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Mere Christianity

2001 edition book cover
Author	C. S. Lewis
Language	English
Subject(s)	Christianity
Publisher	Macmillan Publishers[1]
Publication date	1943
OCLC	23033258

Mere Christianity^[2] is a book by C. S. Lewis, adapted from a 1943 series of BBC radio lecture broadcast while Lewis was at Oxford during World War II. It is considered a classic work in Christian apologetics. The transcripts of the broadcasts, expanded into book form, originally appeared in print as three separate pamphlets, The Case for Christianity, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Clive Staples Jack Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately-held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. ... The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) was founded in 1967 and originally named the Ohio College Library Center. ... Clive Staples Jack Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. ... Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Christian apologetics is the...

Thesis of book

The title, Mere Christianity, indicates the intention of Lewis, an Anglican, to describe the Christian common-ground. He aims at avoiding controversies to explain those things that have defined Christianity in nearly all places and times. Lewis restates the fundamental teachings of the Christian religion, for the sake of those basically educated as well as the intellectuals of his generation, for whom the jargon of formal Christian theology did not retain its intended meaning. The term Anglican describes those people and churches following the religious traditions of the Church of England, especially following the Reformation. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... “Literati” redirects here. ... For the glossary of hacker slang, see Jargon File. ... It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: Filled with OR and completely unsourced. ...

Arguments for a Moral Law

Lewis bases his case for Christian belief on the existence of a Moral Law, a "Rule about Right and Wrong" commonly known to all human beings. This "law" is like mathematical laws in being real, not just a matter of convention, contrived by humans. But it is unlike mathematically expressed laws of nature in that it can be broken or ignored by humans, who possess free will. The Laws of Nature are claimed in the United States Declaration of Independence to be the work of the Creator of unalienable rights identified as Natures God. ...

Humans know the moral law intuitively, Lewis argues. It is the only law of the universe which they know from within themselves. All other laws are known only through observation, such as the law of gravity. The moral law is generally agreed to in one form or another by religious and non-religious persons. One source of evidence of this was, that even non-religious people in England during World War II believed that what Hitler was doing was wrong. On a more mundane level, even a non-religious person may object that someone stealing from them or taking unfair advantage of them is doing something wrong.

The other claimed intuitive underpinning of his system is the experience of people for something deeper and more than can ever be experienced in an earthly life. Lewis refers to these experiences in himself as "joy" and describes these in his book Surprised by Joy. His argument is that we cannot yearn for something that does not exist. The fact that we thirst reflects that we naturally need water and that there is a substance which satisfies that need. The same could be said of other needs as well. Humans cannot know to yearn for something which does not exist.

Lewis states that to understand Christianity, one must understand the moral law, which is the underlying moral structure of the universe. The moral law is "hard as nails." Unless one understands the dismay which comes from the moral law, one cannot understand the coming of Christ and his work.

After introducing the Moral Law, Lewis argues that the eternal God who is its source takes primacy over the created Satan whose rebellion undergirds all evil. Evil is a parasite on goodness. Satan was and is a supernatural power, who, in his pride, set himself against God. But there is nothing about evil which is not a perversion of something good. That is why, Lewis argues, evil is a parasite in the world. It twists the good things which God placed into the world. This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... This article is about the concept of Satan. ...

Then the death and resurrection of Christ, the Son of God, is introduced as, in the Christian view, the only way in which our inadequate human attempts to redeem our own sins could be made adequate in God's eyes. This page is about the title, office or what is known in Christian theology as the Divine Person. ...

"He [mankind] had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself," Lewis says of the futility of our own attempts at moral self-justification and consequent need for repentance and "surrender." God "became a man" in Christ, says Lewis, so that "our human nature which can suffer and die" could be "amalgamated with God's nature" and make full atonement possible. For other uses, see Atonement (disambiguation). ...

Atonement

There are many theological theories about what "the point of this dying was," writes Lewis. None is fully adequate to the thing itself, any more than a verbal description of a mathematical model, such as that of an atom, is fully adequate to the mathematics per se. Thus does Lewis make nuanced logical distinctions between core religious truths and theological explanations thereof, throughout his book.

Christian ethics

The last third of the book explores the ethics resulting from belief. For other uses, see Ethics (disambiguation). ...

Legacy of book

Mere Christianity is widely admired and influential across a spectrum of trinitarian Christians, which may attest to the author's success in accomplishing the aim of restating theology in a way that avoids many controversies. The work is also widely admired by many nontrinitarian Christians. Trinitarianism is the Christian doctrine that God, although one being, exists in three distinct persons (hypostases) known collectively as the Holy Trinity. ... Nontrinitarianism or antitrinitarianism is the doctrinal description applied to rejection of the Trinitarian doctrine that God subsists as three distinct persons in the Holy Trinity. ...

The title has influenced Touchstone Magazine: A Journal of Mere Christianity and William Dembski's book Mere Creation. Charles Colson's conversion to Christianity resulted from his reading this book, as did Francis Collins'. Touchstone Magazine is a monthly publication of the Fellowship of St. ... William Dembski Dr William Albert Bill Dembski (born July 18, 1960) is an American mathematician, philosopher and theologian known for advocating the controversial idea of intelligent design. ... Charles Wendell Chuck Colson (born October 16, 1931) was the chief counsel for President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973 and was one of the Watergate Seven, jailed for Watergate-related charges. ... This article needs to be wikified. ...

A passage in the book also influenced the name of contemporary Christian Texan Grammy-nominated pop/rock group Sixpence None the Richer. Sixpence None the Richer was a Grammy-nominated pop/rock band with roots in New Braunfels, Texas, eventually settling in Nashville, Tennessee. ...

References

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External links

• Audio of the last remaining broadcast talk from bbc.co.uk
• Book description from CSLewisClassics.com