Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis - Chapter reviews

Preface
     This room in this house
Did you choose your denomination? Or did it choose you?

Book I:
Right and wrong as a clue to the meaning of the universe
Chapters 1-5 
     Good or bad news first?
Until we really get the bad news, can we appreciate, or even accept, the Good News?

Book II:
What Christians believe
Chapters 1-5
     Is my religion right?
Lewis points to Truth that exists outside of our thoughts. Truth just is. Whether we believe it or not, or acknowledge it or not, it is. He is.

Book III:
Christian Behavior
Chapter 1 
     Who you are today matters forever
We need to continue nurturing these traits because we have a very long time ahead to live. Let’s make it as pleasant an experience as possible for everyone.

Book III:
Christian Behavior
Chapters 2-6
     Chew only or swallow and digest?
How can we motivate ourselves to sit down at the dinner table feast instead of settling for sampling tidbits at the mall’s food court when the latter is so handy and the former can seem so time-consuming?

Book III:
Christian Behavior
Chapter 7-12 
     And the greatest sin is…
Lewis says pride “is the complete anti-God state of mind.” In comparison, all other sins are “mere fleabites.” Why? Perhaps because pride keeps us from knowing God. And can there be a worse fate than not knowing God?

Book IV:
Beyond personality: or first steps in the doctrine of the Trinity
Chapter 1-6 
     Toys made real
It is only because God REALLY loves us that he brings us to “real” or Zoe life. Any other way of living is imitation.

Book IV:
Beyond personality: or first steps in the doctrine of the Trinity
Chapters 7-11
     The ending of Mere Christianity
God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature.

The Ending of "Mere Christianity"

This is it for Mere Christianity, for now. Quotes worth a second look from the last 5 chapters:

Rats in the Cellar
...Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly.

But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man: it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.

Like the Dentist
Our Lord is like the dentist. If you give Him an inch, He will take an ell. Dozens of people go to Him to be cured of some one particular sin which they are ashamed of... Well, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment.

Ordinary Cottage or a Palace?
He is the inventor, we are only the machine. He is the painter, we are only the picture. How should we know what He means us to be like?

We may be content to remain what we call “ordinary people”: but He is determined to carry out a quite different plan. To shrink back from that plan is not humility; it is laziness and cowardice. To submit to it is not conceit or megalomania; it is obedience.

You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

Nice Doesn’t Cut It
We have been talking, in fact, as if Dick were all right; as if Christianity was something nasty people needed and nice ones could afford to do without; and as if niceness was all that God demanded. But this would be a fatal mistake. The truth is that in God’s eyes Dick Firkin needs “saving” every bit as much as Miss Bates. In one sense...niceness hardly comes into the question.

But we must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world—and might even be more difficult to save.

God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature.

New Men
Every now and then one meets them. Their very voices and faces are different from ours; stronger, quieter, happier, more radiant..They do not draw attention to themselves. You tend to think that you are being kind to them when they are really being kind to you. They love you more than other men do, but they need you less.

[Others' thoughts from Book IV of “Mere Christianity”]

Toys Made Real (Thoughts from "Mere Christianity")

Come to Life
I remember pretending with my raggedy, stuffed “Donkey” friend long past a socially-acceptable age. Even when his stuffing started spilling out, I sheltered him far away from where Mama could reach the attic.

Perhaps it was because I read and re-read Margery Williams’ The Velveteen Rabbit, Or How Toys Become Real. The Rabbit doesn’t quite understand “real,” so the Horse, who has already become real himself, explains:

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

~ THE VELVETEEN RABBIT

Likewise, it is only because God REALLY loves us that he brings us to “Real” or Zoe life. Any other way of living is imitation.

Show Me Real
But like the Rabbit, how can we understand Real, when we’re not? We need someone already Real to explain it to us.

And Jesus did. He not only explained it, he demonstrated it. As C. S. Lewis so aptly states in Book IV of Mere Christianity:

The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus inside a Woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.

~ MERE CHRISTIANITY

Jesus humbly entered our shadow world to show us what being Real is all about. He showed us Truth and Life.

And the process to become Real? It's the Way, Jesus himself, because he REALLY loves us.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

Are All Toys Real?
But if God loves everybody, why isn’t everybody Real? Why don’t all the toys come to life?

Because only the toys that believe they can be made Real are made so.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. John 6:47

Perhaps Lewis read The Velveteen Rabbit, too. In his “Chapter 5: The Obstinate Toy Soldiers” of Mere Christianity, his toy soldiers, unlike the Rabbit, fight the process of becoming Real and prefer to remain toys.

Which is more realistic? To desire to be Real, or to fight against it?

We see both types. To cross over into Real, we first have to voluntarily die to our old man. Not all agree to do that, or see the advantage of it, or listen to the Father calling us to it. They prefer the temporary fun in fake, unaware of the everlasting revelry in Real.

But those who do accept God’s love, change. As from a stone statue to a breathing man.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10b

A man who changed from having Bios to having Zoe would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being a carved stone to being a real man. And that is precisely what Christianity is all about. This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.

~ MERE CHRISTIANITY

At the end of The Velveteen Rabbit, the Rabbit was made real:

Instead of dingy velveteen he had brown fur, soft and shiny, his ears twitched by themselves, and his whiskers were so long that they brushed the grass. He gave one leap and the joy of using those hind legs was so great that he went springing about the turf on them, jumping sideways and whirling round as the others did, and he grew so excited.

~ THE VELVETEEN RABBIT

Me, too. I’ve been made Real.

[Others' thoughts from Book IV of “Mere Christianity”]

And the greatest sin is... (Thoughts from "Mere Christianity")

Lewis’s title for chapter 8 reveals his seriousness toward the vice of pride: “The Great Sin”. He says pride “is the complete anti-God state of mind.” In comparison, all other sins are “mere fleabites.” Why? Perhaps because pride keeps us from knowing God. And can there be a worse fate than not knowing God?

Why else is pride so bad? It not only creates enmity between God and me, but also between you and me. To enjoy pleasure in my pride, I must rank myself higher than you—in looks or intelligence or works or power, etc. I have to be better. Doesn’t do much for a friendship, huh? Lewis says pride, at its very core, is competitive. Comparisons are what feed pride and keep it alive.

We see this competitiveness among professional sports players' salaries. It's not satisfying enough to make millions of dollars; they want to make millions + 1 more than everybody else. Not because they lack the money to do the things they want, but because they “wish to be richer than some other rich man.” So as they demand more dollars, we "normal" folk stand aghast.

But we do the same thing, just in smaller denominations. Who wants to make less than their co-worker, even if we’re already overpaid? It’s not just that we want; we want more. We compare; that’s how pride works.

In contrast, humility does not compare one against the other, but focuses on only one: the other. Lewis describes a humble man as a “cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.”

This chapter ends with an answer. What is the first step to acquiring humility? Realize that you are proud.

“If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.” Ouch.

[Others' thoughts from Book III of “Mere Christianity”]

Chew only or Swallow and digest?

...Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary, He told us to be not only “as harmless as doves,” but also “as wise as serpents.” He wants a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim.

...“Be good, sweet maid, and don’t forget that this involves being as clever as you can.” ...If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all.

~ C. S. Lewis
MERE CHRISTIANITY
Book III, Chapter 2

I’m a scanner. I admit it. When it comes to reading anything outside of books, I’m a highlights’ reader. Like chewing on a bad piece of hard bubblegum, I can feed on a multi-paragraph on-line article in about 5 seconds, just enough time to squeeze out the sugary flavor, then spit it back out. Only if there’s something particularly relevant or entertaining or sequential do I take the time to swallow and digest. Otherwise, I’m zoning in on key words and moving on, baby.

Perhaps my reading style is imitative of the modern American Christian. We’re spread so thin in this ministry and that; we juggle so many relationships that we give proper time to none; we multi-task while listening to the Sunday sermon as we’re jotting down plans for the Bible study that night and transcribing a passage to memorize later in the week. Granted, all good things, each one, but whatever happened to attending to the “one best thing” that Jesus chastised Martha about?

We’re one Google-click away from discovering a little bit about everything. But do we have more than a Wikipedia-sized knowledge about anything? The Christian religion isn’t designed for the wimpy or the lazy. It’s requires depth and devotion. Any leader that says he wants your whole being, not just your 8-5 workday best, but your whole heart, mind, soul, spirit, is insinuating there’s some serious business ahead, and you better live prepared for it.

How can we motivate ourselves to sit down at the dinner table feast instead of settling for sampling tidbits at the mall’s food court when the latter is so handy and the former can seem so time-consuming?

Perhaps by slowing down enough to concentrate on only one thing at a time. Turn off the TV and give our undivided attention to the husband at dinner. Discard the frivolous catalogs so we can focus on the one serious magazine article. Build enough margin into our lives so that when the unexpected TRUE need calls us, we’re fresh and available to throw in our all.

Jesus never expected his disciples to pursue a PhD in theology, but he did say they needed to deny everything but him. That’s some serious focus. Do we have enough attention span and self-discipline left to do it?

[Others' thoughts from Book III of “Mere Christianity”]

Who you are today matters forever

There are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only 70 years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live forever.

~ C. S. Lewis
MERE CHRISTIANITY
Book III, Chapter 1

And I am going to live forever; I’ve been promised. So it does matter who I am today. And I best be concerned about it.

I attended Lauren and Nate’s wedding last Saturday. The bride and groom were obviously giddy to be marrying, and rightly so. Nothing but smiles and laughs.

But we older adults intermingled our joy with a few tears, and not just happy ones. We could foresee a little further down the road—times the happy couple will get so angry at each other that they’ll say such rude things unimaginable on this wedding day; times when they’ll worry themselves crazy over a sick child in the middle of the night; times when they’ll be so torn about whether to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at his family or hers. Little things and big things. We know. We’ve been there.

And we foresee times of immense joy, too, those special joys that only married partners can give to each other.

We take the long view. We’ve lived it and we know it’s ahead for them, too.

So the vows the loving couple made to each other on Saturday need to be undergirded with determination and commitment and selflessness because they have much to go through ahead. Those character traits are things worth bothering about not only to catch a spouse, but to keep one—through the first year of marriage, into the next 55, and those very qualities will shape who they are individually into eternity.

Patience, kindness, trust, perseverance, forgiveness. Young or old, don't we all need to continue nurturing these in ourselves? Not only for our spouses, but because we have a very, very long time ahead to live with us. Let's make it as pleasant an experience as possible.

Is my religion right? (& other thoughts from “Mere Christianity”)

Lewis would be scolded today for intolerance: “...being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic—there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong....” (Ch 1)

Society says don’t think in terms of “I’m right; you’re wrong,” unless, of course, it’s about being right or wrong. Then it’s okay. Anything less is not tolerated. Huh?

This is also very un-PC in our age: “...as if “religion” were something God invented, and not His statement to us of certain quite unalterable facts about His own nature.” (Ch 2)

Lewis points to Truth that exists outside of our thoughts. Truth just is. Whether we believe it or not, or acknowledge it or not, it is. He is.

In Ch 3, he made me consider how absurd it must have seemed when Jesus forgave people that weren’t necessarily apologizing to him. It would be like me telling my husband, “I forgive you for arguing with a co-worker today.” If I’m not the offended party, why should *I* forgive? It would be haughty.

But with Jesus, all hurts toward others ARE hurts toward him. “This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin.” While this can’t be used as proof that he is deity, it shows he at least thought he was.

Why punish a criminal? To hurt the perpetrator because of the pain they caused another? Or, to exact retribution for the debt they created? In Ch 4, Lewis says Jesus’ substitutionary punishment for us is the latter reason. Who paid the ultimate price for our crimes? Jesus.

“What possible point could there be in punishing an innocent person instead? None at all that I can see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense. On the other hand, if you think of a debt, there is plenty of point in a person who has some assets paying it on behalf of someone who has not.”

[Others' thoughts from Book II of “Mere Christianity”]

Good or Bad News First? (thoughts from "Mere Christianity")

Good news first? Or bad news?

Which do you usually choose? I grew up “bad news first”. Work first, then play; eat your vegetables, then you get dessert. It's worked well for me.

In Mere Christianity, Lewis points out that we can’t even understand the good news unless we first grasp the bad. He says three things to his readers/listeners in chapter 5, “We Have Cause to Be Uneasy.”

1. Progress may mean first going backwards to get off the wrong road so you can find the right.
2. There is “Somebody” else out there. We know that because: (1) we see the universe He has made. And (2) we each have a Moral Law that He put inside us.
3. Christianity doesn’t even make sense until you come face to face with the facts of your life.

Expounding on this last point, he writes:

Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness. ...When you know you are sick, you will listen to the doctor. When you have realized that our position is nearly desperate you will begin to understand what the Christians are talking about.

Do we get the bad news? Do we see our “desperate position”? Do we even know that we need bailing out?

Until we do, can we appreciate, or even accept, the Good News?

[Others' thoughts from Book I of “Mere Christianity”]

This room in this house (thoughts from "Mere Christianity")

Did you choose your denomination?
Or did it choose you?

C. S. Lewis equates our first steps into Christianity as being in a hallway. We don’t want to live there, but we wait there until we know which room (or “existing communion”) to enter.

Many come to Christ through the gateway of a denomination, perhaps that of their family or friend or co-worker. So they “feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at.” They are welcomed into the room and sit at the fire with others in genuine fellowship and discipleship.

But others, as Lewis puts it, “may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time...I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do get into your room you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping.”

What I’ve learned about the house: some of the walls are thin and allow communication between rooms; some doors stay wide open while others are tightly shut; some rooms are noisy whereas others are dark and quiet; some are sparsely decorated but others are ornate.

My room has the reputation as the workshop of the house. “Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun...We’ll work (we’ll work) till Jesus comes... I will labor every day in the vineyard of the Lord...” But sometimes a party breaks out even there, and we remember to enjoy the rest the Master has already provided us.

And sometimes I hear laughter and wander over into the playroom, or dress up to enter the formal living room, or crawl up in the attic and enjoy fellowship there. I discover family in every nook and cranny, and the Father knows us all.

My denomination? I think it chose me first. And then I chose to stay. Sometimes gratefully ; sometimes reluctantly. I admit I’d like to move the furniture around, bring in some new pieces, and throw out some old, but I know the room is in the right house, so I stay. Most of the people I love the most, and who love me, are already gathered in this room. Other lovely brothers and sisters live in nearby rooms, so we meet in the hallway and visit each other’s rooms when we can.

It’s home. And there’s no place like it.

[Others' thoughts from the Preface of “Mere Christianity”]