Mere Christianity (C. S. Lewis Signature Classic)

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Surely we would, us avuncular old shitbags in cardigans puffing on our pipes and living in the real world as we do. A superb study of C. S. Lewis's greatest work. Marsden succeeds both in illuminating the success of Mere Christianity and enriching our own reading of this seminal work."—Alister McGrath, author of C. S. Lewis—A Life href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{9F082EFE-E9B0-4747-B9BE-4F05D533C932}Img200.jpg 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 the 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 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.” Lewis’s friend and biographer, George Sayer, describes an instance that suggests the broadcasts definitely passed the “pub test”:

I got out a yellow pad, cause I’m a lawyer, and I would have two columns — there is a God, there isn’t a God; Jesus Christ is God, he isn’t God — I went down that, and I went through the whole rational process and I thought to myself, wow … I’ve never gone into a courtroom and argued against a mind like this.Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis’s eloquent and winsome defense of the Christian faith, originated as a series of BBC radio talks broadcast during the dark days of World War Two. Here is the story of the extraordinary life and afterlife of this influential and much-beloved book. In the last part, “Beyond Personality,” Lewis delves into Trinitarian theology. Here Lewis turns more speculative than orthodox. He offers thoughts that seem to be more purely his own (or at least Pythagorean) rather than merely echoing Thomas Aquinas or Saint Augustine. Miethe, Terry L. (1999). C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. B&H Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8054-9347-4.

I was aware of this book in my childhood but never read it until now, because I'm working with two C.S. Lewis classes and wanted to get a better sense of his theology. I know some people still use this book as a way to explain the tenets of the Christian faith, but I think that is unwise for several reasons: Lewis clearly wants to believe, and wants to bolster and justify those beliefs, but he never overcomes a reasonable burden of proof. He puts together the best indications he can find, but they don't add up to much. Though there have been analyses of Mere Christianity before, none has been so comprehensive or serious as this one. Marsden has subjected Lewis's book to an assessment more searching and satisfying than anything so far in print."—Michael Ward, University of Oxford, author of Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis C. S. Lewis wove doctrines and lessons regarding the Christian faith throughout his other works, notably the Chronicles of Narnia. Ergo, I was surprised when reading this novel that to learn that he used to be an atheist.

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Blake, John (17 December 2010). "Surprised by C.S. Lewis: Why his popularity endures". CNN . Retrieved 20 August 2022.

I write to ask whether you would be willing to help us in our work of religious broadcasting ... The microphone is a limiting, and rather irritating, instrument, but the quality of thinking and depth of conviction which I find in your book ought sure to be shared with a great many other people. [1] Sometimes we place classics on our shelves with the intention of reading them someday. In this case, Marsden has done a good job of introducing us to a work we will now more eagerly read, or reread, with greater insight and appreciation."—Paul W. Fields, Theology and History a b The Life and Writing of C.S. Lewis, Lecture 3; The Great Courses, Course Guidebook; Professor Louis Markos, Houston Baptist University; The Teaching Company; 2000

The title comes from Lewis’s claim to abstract from the various denominations a kind of “pure” Christianity. Like a Puritan, Lewis believes that this “undiluted” Christianity would be as potent as merum, undiluted wine. However, like a Catholic, he relies heavily on tradition and dogmatism. 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. George Marsden provides a splendid account of the book's evolution . . . and its reception."—Jonathan Wright, Catholic Herald I finished listening to this book early this morning, a little before seven. I could not sleep, and as I lay in the darkness in need of some comfort and company, I thought that I should go ahead and finish it. I am glad I did. Most people have no idea about what Christianity is. That is the reason that CS Lewis' book exists.

I was talking to my father the other day when I said that "I think the funny thing to me about most academics at University, is that they so completely misunderstand Christianity. They think it's about becoming 'good enough' to get into Heaven." To which my Dad turned around and agreed saying, "That is because most churches don't understand Christianity well enough and keep preaching works-based repentance." A significant contribution to Lewis scholarship. No one has surveyed the reception history of Mere Christianity as well as Marsden has done here, and given the enduring popularity and influence of the book, this is a task well worth doing."—Alan Jacobs, author of The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis McGrath, Alister (2013). C. S. Lewis: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet. Tyndale House Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4143-3935-1.In 1939 Lewis published an essay on “ The Personal Heresy” in literary criticism. He argued that it was wrong to view a poem as about the poet’s state of mind. “The poet is not a man,” he wrote, “who asks me to look at him; he is a man who says ‘look at that’ and points; the more I follow the pointing of his finger the less I can possibly see of him” (14). Wow! What does one say when reading pure genius? Whether one chooses to agree or disagree with C.S. Lewis, his incredible mind, reasoning skills, and power of deduction are absolutely astounding. They are being asked to give up their very “self” as a sovereign entity, and to experience Christ living in them. “To become new men means losing what we now call ‘ourselves.’ Out of our selves, into Christ, we must go” (224). Elsewhere he writes, “This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. . . . The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs” (199). We are being made into creatures who can obey the command, “Be ye perfect” (198). We are to be transformed “from being creatures of God to being Sons of God” (220). That is possible only by being “in Christ,” who is the first instance of this new humanity. So, there must be “a real giving up of the self” (226). Lewis then offers the Hebrew Scriptures as the best historical source of a divine lawgiver revealing himself to human beings. Similarly, the canonical Gospels are the best historical texts about the life of Jesus Christ, and these books claim that Jesus is God. Jesus is the only great moral teacher to claim to be God incarnate. Therefore, Lewis challenges the “quest for the historical Jesus” with his famous “trilemma”: Jesus is a lunatic, a fraud, or God, but he is not a “good moral teacher.” Some accuse Lewis of a false dilemma, arguing that the Gospels may have misrepresented Jesus. However, Lewis holds that it is intellectually dishonest to accept some parts of a text as reliable and reject others. A text must be taken as a whole.