Mere Christianity

Author: C.S. Lewis
Published (in whole, revised form): 1952

Mere Christianity is a book that encapsulates a series of radio discussions that C.S. Lewis held in the mid-1940s. These discussions were originally published as separate "books", but Mere Christianity combines all of the original publications into one volume. Lewis himself "translated" his radio talks into prose. The four original books became sections of the combined volume, and are titled as follows:

1) Right And Wrong As A Clue To The Meaning Of The Universe
2) What Christians Believe
3) Christian Behavior
4) Beyond Personality: Or First Steps In The Doctrine Of The Trinity

Along with the four sections of the combined book, Lewis, a former atheist, included a preface that somewhat explained his purpose and background for writing about Christianity in the way that he did.

This is the first nonfiction C.S. Lewis book that I have read. In 1998, I read The Magician's Nephew, the first book of the Narnia children's science fiction series.

Mere Christianity represents Lewis' effort to distill Christianity to a core set of fundamental and unalterable beliefs (or truths). When Sharon was joining the Catholic Church, I was her sponsor for R.C.I.A. In one of our classes the instructor, Brad Buddy, spoke of the difference between important traditions of the church and those traditions that might not be so important. He used the terms big "T" and small "t". For example, an important and vital tradition for Catholics is the belief that Jesus is the Son of God. This is an unalterable truth of the Faith. On the other hand, an example of a small "t" belief is that Catholics should give up something during Lent. I see Lewis' book as an attempt to define the large "T" of Christianity. One of the things that has always bothered me about religion is the difference between denominations and religions, and the intolerance of which these differences seem to be the catalyst. Lewis purposely minimizes these differences and gives words to a lot of what I feel about religion in general and Christianity in particular.

I was disappointed when I read that Lewis "supports" the death-penalty and sees it as being compatible with Christian Truth. I vehemently disagree with this position. Up until this chapter, I had agreed with nearly everything that Lewis had written. He, like others I have heard, makes a distinction between the words "murder" and "killing". I see this as splitting straws. I just can't imagine that if Jesus were a judge that he would send somebody to their death, no matter what they had done. I am reminded of John Mellencamp's lyric from a recent song, Walk Tall: "Be careful of those who kill in Jesus' name, he don't believe in killing at all."

I agree with Lewis that Pride is the worst of sins, and that most all other sins are a derivative of Pride. In fact, I sometimes conceptualize Satan as Pride manifested.

Lewis was once an atheist, but he found atheism too "simple" of a philosophy. He writes that we should not expect simple answers to complex questions. If we want to progress beyond "childs play philosophy", we should be prepared for the hard work and difficult logic such an endeavor requires.