Progress Report Number 1
September 3, 1998
It is my personal hope that I become a new and better person as a result of having read this classic of Christianity. If I don’t, it will be my own fault; the book is an ideal "starter kit" for a new life in Christ. Originally written as a series of radio broadcasts, the book was later published in three separate parts as The Case for Christianity (1943), Christian Behavior (1943), and Beyond Personality (1945). I read the Touchstone, 1980 edition, printed in paperback (191 pages), where all three parts are presented.
Mr. Lewis was a lay person. He was a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature at Oxford and Cambridge universities. He made this book very easy to read, but it does not lightly treat of its subject. He warns the reader "that I offer no help to anyone who is hesitating between two Christian "denominations." This omission is intentional. He thought the book could serve its best purpose by "explaining and defending the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times."
Starting with the question of why people instinctively know certain acts are "wrong," and that others are "good," he goes on to show how our natures, left to themselves, would rather do some of the "wrong" things, even if they make us feel bad.
Next, he looks at the different theories of the origin of the universe, the materialist view, and the religious view. The materialist view holds that matter and space just happen to exist, and nobody knows why. According to the religious view, "what is behind the universe is more like a mind than it is like anything else we know. That is to say, it is conscious, and has purposes, and prefers one thing to another."
"If there was a controlling power outside the universe...the only way in which we could expect it to show itself would be inside ourselves as an influence or a command trying to get us to behave in a certain way." Lewis maintains that this is what is behind the "voice of conscience" that everyone hears directing them away from wrong actions and toward good actions. Lewis concludes the first of the three parts in the series by asserting: "It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power—it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk."
That’s as far as this amateur will go with you. You’ll have to read Clive Staples Lewis’ Mere Christianity yourself for the rest. Though he is a layman, Lewis is quite a scholar and talented storyteller. He explores different conceptions of God, why God must be "good," why evil exists in the world (an excellent section on free will and why God gave us that), and all the common tenets of the Christian faith.
The third part of the work explores a little about the theology of the Trinity and how that relates to a person taking the step in giving over his entire self to Christ. Lewis' main point in the whole book seems to be that in order to be a Christian, one must put to death his own desires and wishes, removing his "self" as the center of his life, and taking on the life of Christ voluntarily. It is total surrender that is necessary, he insists. Once that happens, and the new life one receives is fortified by daily prayer and reflection on the meaning of being a son or daughter of God, we evolve into just that—children of God. We never become as perfect as Jesus was, because he is, and always was, God, but we do get progressively better. The final perfection of our selves, in Christ, only occurs after we die, but a great change (not merely improvement) occurs before our final hour.
Lewis has a way of making this look so wonderful, so hopeful, and desirable. You must read his book if you aspire to a change for the better in your own life.
Copyright 1998, Herman Fontenot
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