This is my first complete reading of Lewis’s best known non-fiction. I tried to read it twice before but to no avail. I found it to be a bit dry on my first two attempts; now I see that I was all wet. Reading books is always an autobiographical exercise. Our taste in books says much about us and particular books can come to define a season of life. It is my hope that Lewis’s book accompanies a season of reflection in your life.
This review will be something of a field guide. We all have seen field guides. They seek to highlight some important plants and animals we might find in nature. My hope is that if you have read the book this review will be something of a pleasant reminder mixed with some additional information – just as a field guide is a wonderful reminder of different types of bird or game mixed with some additional insight. I hope that if you haven’t read it, this field guide might inspire you to do so, just as a field guide might inspire a nice walk about in nature.
This book is a compilation of radio talks Lewis delivered between 1943 and 1945. As you will note, these dates fall within the cataclysmic Second World War. This book is not a collection of theological fairy dust designed to charm the holy rollers. This book is a clean, concise, creative look at Christian truth with a special eye towards the deeper questions of life, the type that might be raised by a civilization crisis. You will notice that the rumblings of post-9/11 America have largely failed to raise such culture-wide questions.
This masterpiece is one of description. In Mere Christianity, Lewis does not seek to create – as he does in his fictions. Nor does he primarily seek to prescribe – as he does in works such as The Weight of Glory. In Mere Christianity, Lewis describes truths that often appear fuzzy.
What does Lewis describe? The answer is in the title. Lewis seeks to describe mere Christianity. By his use of the word “mere”, Lewis seeks to highlight the core truths that are common to all Christian traditions. This is not a book designed to set the Reformed tradition against the Catholic. This is a book designed to highlight the truth that all Christian traditions share.
In his preface, Lewis imagines Christianity as a house with the different traditions – Reformed, Lutheran, Pentecostal - being its rooms. When a person is converted, they enter into a hall from which all the rooms are accessible. Of this hall Lewis writes, “if I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever they may be) is, I think preferable” (page 11, in the 1996 Touchstone publication). Lewis, an Anglican, acknowledges that there are differences, and even varying levels of faithfulness, between the rooms. However, this book does not seek to examine these differences. Instead, this book seeks to explore, as Lewis writes, the rules “that are common to the whole house” (12).
One of the reasons for Lewis’s success lies in his intentionality. Lewis thought deeply about his faith and he was creative in his presentation. He was also organized. His ideas are easy to follow. Lewis thought that brilliance should shine brilliantly rather than in the cloud of obscure words. Lewis breaks his book into four sections – 1) Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe, 2) What Christians Believe, 3) Christian Behavior, and 4) Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity. If this organization is good enough for Lewis, it is good enough for us.
Let us begin with section one: Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe. As with the book, the meaning is in the title. In this section, Lewis never once references Scripture and yet the whole section is itself an exposition of Biblical truth: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:18-19).
In this section, Lewis does not seek to talk about Jesus or Scripture. He merely seeks to describe our moral situation. Lewis points out two truths about humans. “First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not, in fact, behave in that way” (21). While humans may disagree over the specifics of how they should behave, they all agree that we fall short of our goal. Lewis argues that if we have a sense we have broken a law there must be something beyond us that causes us to feel guilt at our rule-breaking ways.
Lewis starts his work in a way that should be familiar to us Reformed believers. Lewis writes that Christianity “does not begin in comfort; it beings in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through the dismay” (39). You will notice striking similarities between Lewis’s thought and Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 2: “What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort? First, how great my sin and misery are.” To get to the good news, you have to go through the bad news.
In his second section, What Christians Believe, Lewis begins to narrow his focus. In the first section, he was arguing without an appeal to God. In this second section, he starts talking about different views of God and finally arrives at the uniqueness of Christ.
Lewis draws dividing lines between the gods humans choose to worship. The first dividing line is between atheists and the religious. The vast majority have always been religious. The religious can be further “divided according to the sort of God they believe in” (44). Some believe that God is beyond good and evil. Pantheists, who believe that God is the universe and everything in the universe is part of God, fall into this camp. In this view, humans think some things are good and others evil, but God is beyond both. Pantheists say that if we could get God’s perspective on things we would see that good and evil are just perspectives not realities. Monotheists, such as Christians, believe that good and evil are real and furthermore they say that God is the definition of the good; He “loves love and hates hatred” (44).
Of course, this view that God is good brings up all sorts of sticky questions, such as the origin of evil. If God is good and He created the world to be good, why is there so much evil? Lewis tells us that “evil is a parasite, not an original thing” (51). Here Christianity stands against what is called Dualism, which believes that evil is a power outside of God’s realm. Christians believe that the war between good and evil is “a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living a part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy-occupied territory – that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage” (51).
We are rebels ourselves and need to be turned to the king’s side. We need to repent and switch teams. But here we have another problem. It takes “a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are, the more you need it, and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person – and he would not need it” (60).
Finally, and appropriately, the cross enters in. We need someone perfect to save us because we are unable to save ourselves. At this point, Lewis speaks of different theories of the atonement. The atonement is the way in which we are reconciled with God. Although Lewis points out the value of the different atonement theories, I must take issue with his assessment that all are equal. The atonement depends on Christ taking our place under God’s wrath. If God’s wrath is denied, as happens in so many theories on the atonement today [as seen in The Shack], we are left with a toothless reconciliation.
In the third section – Christian Behavior - Lewis continues to speak about repentance. Upon becoming a Christian, we must behave in a repentant, or a Christian, manner, but what does this look like? And is it even important? If we are saved by grace, why do our actions matter? Lewis believes that our behavior today sets us on the road to eternity. “Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for- ever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live forever. Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are gradually getting worse – so gradually that the increase in seventy years will not be noticeable. But it might be absolute hell in a million years: in fact, if Christianity is true, Hell is the precisely correct technical term for what it would be” (73).
Lewis says that morality is an issue of becoming. What kind of person are you becoming? Are you becoming more selfless or more selfish? Lewis goes on to define a whole host of virtues – prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude, faith, hope, love – in relevant and creative ways. While we are familiar with the seven deadly sins, Lewis offers us a fresh look at the historic seven virtues of the Christian faith. He also explores marriage and sexual morality in a refreshingly candid manner. If you are looking for a lot of wisdom in a short amount of space on any of these virtues, this book will serve you well.
In his description of virtues, we see Lewis’s skills clearly displayed. Most of us could describe a dog pretty accurately. Some of us could describe a person accurately. Lewis has the rare gift of describing ideas accurately. His illustrations, metaphors, and analogies create all sorts of ‘aha!’ moments in which you find yourself viewing life through sharper more insightful lenses.
The fourth section is entitled ‘Beyond Personality: or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity.” This section is Lewis’s look at what it means for you and I to be created in the image of God. Lewis argues that we are relational beings, meaning we find our identity in our relationships with others. Most clearly we find our identity in relationship to God. I cannot say who Adam Eisenga is unless I speak of who I am in relationship to others and to God. Lewis argues that you and I are relational beings because God Himself is a relational being. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in a relationship we call love. In fact, we Christians get our definition of love from the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We only know what love looks like because we know how the members of the Trinity relate and how God relates to us. That is why love disconnected from this God, such as the syrupy love we often hear about in our culture, seems flat.
All of this might seem very abstract. Here we must remember that it is more important to relate to God than it is to comprehend everything about Him, and, not surprisingly, it is in relating to Him that we learn the most about Him. As Lewis writes, “you may as, ‘if we cannot imagine a three-personal Being, what is the good of talking about Him?’ Well, there isn’t any good talking about Him. The thing that matters is being actually drawn into that three-personal life, and that may begin any time – tonight, if you like” (143).
Lewis tells us that being drawn into the life of the Trinity is what Christian life and, in fact, all life is about. He tells us that this is done by becoming like Christ. This is a very hard and very easy thing to do. It is very hard because it means giving up everything about ourselves. We must die to ourselves continually. It is easy because by dying to ourselves we naturally become alive to Christ. By trying to be ‘good,’ we only wind up frustrated, but when we give ourselves completely to Christ, we become good as a byproduct.
Lewis ends by telling us that when we are taken into the life of Christ, we do not become uniformly like Christ – that is to say cookie cutter personalities. Rather, we become more ourselves. Lewis offers an illustration: “suppose a person knew nothing about salt. You give him a pinch to taste and he experiences a particular strong, sharp taste. You then tell him that in your country people use salt in all their cookery. Might he not reply ‘in that case I suppose all your dishes taste exactly the same: because the taste of that stuff you have just given me is so strong that it will kill the taste of everything else.’ But you and I know that the real effect of salt is exactly the opposite. So far from killing the taste of [food], it actually brings them out. They do not show their real taste till you have added the salt… it is something like that with Christ and us. The more we get what we now call “ourselves” out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become” (189-190).
So ends our walk through Lewis’s Mere Christianity. I hope that it has offered you some new lenses through which to view life. Such a work is a good reminder that we never outgrow the basic truths of our faith.
The next book review will be on John VanEpp’s How to Avoid Marrying a Jerk. This book will serve as part of the basis for a Youth Group miniseries on dating and marriage. While VanEpp does not write from a Christian perspective, there is much common sense flowing from his pages. He has a gift for drawing attention to our often unseen relational habits. If you are in a dating relationship, if you have a child/grandchild in a dating relationship, if you think you might one day be in a dating relationship, or if you are in a romantic relationship you would like to enhance, I hope this book is of service to you. It will be reviewed in two months.
Pastor Adam