{"id":1776,"date":"2011-05-03T18:51:04","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T18:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2018\/11\/29\/1010-revision-v1\/"},"modified":"2019-07-11T12:18:31","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T12:18:31","slug":"mere-christianity-br-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/05\/03\/mere-christianity-br-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mere Christianity (BR)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editorial notes<\/strong>: This Book Review was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2<\/sub> with the Summary section missing. It was last updated on 03\/05\/2011.
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

C.S. Lewis<\/strong>\u00a0is the British\u00a0author\u00a0best known for writing the\u00a0Narnia\u00a0series of books, but he also authored a number of books that discussed his religious beliefs, including this one –\u00a0Mere Christianity<\/strong>. The book\u00a0evolved\u00a0out of a series of BBC radio programs Lewis was invited to speak on between 1942-1944[1]<\/sup><\/a>. Although raised to be\u00a0Christian, Lewis considered himself to be an\u00a0atheist\u00a0from age 15. Lewis decided to be Christian again at age 31, influenced especially by arguments with the author\u00a0J.R.R. Tolkien.<\/p>\n

Mere Christianity<\/em>\u00a0is an apologetic work that aims to convince the (ostensibly sceptical) reader of the truth of Christianity. The “Mere<\/em>” in the title reflects Lewis’ eschewing promotion of any particular Christian denomination.<\/p>\n

\n

Summary<\/h3>\n

\n

\n

Review and observations<\/h3>\n

As for myself, I’m not superstitious, but am always interested in how others fit their superstitions into their worldviews. Like so many other things, religious thought is made possible by rationalization of premises accepted\u00a0a priori<\/em>. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t shed much direct light on what it is that\u00a0converted<\/a>\u00a0Lewis. That’s not to say that he doesn’t mention various influences and ideas, but many of them sound like he’d convinced himself of them after the fact.<\/p>\n

For instance: the arguments that\u00a0since<\/em>\u00a0we have ideas of a\u00a0transcendental morality<\/a>\u00a0and expectations of\u00a0perfect joy<\/a>, therefore,\u00a0both those things must exist is obviously fallacious. (The other major leap, from deism to Christianity is easier to understand – i.e. cultural predilection). The question is whether these arguments in any way reflect what that\u00a0thing<\/em>\u00a0that Lewis sought was. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t deliver any obvious answers. Instead it repeats all the usual tropes (common even today) of the validity and viability of religion – its difficulty (why is this important?), its complexity, the fact of needing to look at it the right way, recommended that particular doctrines be overlooked for the moment (i.e. those that are\u00a0problematic<\/a>) and that others be focused on (i.e. those that are\u00a0humanistic<\/a>), etc.<\/p>\n

While some may find<\/a>\u00a0the writing witty, others, including myself, may find that the jokes achieve\u00a0that<\/em> unexpectedly patronizing blend of goodwill and self-assurance.\u00a0It is what it is<\/a>. Additionally, the lack of thematic unity comes across as slightly schizophrenic, as the translation from a radio show, to pamphlets, and eventually to the book was not organic. Still, Lewis is a professional writer, and so the text itself flows fine.<\/p>\n

Personally, I have an impression of what may have been the motivation for Lewis’ decision to adopt a religion. The primary need must have been a social one – this seems inevitable. More interesting are the putative secondary needs that religion may have offered Lewis. Clues to this are offered in a few\u00a0left-field\u00a0comments found throughout\u00a0Mere Christianity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0For the record, Lewis was in his 40’s during\u00a0WWII, but had volunteered and fought in\u00a0WWI. Some of you might have already made the connection between this period – namely WWII – and the setting for the children in the\u00a0first published Narnia novel<\/a>; the children are sent out of London to country-side the escape the Nazi bombing of London. Although the Narnia books were written between 1949-1954, it seems possible that Lewis’\u00a0theological\u00a0musings during WWII included forming an idea for the theological underpinnings of the Narnia novels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial notes: This Book Review was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2 with the Summary section missing. It was last updated on 03\/05\/2011. C.S. Lewis\u00a0is the British\u00a0author\u00a0best known for writing the\u00a0Narnia\u00a0series of books, but he also authored a number of books that discussed his religious beliefs, including this one –\u00a0Mere Christianity. The book\u00a0evolved\u00a0out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,198,204,190],"tags":[],"metadata":[101,158],"class_list":["post-1776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-book-review","category-everything2","category-religion","metadata-editor_notes","metadata-shai_footnotes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2390,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/05\/03\/whatever-happened-to-the-man-of-tomorrow-br-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1776,"position":0},"title":"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (BR)","author":"Pala","date":"May 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This Book Review was found as a 'draft' entry in Everything2. It was last updated on 03\/05\/2011. Away in the big city, people still sometimes glance up hopefully from the sidewalks, glimpsing a distant speck in the sky... but no: it's only a bird, only a plane. Superman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":97,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/01\/24\/masks-tng\/","url_meta":{"origin":1776,"position":1},"title":"Masks (TNG)","author":"pastfarpoint","date":"January 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Masks, by John Vornholt, is the seventh of the numbered TNG novels. 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Please\u00a0excuse\u00a0me. 1.\u00a0T.S. Eliot\u00a0wrote\u00a0that\u00a0April is the cruellest month\u00a0because it reminds us of renewal; once,\u00a0long ago, a\u00a0woman\u00a0asked the gods for immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth. She begs to die and the renewal of spring in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1734,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/12\/01\/decoding-the-heavens-br-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1776,"position":3},"title":"Decoding the Heavens (BR)","author":"Pala","date":"December 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This is the first of two posts (bost written on the same day) dedicated to the Antikythera mechanism. Decoding the Heavens\u00a0is a non-fiction book by\u00a0Jo Marchant\u00a0about the\u00a0Antikythera mechanism, and was published in 2008. For the actual focus of the book,\u00a0see the relevant node, although suffice to remind everyone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1732,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/12\/01\/all-the-pretty-horses-br-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1776,"position":4},"title":"All the Pretty Horses (BR)","author":"Pala","date":"December 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them. All his reverence and all his fondness and all the leanings of his life were for the ardenthearted and they would always be so and never be otherwise.\u00a0Ch.I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1716,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/11\/22\/dawkins-god-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1776,"position":5},"title":"Dawkins’ God","author":"Pala","date":"November 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Dawkin's God\u00a0is a non-fiction book by\u00a0Alister McGrath\u00a0published in\u00a02004. It is a response to\u00a0Dawkin's\u00a0views, especially as they\u00a0regard religion. The book is subtitled\u00a0Genes,\u00a0Memes, and\u00a0the Meaning of Life. Comments: The most\u00a0intelligible\u00a0interpretation\u00a0of McGrath's take on Dawkins is that Dawkins is attacking academic-religion and not pop-religion. The reason for making this distinction is that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/padotI-sE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=1776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}