by C.S. Lewis
Notable Quote:
“The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”
If Christianity ever reunites under a single banner, Mere Christianity will deserve much of the credit. In it, C.S. Lewis set out to present a common-ground view of Christianity, what he termed “mere” Christianity. Lewis avoided heavy doctrine and formal theology, focusing instead on “the basics.” The basics that, I might add, are in constant need of reminder to the worldly and the penitent alike. It is mind-boggling to contemplate what could be accomplished if Christians paid more attention to what unites rather than what divides.
The essays that comprise Mere Christianity were originally delivered as a series of radio addresses in the United Kingdom between 1941 and 1944, and then later re-cast in book form. Many great reviews of the book exist, and so I won’t spend any more words rehashing what has been aptly said many times.
Instead I will offer a few quotes that seared in my brain when I read them, along with a bit of commentary.
“God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies.”
How disheartening to realize that we make ourselves God’s enemy every day, and yet how hopeful to understand that His love remains undaunted and He wants us back! As C.S. Lewis often says, we are rebels who must lay down our arms. Our hearts are idol-making factories, forever seeking for anything other than God to fill the God-shaped hole of our inner-most desire.
“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.”
The very fact that we can contemplate whether or not there is a higher meaning to existence is an indication that a higher meaning exists. To deny this is to live in self-exile, willfully locked away in a prison of our own making. After all, the gates of hell are locked from the inside.
“Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again.”
The virtuous circle of trying, failing, and regrouping to try again forms a habit of struggle that eventually makes the impossible possible. This only happens through the grace of God. There is no reason to expect that miracles will always happen instantaneously, like a magic trick. More often, miracles happen slowly, incrementally over time. And the greatest miracle of all is not losing hope.
“Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”
As Christ said in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 8, verse 36, “For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?” Truth is not to be found in the world. All who seek truth are really seeking God, whether or not they know it. You were made for Heaven; you are only a sojourner on Earth. If you anchor your life to the Earth, it will remain so anchored when you die.
“Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home.”
We need to try and fail over and over until we have developed the faith to realize we cannot succeed without God. This is the point at which we can join our burden to His. Don’t be discouraged; even the righteous fall seven times a day (Proverbs 24:16).
This is the paradox of Philippians 2:12-13. First, we are advised to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, which sounds like everything depends on our good actions. Then we are told that it is God who works in us and through us, meaning that God is responsible for everything we do that is good. So which is it? Clearly, God is inviting us to participate in his goodness and to join our sufferings and triumphs to His.
As C.S. Lewis said of this paradox, “I am afraid that is the sort of thing we come up against in Christianity.”