (a late dinner for evening shows, or an early dinner for afternoon shows).
- Talk about what was most interesting to them and, also, to you.
- Simply listen, and mostly, try to understand some of the issues from your friend's point of view.
- Then tell of your experience, where it is similar to, or different from, Lewis and Freud.
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