Mere Christianity

For the tenth month in my 12 month challenge I read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis:

Mere Christianity is a book by the famous author and academic medievalist C.S. Lewis. The book was adapted from his three BBC radio broadcasts on the Christian life during World War II. In this book he defends and explains the mere Christian faith. He does so by applying logic and painting clear and simple illustrations. His goal was not to produce and exhaustive study on Christianity but to talk about what it essentially is, what its basis is.

I started reading through the intro and was marking down a lot of its lines. I was impressed with that fact because if this is just the introduction what will the rest of the book be like?

In a book about religion I prefer not to have someone forcing their beliefs on me. When someone is so worried that their beliefs aren’t compelling enough for you to believe it on your own, that is usually when they start yelling, right? On the other hand I’d rather not be lost in the moment that I lose all sense of discernment and have one pulled over me. Don’t try to take me into a shadowy room where I can’t see my purse; that kind of thing. C.S. Lewis does a good job of keeping the lights on and his conversation stays in ‘public areas.’ He’s not going into deep conversations about ‘mystical stuff’ that only he could know and you just have to trust him. He uses the tools everyone has to prove his points. Those tools are: observation, logic and nature. And not just the nature that Christians like to argue about: Evolution vs. Creation, but the nature of logic and the nature of good and evil. It would make sense that what really matters is the last thing we tend to think about, look at or even fight about.

C.S. Lewis’ dissertation of ‘Mere Christianity’ hinges on the simple understanding of what it means to be a human; being honest with our envies, our hate and our compassion, our love. He uses very striking comparisons and illustrations to help us understand his points. His communication is very clear and you don’t feel like he is a foreboding figure trying to intimidate you into believing Christianity but, he also doesn’t seem full of fake smiles, trying to get you to join his religion with syrupy promises piled on top. There is a way to write about your beliefs in a sincere manner without trying to totally encompass and control a reader’s own reasoning and without putting them down. I do believe that C.S. Lewis has achieved this in his writing.

I do have a word of caution though; this book makes a good use of vocabulary. If you don’t know what words like ‘acquiesce’ and ‘vice’ mean you might have a hard time understanding what Lewis is saying. As I alluded to before, this book isn’t a deep spiritual book that only people with doctorate degrees read, it was written for everyone; it just may use a bit more vocabulary the we are used to.

Mere Christianity is a take on the Christian life by C.S. Lewis and I dare say, it is best and most interesting take there ever was. This book is not supposed to be designed for the Christian but the non-Christian, to understand the Christian belief. Christians who read this book will have their eyes opened to things they didn’t understand but should’ve understood a long time ago. Those who want to share their Christian faith will also be able to pick up some ‘p’s and queue’s’ from this book about how to share their faith in a nice, intriguing and respectful manner.

Also joining me on this challenge:
Andy