A couple of weeks ago I read "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. It was amazing. I hadn't read anything of his since my Year 6 romp through "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"; now I'm determined to read everything this man has ever written.
The book is a collection of BBC radio talks that Lewis gave to the British people during World War II. He begins by making a case for the Christian faith and then looks at how a Christian should behave. In this process, he addresses the fundamental tenets of Christianity upon which all denominations agree.
Lewis begins his defence of the Christian faith by appealing to morality and natural law. He says that there is such a thing as moral rights and wrongs of which human beings are innately aware. These rules transcend differences in culture, time and place: they may differ in content across the board, but these differences are not as great as their similarities. They are a real part of our everyday lives: we use them to assert our rights, to argue for fairness and justice, and to discern between what is right and wrong, good and bad. These rules have not been created or contrived by human beings; thus they must have been endowed to man by a higher being.
He then argues that pantheism is incoherent and atheism too simple. He arrives to the person of Jesus Christ, and considers three different reactions to Jesus' claim of being the Son of God/God: that He really was who He said He was, that He was deliberately lying, or that He mistakenly thought Himself to be that which He claimed (which would make him crazy). Lewis says that the latter two possibilities are inconsistent with Jesus' character, and that it is most likely that He was being truthful in saying that He was the Messiah.
Because of its sinful nature, humanity consistently fails to keep the moral law which forms the foundations of life, and Jesus is the answer. By God becoming a man in the person of Jesus, and through Jesus' death and resurrection, humans are cleansed of their sins and can become tight with God again, as He had intended us to be from the start. So Jesus paid mankind's debt by dying for our sins, and thus made reconciliation between us and God possible. God doesn't force this upon anybody, it's up to individuals themselves to accept Jesus out of their free will. Sometimes I think, 'Wouldn't it be easier if God just forced salvation and eternal life upon everyone?' But that's silly. Because that's not true love; it's God loving humans but humans being forced to love God back, and that's not what God wants. Automatism and coercion are not good things, whereas free will and freedom to make choices for oneself are.
Lewis then explores Christian ethics: how Christians should behave. He talks about the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. And then he talks about the theological virtues of hope, faith and charity. He also looks at topics like forgiveness, sexual morality and Christian marriage. He talks about the triune God and how he thinks time works with God. He says that pride is "the great sin", and that Christians are all called to love their neighbours as themselves. This means that they need to love themselves, and treat others as they would treat themselves. You can love yourself even if you don't like yourself from time to time, and this is how you should behave toward other people. If you act like you love someone, you will come to love them in due course, even though you don't love them to begin with.
So that's the basic outline of the book. It's funny, but it was really awesome to be reminded of the key aspects of what I believe in. I mean, I know what I believe in, but it's so deep and vast and demands all of me that from time to time I need to be reminded of the really important stuff. And I liked how Lewis used lots of analogies and examples to illustrate his points. I also really liked his straightforward, direct style of argument. He'll say things like, "Christianity says X, the world says Y, either X is wrong or Y is wrong because the two ar eincompatible, and these are the reasons why I believe X is right and Y is wrong." And of course he doesn't sound like a self-righteous, sanctimonious prig; he uses his words so intelligently and humbly that it's impossible not to like him.
I want to share with you parts of the book that really intrigued me but I'm afraid I'll end up typing out huge chunks of it here which isn't really what I want to do. So for now I'll just say that I found the chapters on morality and psychoanalysis, sexual morality and forgiveness particularly profound. Lewis says that Christian morality is to do with the moral choices we make regardless of our individual psychological make-up, and it's these choices that turn our central persons into either a heavenly creature or a hellish one, which is what matters to God. He says that our sexual instinct has "gone wrong" and there are lots of reasons to think that obsessing over it and giving into our so-called "healthy" and "natural" sexual urges without restraint is actually a bit warped (he analogises sex to food a lot). He also says that forgiveness encompasses hating the sin but not the sinner, which can amount to punishing evildoers for their evildoings but with a sorriness for them in our hearts and a real hope that they will be cured and made human again in the future. Oh, and I also really liked the chapters titled "Counting the Cost" (God wants t ohelp us to become perfect, as He had always intended us to be - what the wow) and "Nice People or New Men" (he talks about Christians and "niceness"). The chapter on time was also really interesting: the idea that God is outside and above our human Time0line; our past, present and future are all the "now" for Him. These ideas are only the tip of Lewis' wisdom iceberg. And it's a big berg.
I found "Mere Christiainty" a witty, insightful, useful and accessible read. I'd highly recommend it to everyone and anyone, particularly people who are curious as to what Christianity is all about. I'm going to try and read through it a couple more times before this year is up to become a lot more familiar with it, it's a real gem. Please read htis book yourself and then let me know so we can talk about it after I've tackled it again.
G.
