Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2001.
Author C.S Lewis is a profound Christian author who hosted radio shows in the United Kingdom that discussed religion as a whole and specifically Christianity. The purpose of this book was to share with the readers the fundamentals of Christianity. Its purpose was not to cause debate about certain issues within Christianity, but rather a book that defends faith as a whole.
C.S Lewis in the chapter “The Three Parts of Morality”, goes into detail about his views on what morality truly is and what determines what and who are moral. He talks about how the everyday person views morals as a thing or an annoyance that keeps people from enjoying things or activities. While Lewis shows that morals are things that give humans a direction in life. He goes on to say that moral perfection is indeed impossible to achieve but it is in fact an ideal. And for each person has a different ‘ideal’ car, wife, house but there is only one moral ideal.
Lewis continues this chapter by showing the readers in what ways a human being can go wrong with their morals. First is by interfering with each other. By this he means if a person does harm to another, for example bullying, theft, or some other in which he offends or hurts another human. The next way is when things go wrong inside the human, something happens in which the human starts to act and think differently then before. This would cause the human to make careless and stupid decisions that indeed affect his overall behavior towards himself and others around him. Lewis uses an analogy to clarify his point. He uses a fleet of ships traveling to a destination. He says that the fleet of ships cannot crash into one another or the trip is a failure, but for the ships not to crash into one another the insides of the ships have to be working properly as well. This shows that being a moral person takes both parts and not one or the other. You need to have a good inside thinking and decision making, while also not interfering with others around you. He also uses the analogy of a band to show that everyone has to be on the same page or it doesn’t come out right at all.
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Lastly in the chapter Lewis goes over what he feels are the three basic parts to morality. First is fair play and harmony among each other, next is tidying up of things inside of an individual. And the last part of morality is the general purpose of mankind. He goes on to say how a majority of people are always thinking about the first one and forgetting the other two points of morality. When people think of Christianity morality they tend to think about striving for fair play among nations and peace between all. But in the end the other two points are just as important. Lewis writes “You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you cannot have a good society” (Lewis 73).
He uses this illustration to show that you must also think of the second point as well, the morality inside the individual. He continues to say that the third part is also essential to morality as well because Christianity lasts forever therefore we are under the rule of God and we must follow his instruction. With this last point Lewis tells his audience from this point on his book will examine, as Christianity is true.
C.S Lewis made some very excellent points in this Christian apologetic book. I did not truly start enjoying this book until he hit the part on “Christian Behavior”. This truly opened my eyes to many different things. He talked about key issues I have been wondering about including sexual morality, marriage, and pride. While reading the chapter on sexual morality, there was one quote that stuck out to me, “Before we can be cured we must want to be cured” (Lewis 99).
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email: title: Once Saved, Always Saved " You are saved until you sin again," the preacher tells the new convert. Such words can cause a new Christian to have fear of failing and can cause him other to feel like quitting the Christian walk. Jesus Christ has promised that once people ask Him to live in their hearts, they will receive eternal life. Jesus died on the cross for Christian " s sins one ...
When dealing with sexual issues it is extremely hard for a person to admit that what they are doing is wrong and not pleasing to God. Lewis shows that people must admit it first before God can work in them. I agree on this point completely, God wants to help everyone but if someone is not willing to accept his help or love then therefore he will not give it to him or her. At the end of this chapter he compares two self’s, the animal self and the diabolical self. He goes on to say that the diabolical self is the worse of the two. I disagree, as Christians we tend to put a value on sins, where they are all equally the same. A sin is a sin no matter how you look at it, and while some sins are hidden inside our mind they are still a sin. God knows all and he knows when we sin even if no one else sees it.
Another topic Lewis talks about that truly sparked my interest is something that he had never done before in his life, marriage. Lewis tells his readers that he had never been married before; this was an interesting thing to do. Write about something you have never gone through before in your life and give advice to others on how to handle it. I was a bit skeptical about this whole process, but with reading up to now I knew I had to give him a shot. While Lewis does bring it up some solid arguments about the Christian marriage, I generally felt that he was bitter about not being married. He down plays the thought of “love” as something that can come and go, and it doesn’t last a lifetime. Things that can be true, but he seemed to take more pessimistic view towards the whole concept of marriage.
The chapter that I felt that stuck out and made several key arguments is the chapter called “The Great Sin”, Lewis is referring to the great sin as pride. Pride is something everyone deals with and while for some it might not be that hard to control, for some it is an everyday struggle. Lewis makes a statement “The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object” (Lewis 125).
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Scholars do not operate in a vacuum, but within the frameworks of their communities, traditions, commitments, and beliefs. Their scholarship, even when specialized, develops within a larger picture of reality. So we must ask: What is in that larger picture Is there a place for God If so, does God's presence make any difference to the rest of the picture Does that presence change the relative ...
Both of these things are hard to think of for a person, let alone a person who is struggling with pride issues. But Lewis makes a valid point saying that you need to forget about yourself altogether. I totally agree with this because we are not worthy of God at all, nothing we can do or say will compare to what he gave up for us. The last paragraph of this chapter will stick with me for the rest of my life. “The first step to realize that one is proud” (Lewis 128) There is no denying this, everyone is proud in someway, and Lewis makes it known that the only way to take steps toward humility is to recognize this. Overall this book was very well written with many key points that set the background for Christian apologetics. There is no doubt in my mind that this book will be the backbone of Christian apologetics for decades to come.
