Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
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Book Reviews of Mere Christianity
Book Review: Excellent Introduction to Christianity
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book after a friend of mine who is Christian suggested that reading it might give me a better understanding of the world view of Christians, since I myself am an agnostic. This book does a fine job of explaining the Christian view of the world and for rationalizing Christianity.
A lot of reviewers, most of them in the atheist and agnostic camps, have attacked this book, accusing it of having faulty logic and having a number of logical fallacies. What they overlook is that Lewis is trying to explain the Christian faith in a book of 250 pages. Of course there might be a few liberties taken or imperfect examples of logic.
Still, Lewis brings up a lot of good points. One of which is the fact that many who mock Christianity as being a belief system based on authority of the Bible are all too willing to accept other things on authority, such as science and history. This is true, but it misses a key point. If I want to see gravity at work, all I have to do is drop something. If I want to see why science tells me adding water to acid is a bad idea, I can go into a chemistry lab and find out. To this end, I'd say the Bible fits more with history. We can forever debate what happened in the past, and there is no way of being certain. With history, however, we can make educated guesses based on probability. Granted, some take science and history with full faith on face value, but this doesn't make it equally reliable with religion, which cannot be tested and must be taken on face value. With God, it's a matter of faith.
I enjoyed the part which talked about Christian morality and virtues as well, but I think one would be mistaken to state that there must be a God for there to be any sort of morality. Truth exists independent of what anyone may say, as does morality which can be seen as a form of truth. If I decide to watch Casablanca over the next 2 hours, no number of people saying that I watched Citizen Kane will change the fact that I watched Casablanca, which is the truth. Likewise, everyone saying I watched Casablanca does not make the statement any more true than it would be if nobody made that claim. The fact that certain moral values are shared in common in the world and that we might be able to agree on some basic fundamentals of moral truth does not require a God.
I will say that this book has given me a decent introduction to Christianity, but it has not converted me, but this is no fault of the book. The problem Lewis faces is that while he reasons through his faith, he is using Christian beliefs to show why he has Christian beliefs at many points. This is fine if one is Christian, as it fits into facts and beliefs that are already accepted, and while it shows Christianity to be reasonable, it does not have the capacity to convince a non-believer. Still, I give it five stars because given its length, it is a very good attempt to explain and justify the Christian faith. So, give it a read and ignore all of the atheists who seem to love tearing apart Christian beliefs a bit too much.
Book Review: Gentle, simple truths for a complicated world
Summary: 5 Stars
Too often, prominent Christians in popular media and culture are haranguers, holier-than-thou types whose attitude and temper set a far different tone than the message they are purportedly trying to convey. Such people may not reflect the opinions and attitudes of a majority of Christians, but the amplitude of their voices often drowns out the gentle whispers from kinder souls whose Christianity is far nearer the ideal Christ preached.
Sound and fury truly signify nothing when it comes to religion, though; rather, it is the simple and gentle truths that prevail over time. And in this book (which has stood the test of time and will likely remain one of the definitive Christian texts for all time), C.S. Lewis aims at just that--simple and gentle truth, backed up by commonsense, reasoned arguments.
With nary a whiff of fire and brimstone, Lewis leads the reader through what amounts to a theological funnel towards those simple truths. Beginning with general arguments for why God makes sense, Lewis goes on to describe what Christians believe, how Christians ought to behave, and what steps an individual ought to take to remake his or her life in line with those principles. And Lewis is, in many ways, an ideal guide for that spiritual journey, for he himself traveled the route from atheist to Christian to explainer of Christianity for the masses.
The only real problem with this book is that, in his efforts to explain Christianity to the masses, Lewis occasionally leans too heavily on the popular wisdom of the masses--in particular, the popular wisdom of his late 1940s English audience. (In truth, this is perhaps a four-and-a-half star book, and not a five star book, for this very reason.) In his efforts to, for instance, lay out his opinions as to why marriages should have the husband as the head, he leans too heavily on popular convention and the prejudices of his day, and not heavily enough on the "treat other people as you would want to be treated" message that is one of the pillars of Christianity.
But don't accept or reject this book based on Lewis's views on marriage; as he himself readily admits, sexual morality isn't the foundation of Christian morality. Rather, the foundation for Christian morality is the battle all people must fight against pride. Pride is the insidious force that makes some political leaders hold themselves accountable to no one, while making some religious leaders believe that they alone are qualified to pass judgment on their fellow man; it is a force we all must contend with, both leaders and led alike. And Lewis's chapter on pride, entitled "The Great Sin," is alone well worth the price of the book. It is this chapter and others like it that provide the true worth of this book; they remind us that we all must continually struggle to improve ourselves and to remake ourselves, and that the times when we are at our most self-satisfied are the times when we are most at risk.
Book Review: Why Christianity is the best option
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the most important book you can read after the Bible. If you are searching for the meaning of your life, if you think there's gotta be more than what we see and perceive in our earthly existence, if your heart tells you to honestly seek for the truth, look no further; no other book will help you discover it. Actually God is reachable to everyone. You only have to be willing to put aside those obstacles in your vision. C. S. Lewis is not out there to "get you", nor preach to you. He'll help you figure it out yourself better than any other philosopher or scientist.
Some people will start looking for God by means of their intellectual curiosity, others will do it out of despair and sheer anguish, and others simply draw near Him out of love for His Son Jesus Christ. Whatever means to start your search is good as long as it is honest. (But remember that faith is a gift that God gives you, not that you give to yourself).
The book deals in its first short chapters with Natural Law, and it explains the difference with the laws of nature, e.g. gravity, etc. The language is simple enough for anybody to understand (if I understand it anybody can). Natural Law is still one of the unrefutable evidences for the existence of God that nobody can deny, or explain. Human Genome Project founder Francis Collins explains this very clearly too in his book 'The Language of God'. By the way, Collins says that the other choice we, humans, have in order to understand our nature is accepting that life is the result of an infinite series of miraculous "coincidences" or chances, whose probability are, each one of them, infinitely small.
I am reading this book for the second time, now in Spanish (Amazon doesn't let me publish my review to the Spanish edition). I am underlining almost every line. There is so much to think about here. But I'd like to quote the following lines:
"In religion, as in war and in everything else, consolation is the only thing that cannot be obtained by searching for it. If you look for the truth, you may find consolation in the end. If you look for consolation you will not find neither consolation nor the truth... only empty talk and preestablished conceptions to start with, and in the end, despair."
And this reminds me so much of one of Peter Kreeft's funny stories: When you were a child and believed in Santa, it made you feel comfortable and happy. Then why, when you grew up, did you stop believing in him? Why care for the truth if you can be happy?
Approach it honestly; and God bless us all who so seek Him, for we shall surely find Him.
Book Review: Apologist Extraordinaire
Summary: 5 Stars
Mere Christianity is very simply that: a straitforward explanation of what Christianity really is. In an age when philosophical and theological modernism seeks to alter and even destroy the essence of Christ's teaching, Lewis makes plain what are the essential and unchangeable tenets of the Christian faith. To those who argue in favor of updated modernist versions of Christian beliefs, Lewis is telling them by inference, that their versions are not true Christian views. His way of explaining Christian doctrine is so logical as to seem irrefragable. But whether or not one accepts these views as truth, Lewis is declaring that this is what Christianity really is. Each one of us is free to take it or leave it.
It is interesting to note that Lewis was born a Christian, and in his early adulthood became an atheist, then later on he became a Christian. He never did become Catholic, but had he lived longer, he might have, for he was a contemporary of J.R.R. Tolkien (a cradle Catholic) and G.K. Chesterton (a convert to Catholicism), and they all knew each other quite well. A philosophy professor at Fordham University named Willam Marra, while he was still living (he passed away about five years ago) formerly conducted a monthly seminar at Fordham's Keating Hall on the traditional orthodox teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, and spoke of Lewis's writings a number of times. On one occasion he said of Lewis "I love that man, I don't know why he didn't become a Catholic". Even though he (Lewis) was a Protestant, he is held in high esteem by orthodox Catholic theologians.
This treatise of C.S. Lewis is an enormously important book for anyone seeking to understand basic Christianity. It is written in a style that gets to the heart of an idea he is expressing, almost instantly. You don't need to have any sophisticated understanding of theology to grasp the explanations he offers.
His treatment of the three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope and Charity) and the four Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude) is very good. And everyone should know what he has to say about the Great Sin (Pride), which is so destructive to the self. The chapter entitled "Let's Pretend" explains how and why we should seek spiritual self-improvement, and I'll bet that there are ideas in this section that you never thought about.
In the fourth century there was Augustine, in the thirteenth century there was Thomas Aquinas, and in the twentieth century we had Clive Staples Lewis. An outstanding group, I would say.
Not enough can be said in favor of this book. Read it !
Book Review: Militant Jihadists, their Enemies, Friends - Read it, even for the last chapter alone!
Summary: 5 Stars
Most people have no idea about what Christianity is. That is the reason that CS Lewis' book exists.
If you are looking for a book that will convince you to take the leap of faith and become a Christian (like so many 1-star reviewers who said they were unconvinced) then don't waste your time. No book will convince you. However, if you are looking for the facts about real Christianity (not as a religion, but as a relationship) then you can't do much better than Lewis. Although his voice is rather formal (read: evidently British), seekers will give him some latitude on this. If you want the egg, get past the shell.
As an aside, I personally did not become a Christian because of the 'scientific facts,' although I did assure myself that I wasn't committing intellectual suicide by doing so. I used to be very fond of evolution. If you want this same validation, you can either talk to a Christian who knows the facts (as I did), or read something like what Lewis has presented. Simple.
If everybody read this book, I can imagine at least a few of the following would happen:
1. Most people in Western culture would stop calling themselves Christians, and would either become one or become a real athiest. They would at least be standing for something instead of falling for anything.
2. Other cultures would stop saying ignorant things like "America (or wherever) is a Christian nation." The facts in Lewis' work speak against this. They would stop saying that they have a holy war against these so-called Christians (who are in fact not Christians at all.)
3. Heaven forbid, some people might realize the inheritance and gift they could receive and actually choose to find out about God by taking an Alpha course or reading that "Bible" thing ;)
If you like reading novels, you'll probably find the book dry until the last chapter. But don't miss this book on that account. Even if you read only the last chapter (about the next evolution of humanity), you'll have captured a significant (and inspiring) picture of real (er, Mere) Christianity. When you do, you might just be tempted to go back and read the book and see what all the fuss is about (and how he could possibly make such an outrageous statement.)
Well , that was long and rant-ish. But I love you all and I hope you read this book.
Look at my Listmania for some ideas about other crucial books like Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas.
Feel free to contact me.
Cheers,
Danny