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. At the same time this rational description and defence of the faith is being made from within a culture sympathetic to and supportive of Christianity, which, if not the religion of everyone, was still the religion that people were expected to have and one which received considerable support-such as BBC radio broadcasts.
Yet throughout Mere Christianity Lewis writes as if this were not so. He seems to perceive Christians are a minority, and doesn't recognize the extent to which Christian values still permeated British culture. "I have said that we should never get a Christian society unless most of us became Christian individuals" Lewis notes at one point. Throughout the book he divides Christians from non-Christians.
It was assumption about living in a largely non-Christian society, when the Great Britain of the time was culturally Christian, that I found to be the most distracting feature of the book. It dates Mere Christianity more even than some of the cultural assumptions about gender which shape the section on Christian behaviour.
There were pleasant surprises and much of value in Mere Christianity. Lewis was markedly ahead of his time in terms of reaching out across the chasm that divided Roman Catholics from other Christians in the 1940s and 1950s, including them with Anglicans, Presbyterians and Methodists in his understanding of the church Catholic who all shared in a mere or common Christianity. As well, the theory of evolution did not present a problem for Lewis. Indeed there is no sense in the book of a conflict between science and Christian faith.
All works of apologetics such as Mere Christianity strive to answer our questions about faith. Their value is always greatest when they give voice to our struggles and provide answers to our questions. It doesn't take too much imagination to recognize that C.S. Lewis effectively did this for his audience during and immediately following the war. It is this which accounts for the book's appeal and influence.
The difficulty is that the situation has changed dramatically. (Again, I am not protesting this change, merely noting it.) Christianity no longer has the kind of privileged place it held in Britain or Canada when Lewis presented his radio addresses. Our questions are different, and the resources we will need to address them are different. While a wonderful book for its time, Mere Christianity will not be nearly as helpful for us living in Canada today.
