C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity: A Biography by George M. Marsden
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Cutting to the chase:
What I liked about the book:
I learned about the early years when Lewis was asked to create a series of talks for the BBC during WWII. I think Marsden does very well describing how the book came about. I also found his list of yay and nay-sayers to be interesting.
What I did not like:
After a while it feels as though the nay sayers get way too much credit and too much attention devoted to the sneering detraction of Lewis and all of his work, including Mere Christianity.
What I found most interesting as well as deplorable was that none of his detractors argued a single point Lewis made. Instead they settled for making unsubstantiated assertions that could be summed up as:
” C.S. Lewis is not a theologian. He is not a sophisticated thinker as we, the theologians, are. Therefore we are scornful of anything he has to say. He wants to drive the church back into the middle ages with his silly notions of Biblical inerrancy, the divinity of Jesus and all the other nonsense that requires one to take Scripture seriously. 20th century Christianity has moved way beyond that, no wonder it’s only backwards fundamentalists in America that read him and so forth…”
What they don’t seem to recognize is that their ilk is as old as the gospel. The writers of the Bible, Paul, James, John and Peter were already dealing with the same doubts and denials that today’s “sophisticated” aka liberal theologian believes.
Hence:
I liked the first half and not so much the rest.
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Good review. Thanks
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Thank you Ashok. I appreciate it. Hope your family and country are doing well during these hard times.
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Yes thank you Sharon. Things have settled down and more people are vaccinated now. Hope alls well in your place too
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i thought his 3 scifi books were pretty good… i never knew that they had any relation to Christianity, tho…
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I love his trilogy. Which one is your favorite. I think I like the first best.
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quite a long time ago, but i’,m fairly sure i liked the first one also… altho the one on Venus (?) with him going thru all those tunnels (?) was pretty intriguing…
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The one on Venus taught me a profound life lesson. Whatever trial is happening it can not go on forever. It has to stop and sometimes you have to make it stop yourself (when the scientist can’t remember his name fought the demon possessed man).
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He should read The Screwtape Letters! I wonder what he would think of them. 😳
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lol, Carol… i think i made a stab at it once but it didn’t appeal for some reason. maybe too far-fetched?
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I didn’t mean you, Mudpuddle!
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Dear Sharon I read Mere Christianity many years ago. It would be interesting to read George Marsden’s biography of C.S. Lewis. Have you ever seen the movie “Shadowlands” with Anthony Hopkins playing CS Lewis. It tells about his wife Joy and he met and their life together. It will make you laugh and cry.
To answer your question regarding Alexander Campbell’s post – yes I belong to the Christian Church. In fact I was raised in a country church he visited on his circuit. We have musical instruments in our service although there are sister churches in our area that do not. There are other areas of differences as well but in the essentials the love of Jesus always puts those in perspective for me. Hope you have a blessed day. Hugs!
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HI Debbie! That’s interesting. My husband’s aunt and uncle belong to the Christian Church that has instruments as well. I must say the churches that don’t use instruments have great harmony.
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Hi Carol were you talking of Mudpuddle? Mudpuddle, what did you find far fetched about the Screwtape Letters? That a metaphysical realm might exist? Or that there are evil spirits concerned with destroying us? It’s hard to be cognizant of things that are invisible, I admit. It becomes a matter of faith in things unseen.
Hope all is well with you, my friends!
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No!! I meant the author. 🙁
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Thank, you Ashok. We’ve got a spike of CoVid cases here. My husband got it and I got really sick, but all is well now.
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No one is blinder than he who will not see.
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Hi Sandy. That is exactly it. People are willingly blind and deaf, otherwise they would receive understanding from Christ.
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