In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis argues for the existence of God, and then proceeds to outline what he believes are the fundamental tenants of Christianity.
In Book I, Lewis explores the notion of right and wrong, which he argues is, at its core, an inherently human characteristic that is not, as some would argue, merely a social construct. He calls our fundamental and universal understanding of fairness, or right and wrong, “The Law of Human Nature,” distinguishing it from other natural laws (such as gravity) by the fact that humans can choose whether or not to obey it. Lewis points out that we all know how we ought to behave, and yet we constantly find ourselves doing the opposite. He distinguishes the Law of Human Nature, or Moral Law, from the herd instinct. This Moral Law is not itself an instinct, but it helps us choose which of our instincts to act on. He also distinguishes it from social convention, arguing that, if all morality were truly subjective, then there would be no sense in arguing that one morality is better or worse than the other. We could not say that Nazi morality is inherently worse than any other set of morals. In order for there to be any comparison at all, there must be some true or correct morality to compare them to.
Lewis points out that, between the two commonly held views of the universe—the materialist view and the religious view—neither can be proven or disproven by science. However, that we do have more inside information into mankind, since we are ourselves human, than we would have just by observation. This, then, is how we know there is a moral law that we ought to obey even though our behavior alone indicates no such pattern. It is how we conclude that, “there is something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men’s behavior, and yet quite definitely real—a real law which none of us made, but we which we find pressing on us” (20). If we find, then, inside ourselves a law that we did not create, then there must be some sort of power that exists above and outside of us. Lewis notes here that he is not “within a hundred miles of the God of Christian theology” (25); he has merely arrived at the existence of “Something which is directing the universe” (25) and which seems to urge us toward morality. He points out that, if there is a force behind this Moral Law, is that it is not lenient nor indulgent; it instructs us to do the right thing regardless of how difficult or painful it is. It is a force that likes goodness, and we know that “if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate most of what we do” (31). This, he argues, is where one must arrive before one can except Christianity. One must acknowledge that there is a Moral Law, and that he has broken it, and that we need to be set right again.
In Book II, Lewis tells us that Christians do not have to believe that all religions are absolutely wrong; some wrong answers, he says, are closer to being correct than others. There is a division among religions on the nature of God: a Pantheistic notion of a God who is beyond good and evil, and exists in everything in the universe without distinction between good and bad, and a God who created the universe and is very much on the side of good as opposed to evil. The latter, which is the Christian view, acknowledges that the world is not as it should be, which raises the question: “If a good God made the world why has it gone wrong?” He agues, though, that so long as we have any notion of “just” and “unjust,” there must exist some standard of “just” to compare it to, bringing him back to a firm belief in God, without whom words like “right” and “wrong” would be meaningless.
Atheism, therefore, is too simple, as is what Lewis calls “Christianity-and-water” which is a belief that there is a God and everything is good, leaving out the dark parts of theology. Christian doctrine is not the simple, watered down version that is so prevalent; it is actually far more complicated than most adults can easily comprehend. Lewis points out that reality is usually complicated and not what a person could have guessed, and notes that this is one of the reasons he himself believes Christianity.
Lewis argues against Dualism, the notion that good and evil are two independent forces that are at war in the universe. Evil is, instead, a parasite; it is a defected form of goodness, and cannot exist on its own. He says that, “wickedness, when you examine it, turns out to be the pursuit of some good in the wrong way” (44). There is, however, a dark power at work in the universe, and the world we live in is “enemy-occupied territory” (46).
How then, can the state of the world be against God’s will, if God has absolute power? He compares this to a mother who wants her children to learn to clean their room on their own. She does not make them, and it remains dirty, and although this is against her will it is also her will for them to choose on their own that has made it possible. This is like free will. There is no happiness if we have no choice, so God has made us free to choose, but we use this freedom in a way that is not in accordance with his will. Things can go wrong because we want to be the center, we want to be more than God. This, he argues, is likely where evil came from in the first place. However, this can never be successful: we are created to run on God Himself, and there is no happiness outside of him. God has done three things to help us in our predicament. He left us a conscience, he sent the human race “good dreams,” or stories in other religions about a dying god who is resurrected and through this gives new life, and he selected a people group (the Jews) to teach what kind of God he was. The most shocking part is the appearance of Jesus, who claims to forgive sins. This, he argues, is a rather ridiculous claim, since he purports to forgive sins made by other men against other men; he is forgiving things in which he has no part. Lewis argues that we must not claim that Jesus was merely a great moral teacher. Since he claimed to be God, we have only three options: he is a lunatic, he is evil and a liar, or he is God. There is no other option.
Lewis walks through several theories about how Jesus’s death brings about salvation: that he paid a sort of debt by dying for our sins, or that he taught us how to repent by first doing it himself. It does not, he argues, really matter what one believes about how it works; we must simply know that it does work, though Lewis seems to advocate more for the latter—that Jesus taught us by example how to repent. Since Christ is our example, and because we can become like Christ, there is a “Christ-life” that is spread to us in three ways: baptism, belief, and Holy Communion/Mass/The Lord’s Supper. Christ-life does not make us perfect, but enables us to repair ourselves each time we fall. A Christian has God in him to make him good.
In Book III, Lewis outlines the three parts of morality. A human must be right with himself, he must be right with those around him, and he must be following a certain purpose. Lewis explains this through the metaphors of a fleet of ships and of a musical band. The fact that we are made by someone else for a purpose means we have more duties than if we only belonged to ourselves.
There are seven virtues in Christianity. Four are “Cardinal virtues,” recognized by all civilized people, and three are “Theological virtues,” recognized specifically by Christians. The Cardinal virtues are Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fortitude. Virtues are not qualifiers for getting into Heaven, but by practicing them they mold individuals into the kind of people God wants, the kind of people who will be happy with the Heaven God has created.
Christian morality does not offer details about how to apply its virtues to a particular society at a particular time. It can be applied to any society. None of us, he argues, would probably like a fully Christian society, since we have all departed from God’s plan in some way. We cannot, however, pick and choose. We should not approach Christianity to find support for our beliefs, we should approach it to find out what to believe.
Lewis discusses the overlap between Christianity and psychoanalysis. The act of making choices involves what he calls our “raw material” and that is different for every person. Therefore we cannot judge based on someone’s outward appearance or action; it may be that they have done far more with their raw material than someone who began in much better place and have not made use of it. Each choice changes a central part of us and molds us into the person we are becoming. Each choice brings us closer or farther from the person God intended.
Lewis goes on to summarize Christian views on sex—chastity or marriage—and argues that our sexual impulse has deviated from what it ought to be. He argues against the notion that we should be free to follow our impulses; no impulse, sexual or otherwise, can be followed freely at all times without restraint. However, he does not believe that sexual sins are the worst; the worst are the ones that are “purely spiritual” such as hatred, since their effect on the soul is worse. He then examines Christian marriage, a promise that must be followed. It is not acceptable to break a promise when the feelings go away. When the feeling of being in love fades, it is replaced by a deeper, quieter love. Next, he examines forgiveness. We have a duty to forgive our enemies. This is difficult, but we can start small. However, there is a difference between loving one’s neighbor and feeling affection toward them. We can hate what a person does without hating them, which we do for ourselves all the time. We can hate an action but hope that that person can “be cured and made human again” ( 117). To love one’s neighbor is to wish him good, not to feel fond of him or to say nice things that are untrue.
Lewis then discusses what he calls the “worst sin” which is pride, the opposite of humility. He argues that “Pride leads to every other vice” (122). It provokes other sins and makes it impossible to know God, since prideful people cannot know anything greater than themselves.
The first theological virtues is Charity, which is essentially love—though Lewis points out that love does not mean feeling a certain way but acting a certain way. If you do not feel love toward someone, act as though you do. The second is Hope, looking forward to the eternal world. God gave us desires that can be satisfied, and the fact that we desire something that cannot be had in this world means that there is another world. The third Theological virtue is Faith. This does not mean believing something in spite of evidence. It means that, once you have accepted something on the basis of evidence, you continue to believe it in spite of your changing moods. All our attempts at the Christian virtues will ultimately fail. We must keep trying and failing, and trying again.
In Book IV, Lewis says that Theology is like a map. It is not God, but it points us to God. He distinguishes between making and begetting and between biological life, or Bios, and spiritual life, or Zoe. Jesus is begotten, and we are made; we are like statues, not sons, but through Christ we are brought to life. He then delves into the notion of a three-person God, which is something that we cannot understand. He is beyond personality, but he is not impersonal; he is super-personal. He is within us and beside us as he brings us toward him. This complex notion is where theology began. We are the instruments through which we see God, but if our instruments are not kept well, we see a distorted version of God. Lewis goes on to argue that God is beyond and outside of time. He is not bound by it, and every moment is the present for him. He compares this to a writer writing a novel; though the novel’s events are bound by time, the writer is not. He can take days to write a single scene. Lewis then explains this in terms of the Trinity, or three-person God. The Son is a product of the Father, but there was never a time when the Son did not exist. Lewis delves here more fully into the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is important because God cannot be love unless he contains two or more beings. These three beings are at play in the world and in every Christian as we become “little Christs,” which Lewis tells us is the sole purpose of Christianity.
Lewis compares humanity to toy soldiers brought to life, but the difference is that all of humanity is interwoven and we are not so distinct as we believe. By becoming human, then, Christ has infected humanity with his Spiritual life. In becoming what Lewis calls “little Christs,” there is an element of pretending. We pretend to be better than we are so that we can truly become better. When we act as though we are better than we are, we turn ourselves into people who are better. By pretending, we make it a reality.
Christianity therefore, is both harder and easier than non-Christian life. More is expected of us, but God helps us in ways that others do not. There is a cost, and it is often more than we have bargained for. He compares the individual to a living house. God comes in and begins to make improvements and at first you understand what he is fixing, but then he begins to knock things down that seem to be destructive. You find that “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” (205). We can only become perfect when we put ourselves into his hands.
He acknowledges, however, the apparent irony in that not all Christians are nice than non-Christians. However, the world is not split into fully Christian and fully non-Christian. Furthermore, we ought not to compare a Christian to another non-Christian, but to the person they would be if they were not Christian. “Nice” people need saving just as much as “unkind” people do. Our natural temperament is not so much within our control and not so important as our choices, and whether we give ourselves and our raw material to God. Christianity is not about mere improvement but about Transformation. In the Christian view there is an evolutionary “Next Step” that is already at work. It is unique in that it is not carried out by sexual reproduction, it contains an element of choice, it originates from Christ and is passed on by “good infection,” it has happened relatively quickly compared to other evolutionary advances, and finally, the stakes are much higher.
Ultimately, Lewis explains, we must give ourselves over to Christ completely in order to both become like him and to fully become ourselves. It is the only way.
