what a serious generalist thinks

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book III | Christian Behavior Chapter 5 | “Sexual Morality” This may be a good chapter to begin at the end. Lewis has a final thought that frames everything he says in this chapter. It may also take us by surprise. Question: Where is “the center of Christian morality”? Answer:…

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book III | Christian Behavior Chapter 4 | “Morality and Psychoanalysis” Note: It’s interesting to come back to this chapter with the intention of trying to understand it with an audience in mind. Lewis the intellectual is a formidable thing, for example as he describes Sigmund Freud in certain areas…

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book III | Christian Behavior Chapter 3 | “Social Morality” In the first book, Lewis made the case for a Moral Law that we fail to keep and which is evidence of God. In the second book, Lewis explained the various ideas people hold about God and why he understands…

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book III | Christian Behavior Chapter 2 | “The ‘Cardinal Virtues’” Question: What constraint was C.S. Lewis operating under in the previous chapter? Answer: He has only ten minutes to talk on the air, so everything had to be condensed. This is why he reduced morality to the idea of…

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book III | Christian Behavior Chapter 1 | “The Three Parts of Morality” I’m not sure the question and answer thing really works with this chapter, so I think I will simply try and summarize each of the ten paragraphs. Paragraph 1 | Lewis tells the story of a schoolboy…

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book II | What Christians Believe Chapter 5 | “The Practical Conclusion” Question: What did Jesus do for us? Answer: Jesus went through a perfect surrender and humiliation. It was “perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was man.” His death gives us new life and puts…

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book II | What Christians Believe Chapter 4 | “The Perfect Penitent” To me, Chapter 4 of Book II feels like an aside. Lewis has been building to “a frightening alternative,” that Jesus is who he said he was or is a crazy person or is something worse. But Lewis…

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book II | What Christians Believe Chapter 3 | “The Shocking Alternative” Question: What is the Christian belief that C.S. Lewis ended the last chapter with? Answer. “An evil power has made himself for the present the Prince of this World.” Q. What are the problems that are raised by…

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book II | What Christians Believe Chapter 2 | “The Invasion” Question: According to C.S. Lewis, what is too simple? Answer: Atheism (as discussed in the previous chapter) and a watered-down Christianity (“there is a good God in Heaven and everything is all right”) that does not include “all the…

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book II | What Christians Believe Chapter 1 | “The Rival Conceptions of God” Question: In a book about what Christians believe, what does Lewis say “Christians do not need to believe?” Answer: You don’t need to believe that all religions are completely wrong. Q: How will the atheist’s view…

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity Book I | Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe Chapter 5 | “We Have Cause to Be Uneasy” The fifth chapter of Mere Christianity is where, at least for me, things get good as Lewis brings some things together. In this chapter we learn…

Mere Christianity: Book 1, Chapter 4 If you were given time on NPR, our closest equivalent to the BBC, to talk to people about “the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people,” (Jude 3) where would you start? Maybe a scripture verse? It’s intriguing that C.S. Lewis hasn’t at this point…

“The Reality of the Law” As a kind of spiritual discipline, I am reading through C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, and trying to understand it better by asking myself questions. Q. What are the “two odd things about the human race” that C.S. Lewis mentioned at the end of the first chapter? A. First, we are…

For me, the second chapter is more difficult than the first. In addressing questions, Lewis is making some distinctions between things which really stretches my ability to think philosophically. Q: C.S. Lewis opens Chapter 2 with “If they are the foundation . . .” What is the foundational “they” he is referring to? A: Lewis…

I am taking a journey through C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. My approach to this book is to read it like it’s the first time. To try and understand what he is saying, I am asking myself questions based on the text. Book I | Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the…

I would like to begin a journey through C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity that will take some time—over half the year. In a journal entry about the book some years ago I wrote, “I don’t think we can underestimate the value of this book for having a kind of road map to understand the world we…