Mere Christianity is a tough concept. I was never sure whether or not we really were the same religion under all of the layers of doctrines and rules and theologies, until C. S. Lewis helped to peel away all of those layers. Sure enough, as the doctrines and denominations fell away, something beautiful and pure was revealed. It was Christianity at its most innocent level, existing solely as the manifestation of forgiveness, love and faith.
If you check the contents of this book, you'll see that Faith is there twice. That's not an accident. The Bible tells us that faith is the most important of our Christian virtues. It's also one of the hardest to manage. Every one, even the most devout believer, has some moments of doubt. Some experience them more often than others. Some are always skeptical. Lewis was once an atheist. Ironically, that is exactly why he was later able to be such a convincing advocate for Christianity; he knew all of the arguments. He also had an answer for every one of them and proved utterly and completely, to my mind, that God must exist. There is simply no alternative.
Lewis writes: "Reality… is usually something you could not have guessed. That is why I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed. If it offered just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up." I like that point. It makes you feel better about the uncertainties in our religion, doesn't it? If we were making things up, surely we would have come up with an answer for everything, instead of leaving holes. Like us, Christianity is human, seemingly incomplete and real.
Lewis must have been a very brave sort of person to write this book. It deals with some of our greatest questions and wonderings, and presumes to answer them all. It explains the Trinity, Satan, the concept of time and God's place in it, love, forgiveness, pride, morality and, most impressively, Right and Wrong as a guide to the meaning of the universe. I am in awe simply writing this down. In fact, I've been in awe ever since I first read the table of contents. The rest of the book is even more incredible-every sentence was either a challenge or a revelation. And here I've been trying to fit all of that into one article! It really isn't possible, and I'm not worthy of doing it.
So where am I going with all of this? Backwards, I hope. We as Christians have gotten off track. It's time we went back to our wrong turn and started again. It will take a while-there's no doubt about that. But the sooner we correct our mistakes, the less time we'll spend going in the wrong direction. In this case, to quote Lewis, "The longest way round is the shortest way home."
