In the classic Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis, the most important writer of the 20th century, explores the common ground upon which all of those of Christian faith stand together. Bringing together Lewis’ legendary broadcast talks during World War Two from his three previous books The Case for Christianity, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality, Mere Christianity provides an unequaled opportunity for believers and nonbelievers alike to hear this powerful apologetic for the Christian faith.
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3rd time going through Mere Christianity. Again, was blown away by Lewis’s illustrations that depict the nature of who God is, as well as the beauty of life once it is surrendered to Christ. A couple of sections that challenged me afresh include thinking about how each of our moral choices either make us creatures of heaven and hell, which caused me to pause and reflect over many of the moral choices I have made that stunted my growth and have led me in a downward spiral, as well as the section that discusses how it is only oneness in Christ that allows us to experience the true self, which caused me to reflect and see how much of my life over the past year has felt like that of truly living and being transformed as a gauge of whether or not I have been living as my own or as part of Christ.
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Rereading this as a Senior (last read it as a new Christian freshmen year) felt like reading a whole new book. Lewis has such a way of putting the human experience down on paper. His mastery of the metaphor helped me understand more deeply the relational dimensions of God, the relational consequences of pride and sin, and proper praxis in response to the cross. As literally beautiful as his writing is, his argument still finds itself grounded in logic and reason. One part that stuck with me was how he started his more theological chapters by stating that theology is like a map — although it is not the substance of Christianity, it is useful if we want to get anywhere in Christian life. I feel as if this is a book I can turn back to time and time again as it answers countless questions in a winsome manner.
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I liked how Lewis explained Christianity as the most probable worldview given the reality of human nature as we know and experience it. If we speak in terms of his metaphor of receiving private letters, he greatly helped me interpret my letter objectively. I hope his book will help me help others interpret their letters objectively, so that if they try to wriggle away from Christianity with their clever philosophies and wily worldviews, I can counter them, “read yo’ letter, son. It speaks for itself.” As a Christian struggling every day against her own wriggly will, however, the part that spoke most to me, was (pretty much Kramer’s takeaway) that every exertion of the will, for God or for ourselves, leaves a mark on our hearts that deforms or forms it, making us more into a creature of heaven or hell. It is a natural process, and it will lead to our naturally submitting to or loving God (heaven), or inability to (hell).
I also really appreciated the map of God Lewis gave me. I daresay it will come in useful for the rest of my life, if I can subdue my wriggly will enough to follow it instead of proudly insisting I be a rugged explorer who doesn’t need no map. I need a map, as I’m sure many people in my life could tell you.
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This a little book packed with many profound statements and illuminating metaphors about many different aspects of the Christian faith. CS Lewis describes the human condition precisely, gives voice to experiences that I never knew I had, and eloquently convinces me that surrendering my whole life to Christ is the only right thing to do.
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This was my first time reading Mere Christianity, and it was by far one of the most convincing books I have read in defense of the Christian faith. Lewis cleverly uses the case of human nature to argue in favor of a God, and reveals God to be a brilliant creator who is able to work through human nature to save us. His arguments are all the more convincing as they are grounded heavily in logic. His argument that for every natural human desire, there is a means of satisfying it (ex. our ability to become hungry exists only because it can be satisfied by food) was especially convincing because it explained the natural human tendency to strive for good and to loathe the bad was pointing towards our natural need for God, an embodiment of pure good.
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C.S. Lewis is able to articulate often hard to grasp concepts into easy to digest illustrations. I found myself practicing these illustration so that I could be able to answer similar questions should they come up. I love how Lewis does not get ahead of himself and goes through the fundamental beliefs of Christianity in a straightforward, logical manner.
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Mere Christianity gave a very holistic view of Christianity. It was my second time reading it through and it was still extremely difficult to fully understand. I really enjoyed the different imagery’s that CS Lewis used especially when talking about the three parts of morality using the navy fleet. I really saw that many people do only think about morality in their interaction with other people, but tend to ignore the individual morality as well ass morality of the purpose of human life. The allusion to the navy fleet and making sure that everything is going right inside of each individual ship, making sure that the ships aren’t colliding with each other, and the ships are not one’s own really helped boil down the different aspects of morality.
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