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Book Review #15
Jun. 1st, 2008 02:02 pmBook: Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
Genre: Christian nonfiction/Theology
Length: 227 pp.
Grade: A+
Summary on Back Cover: One of the most popular and beloved introductions to Christian faith ever written, Mere Christianity has sold millions of copies worldwide. The book brings together Lewis's legendary broadcast talks of the war years, talks in which he set out simply to "explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times." Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity's many denominations, C. S. Lewis provides an unequaled opportunity for believers and nonbelievers alike to hear a powerful, rational case for the Christian faith. It is a collection of scintillating brilliance that remains strikingly fresh for the modern reader and at the same time confirms C. S. Lewis's reputation as one of the leading writers and thinkers of our age.
My Thoughts: I can definitely understand why people call C. S. Lewis one of the best Christian thinkers of all time. For a while, I had been toying with reading this book and now that I did, I am yet even more certain of my faith. This book is frankly a gift from God for me, because without it, I'd probably not have been able to get through the events of the past few days. Even though it was a short book—less than three hundred pages—it has more truth and wisdom than any other book about Christianity that I've read so far.
C. S. Lewis lays out the main doctrines of Christianity in an easy, laidback manner that absolutely anyone can understand. It doesn't start with "Jesus died on the cross for our sins"—instead, it talked about the Moral Law that all of us are aware of subconsciously and gradually got into the idea of their being a Supreme Being, then a god, then the Christian God. And only then, after he had established those facts, he started explaining the basic doctrines and beliefs of Christianity. It was a logical progression of events and, as you read farther into the book, you gradually got into more complex topics.
Those complex topics are hard for some people to understand, especially non-Christians, and they were even hard for me to understand. However, C. S. Lewis laid them out in a very understandable manner so that, although I can't understand them entirely, I understand them enough to explain them to someone else. A lot of the things I didn't quite understand as I read this book gradually made more sense to me and even with the topics I already understood, I came to understand them even more than I already did.
Not only than that, C. S. Lewis laid them in a... well, profound way. I found so many things to quote in this book, but I'm only going to point out two that really affected me. One is in the chapter, The Shocking Alternative, and the other is in the chapter, Nice People or New Men. There are many other quotes, especially in the Sexual Morality and the Christian Marriage chapters that I enjoyed, but these two affected me the most. In case you don't have a copy on hand (which I suspect many of you don't), here they are:
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall as 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." (The Shocking Alternative)
"But if you are a poor creature—poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels—saddled, by no choice of your own, with some loathsome sexual perversion—nagged day in and day out by an inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends—do not despair. He knows all about it. You are one of the poor whom He blessed. He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive. Keep on. Do what you can. One day (perhaps in another world, but perhaps far sooner than that) He will fling it in the scrap-heap and give you a new one. And then you may astonish us all—not least yourself: for you have learned your driving in a hard school." (Nice People or New Men)
Those of you who know me understand why those quotes affected me. They really spoke my truth, why I believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, why I'm so dedicated to bringing the people closest to me to Christ, why I am, at my heart, a Christian. Other sections in the book did this, but these were the ones that made me blink with astonishment at how C. S. Lewis put them and how true they were.
So, although this book was short, it packed so much into it. C. S. Lewis didn't sugarcoat anything or make it more "politically correct." He set out to explain and defend Christianity, and that's exactly what he did. I truly understand why this was called "one of the most popular and beloved introductions to Christian faith ever written." I am so glad that I read this book and even happier to know that I own it—I just know that I'll be reading it a lot over the years, and that I'll be marking up and making the book one of my most beloved and most recommended books about Christianity. It's that good.
Genre: Christian nonfiction/Theology
Length: 227 pp.
Grade: A+
Summary on Back Cover: One of the most popular and beloved introductions to Christian faith ever written, Mere Christianity has sold millions of copies worldwide. The book brings together Lewis's legendary broadcast talks of the war years, talks in which he set out simply to "explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times." Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity's many denominations, C. S. Lewis provides an unequaled opportunity for believers and nonbelievers alike to hear a powerful, rational case for the Christian faith. It is a collection of scintillating brilliance that remains strikingly fresh for the modern reader and at the same time confirms C. S. Lewis's reputation as one of the leading writers and thinkers of our age.
My Thoughts: I can definitely understand why people call C. S. Lewis one of the best Christian thinkers of all time. For a while, I had been toying with reading this book and now that I did, I am yet even more certain of my faith. This book is frankly a gift from God for me, because without it, I'd probably not have been able to get through the events of the past few days. Even though it was a short book—less than three hundred pages—it has more truth and wisdom than any other book about Christianity that I've read so far.
C. S. Lewis lays out the main doctrines of Christianity in an easy, laidback manner that absolutely anyone can understand. It doesn't start with "Jesus died on the cross for our sins"—instead, it talked about the Moral Law that all of us are aware of subconsciously and gradually got into the idea of their being a Supreme Being, then a god, then the Christian God. And only then, after he had established those facts, he started explaining the basic doctrines and beliefs of Christianity. It was a logical progression of events and, as you read farther into the book, you gradually got into more complex topics.
Those complex topics are hard for some people to understand, especially non-Christians, and they were even hard for me to understand. However, C. S. Lewis laid them out in a very understandable manner so that, although I can't understand them entirely, I understand them enough to explain them to someone else. A lot of the things I didn't quite understand as I read this book gradually made more sense to me and even with the topics I already understood, I came to understand them even more than I already did.
Not only than that, C. S. Lewis laid them in a... well, profound way. I found so many things to quote in this book, but I'm only going to point out two that really affected me. One is in the chapter, The Shocking Alternative, and the other is in the chapter, Nice People or New Men. There are many other quotes, especially in the Sexual Morality and the Christian Marriage chapters that I enjoyed, but these two affected me the most. In case you don't have a copy on hand (which I suspect many of you don't), here they are:
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall as 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." (The Shocking Alternative)
"But if you are a poor creature—poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels—saddled, by no choice of your own, with some loathsome sexual perversion—nagged day in and day out by an inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends—do not despair. He knows all about it. You are one of the poor whom He blessed. He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive. Keep on. Do what you can. One day (perhaps in another world, but perhaps far sooner than that) He will fling it in the scrap-heap and give you a new one. And then you may astonish us all—not least yourself: for you have learned your driving in a hard school." (Nice People or New Men)
Those of you who know me understand why those quotes affected me. They really spoke my truth, why I believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, why I'm so dedicated to bringing the people closest to me to Christ, why I am, at my heart, a Christian. Other sections in the book did this, but these were the ones that made me blink with astonishment at how C. S. Lewis put them and how true they were.
So, although this book was short, it packed so much into it. C. S. Lewis didn't sugarcoat anything or make it more "politically correct." He set out to explain and defend Christianity, and that's exactly what he did. I truly understand why this was called "one of the most popular and beloved introductions to Christian faith ever written." I am so glad that I read this book and even happier to know that I own it—I just know that I'll be reading it a lot over the years, and that I'll be marking up and making the book one of my most beloved and most recommended books about Christianity. It's that good.
