"Ever since I became a Christian I have thought that the best, perhaps the only service, I could do for my unbelieving neighbours was to explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times." – Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis has sold more than 200 million books worldwide since the 1920s; and has been translated into dozens of languages. For half a century he averaged a million English book sales a year, and in the past 15 years that number has nearly doubled. About 150 books have been published about him over the past half-century (including a biography by Record columnist Michael Coren). Shadowlands, a movie about his marriage, was released 12 years ago; and this month comes the first of the Disney produced movies based on Lewis's allegorical novels The Chronicles of Narnia. (There have been several less ambitious versions produced over the years.) Nearly all of his 38 books remain in print.
Clive Staples Lewis was born in 1898. His mother died when he was 10 and he was wounded at age 20 while serving as a second lieutenant. The next year he published his first book, a collection of poems, Spirits in Bondage. He dreamed of being a great poet, but never achieved that goal. In his early-thirties, a year after his father's death, he converted to Christianity. He didn't take this shift from atheism lightly, describing the process as "kicking and screaming" in Surprised by Joy. Most of his books deal with this joy-the science fiction novels, the children's allegories and, most of all, the apologetics. He died the same day as Aldous Huxley and John F. Kennedy.
One of his most popular titles is Mere Christianity, published in 1952 (the same year he met his wife, who was to die tragically eight years later). The book grew out of radio lectures he did on the BBC in the early 1940s (during the war). The lectures were then published as separate titles during the 40s, and collected in Mere Christianity. The book has not been out of print since then; and of the thousands of religion titles published over the decades is still one of the easiest to find in a local bookstore.
What is Lewis's lure? Certainly his prose is clean and concise, his language, occasionally on the academic side, is accessible. He has the touch of the popular professor: bright, interesting and approachable. But, is that it?
The Record invited eight people to read Lewis's apologetics. Some were familiar with Lewis, others were introduced to him through this exercise. They are ministers, lay, academics, elders and and youth. Each of them brings a unique perspective. They worked under the assumed premise that Lewis's popularity makes him one of the most influential theological writers since the Second World War. Individually, they seek to understand this influence, but collectively, they are participating in a dialogue with each other that creates an insightful portrait of Christianity today.
“Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self.”
– Mere Christianity
Making a simple choice
by Duncan Cameron
Written more than 50 years ago, Lewis’s words lay before us the most important choice we will ever be asked to make: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God…
“(Consciousness) is either inexplicable illusion, or else revelation.”
– The Problem of Pain
Rational but not spiritual
by Harris Athanasiadis
Having converted to Christianity from atheism, Lewis writes as an apologist, as one with a special passion for persuading the non-believer about the believability of Christianity. But in order to do this, Lewis has to argue several things, themselves, perhaps, debatable. First, Lewis argues that the things that divide Christians have to do with the fine points of doctrine. If one strips doctrine down to the bare essentials, there is a common core, a (mere) Christianity that binds the Christian tradition together. But is this true? And if it is true, can we trust that Lewis has got this (mere) Christianity down pat, without introducing some of his own theological bias?…
“Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst.”
– Reflections on the Psalms
Sexist, dated, mere opinion
by Laura Smith
Right off the top, I am going to admit that Mere Christianity was a difficult read for me. Besides the war imagery to which I am (thankfully) not able to relate and the extensive use of “men” when discussing the entire human race, some of the discussions were ones I find hard to hear. Christianity has changed in the 53 years since C. S. Lewis wrote the book…
“Morality or duty… never yet made a man happy in himself or dear to others.”
– English Literature in the 16th Century
Understanding the perfect penitent
by Barbara Stuart
Although I have been reasonably active in church work for most of my life, after listening to (I used audio tapes, it was a radio broadcast first, after all) and reading Mere Christianity I realized that my understanding of Christian doctrine was very shallow and immature. For example, I did not know the differences between pantheism and dualism. I did not know that earning interest on investments was unchristian…
“I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”
– The Silver Chair
Dated, with pleasant surprises
by Stuart Macdonald
Mere Christianity is remarkably autobiographical in detailing C.S. Lewis’s own questions as he moved from atheism to Christianity. Questions he posed, insights he gained and understandings he reached are all shared. He does not assume his reader knows too much and so he deals with basic issues in a clear and concise way. This is one of the great strengths of the book, regardless of whether or not we agree with his particular interpretation of the issue at hand…
“He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself…”
– Transposition and Other Addresses
Delving into the depths of theology
by Richard Topping
It is almost impossible to read Lewis without cribbing his material. Among the phrases that caught my attention on this reading of Mere Christianity: “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.” In his section on sexual morality, Lewis compares the animal self with the much more serious diabolical self and comments: “That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer hell than a prostitute.” And then he adds, with a twinkle in his eye: “But, of course, it is better to be neither!”…
“Now that I am a Christian I do not have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.”
– Mere Christianity
Finding Christ and everything else
by Barb Alston
C. S. Lewis depicts Christianity as a hallway with doorways going into various rooms. You can’t live in the hallway-you have to pick a room. Hence the different denominations. He urges us to be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. This makes the point that he is talking about Christianity, not any particular denomination…
“Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning…”
– Mere Christianity
Finding the shortest way home
by Erin Woods
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…
Click here for a list of books by or about CS Lewis available through the Presbyterian Church
Click here for a list of links to Online Resources for CS Lewis
