One of my Great Books this year was Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. And, dear hobbits, what a book!! I wanted my entire paper to be:

“Do yourself a favor and go read this book right now.”

But for some reason my English teacher (love you, Mom!) decided we needed two pages (font size 12) about this book? I don’t get it–what was I supposed to say?? But anyway, I did my best, and I’m posting it just in case my one-sentence summary didn’t convince all of you to read Mere Christianity.

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I expected Mere Christianity to be some kind of guidebook, but it is not really that at all.  C.S. Lewis just lays out facts. It is a defense of Christianity, but he was not really arguing with anyone so much as explaining his beliefs.  Mere Christianity is a very honest book; Mr. Lewis trusted the facts to speak for themselves.  He clearly believed mankind to be, as Paul says in Romans 1:20, “without excuse” when it comes to belief in God.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20, NIV)

I always thought that when Paul said “what has been made,” he was referring to nature—meaning that if people truly pay attention to the natural world, they will have to admit it was created by an intelligent designer.  It made sense to me—someone had to create the universe, didn’t they?

But Mr. Lewis argued a different point: when human beings look at what they know about themselves, about humanity, they have to admit there is an objective Right and Wrong.  A Right and Wrong that all of mankind recognizes, but that mankind did not invent.  A moral law that is completely above and beyond humanity. When we argue with someone, he pointed out, we are not simply “fighting like animals,” but we are trying to convince the other person that they have not been right or fair.  Even those who deny the existence of Right and Wrong know when someone wrongs them.

Mr. Lewis argues that this human conscience is evidence of a Creator—who must have a mind, because he gives us specific instructions.  This does not necessarily mean Christ. Mr. Lewis made it clear that at this point he had not yet gotten to the God of Christianity—or the god of any religion.  All he was talking about was a Creator with a mind who cares about “fair play.”

He then discussed the next thing we find when we examine the human conscience: no human ever succeeds in perfectly following this Moral Law.  Every human, even the humans who deny the existence of moral Right and Wrong, has done something that they knew was wrong and were ashamed of doing.  Every human has somehow violated the Creator’s moral law. Therefore, if a good Creator God exists, then we are his enemies.

“God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from.  He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies.” (31)

In the chapter (just quoted) called “We Have Cause to be Uneasy,” Mr. Lewis perfectly described the human condition—of both the world at large and of my own heart.  We are in desperate need of hope and have no hope without God, but have all estranged ourselves from God.  Mr. Lewis then apologized that he could not say something cheerier. The apology was really unnecessary—what human could disagree with him that there is something wrong with humanity?  We all know that the world, for all its beauty, is a cruel and horrible place; we all want something more to life than what we have.

At the very end of this uncomfortable chapter, Mr. Lewis says we are now finally ready to talk about Christ.  No one can come to God if they are content with their life. It is only when we realize that “we have cause to be uneasy” that we are willing and humble enough for God’s help.

There is a lot of argument about Christianity, but C.S. Lewis kept it simple—his book is called Mere Christianity for a reason.  He said Christianity, at its core, is God offering us a chance to get right with Him.  Jesus’ death on the cross, somehow, gave us a way to be allied with God again; we no longer have to be His enemies.

Different people have different ideas about how Jesus’ sacrifice did this.  Mr. Lewis reminded us that what all Christians agree on is that it did.  The dozens—perhaps hundreds—of analogies and allegories about the cross all agree that through it, somehow, Jesus gave us a fresh start with God.  He used mathematics as an example several times: there is one right answer, but different people use different formulas to explain it.

Very few people deny Jesus’ existence as a historical figure.  Some people say he was just a prophet, or a good teacher, but not divine.  C.S. Lewis, however, said that this is not an option. Jesus claimed, many times, to be the Son of God.  He did not want to be seen simply as a “good teacher.” Mr. Lewis explained that there are three possible options: Jesus was either lying, he was out of his mind, or he truly was God.  If you believe what Jesus said, then you must accept Him as Lord.

“You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (52)