Notes for Mere Christianity or The Case for Christianity


C. S. Lewis died in 1963, but his books continue to sell in the millions and to have an important influence on their readers. People as diverse as one-time Watergate coconspirator Charles Colson and former Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver have given Lewis's books partial credit for their return to Christianity. A few years ago, Time magazine's "Religion section proclaimed that "C. S. Lewis goes marching on." . . . Recently, Lewis was cited as "this century's most-read apologist for God" in a Time article on renewed interest in philosophical proofs for God's existence.
Richard L. Purtill, C. S. Lewis's Case for Christianity, San Francisco: Harper & Rowe, 1981, p. 1.

To my knowledge there is no dissenting opinion about Lewis's talent as a broadcaster. Tablet writer Robert Speaight reacts to Lewis-on-the-air: 'Mr. Lewis is that rare being--a born broadcaster; born to the manner as well as to the matter. He neither button holes you nor bombards you; there is no false intimacy and no false eloquence. He approaches you directly, as a rational person only to be persuaded by reason. He is confident and yet humble in his possession and propagation of truth.'
Carolyn Keefe, "On the Air," C. S. Lewis: Speaker & Teacher, ed. Carolyn Keefe, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1971, pp. 154-55.

The difference between [Lewis's overtly Christian books] and most others [of the same kind written by other people] is resident in Lewis's ability to select the basic issues from the corpus of their vast theological history and to present them in apt analogies, homely illustrations, clear insight, and classically simple diction. His method is proof that a sanctified imagination is a legitimate tool for any Christian apologist.
Clyde Kilby, The Christian World of C. S. Lewis, Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964, p. 172

Lewis's development of the Moral Argument for the existence of God is found in Book I of Mere Christianity. Not only is this Lewis's most evangelical book; it is also the clearest example of the style that made him famous. Here is the popularizer of Christianity at work: the unpretentious, no-nonsense Everyman's theologian. The tone is informal, the manner relaxed, the apporoach chatty. The most momentous questions are tackled in a winningly let's-see-if-we-can-make-sense-of-this fasion.
John Beversluis, C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985, 32.

Class Analysis of chapters 1-5 in The Case for Christianity

Chapter I
    If we were to title this chapter, we would call it "An Introduction to Natural Law."
    The major divisions of this chapter are the following:
    • human beings think they ought to behave in a certain way
    • human beings do not behave that way
    Lewis uses the following analogies and examples in this chapter:
    • p. 3--people always accuse others and justify themselves
    • p. 5--treaties based on common law
    • p. 4--people who don't know the law are like someone who is color blind
    • p. 4--law is like rules in football
    • pp. 4-5--how do you judge nations (Nazis) without Natural Law?
    • p. 5--imagine a world in which moral codes were radically different
    • p. 5--number of wives, but wives nonetheless
Chapter II
    If we were to title this chapter, we would call it " The Rule of Decent Behaviour."
    The major divisions of this chapter are the following:
    • The moral law
      • desires
      • instincts
      • impulses
    • The law of human nature
      • mathematical comparisons
      • moral ideas
      • real morality--what we really do
    • The rule of decent behaviour
      • moral principles
      • moral advance
    Lewis uses the following analogies and examples in this chapter:
    • p. 8--moral law is the tune, instincts are the keys (of piano)
    • p. 9--choosing the unsafe instinct
    • p. 12--example of executing witches (don't believe they exist)
    • p. 13--humane man and mouse traps
Chapter III
    If we were to title this chapter, we would call it "Law of Decent Behaviour: Sticks and Stones may break my bones but the law of human nature will never change me."
    The major divisions of this chapter are the following:
    • Review of The Law of Human Nature
    • The law of actual nature--the law of gravitation (how they differ)
    Lewis uses the following analogies and examples in this chapter:
    • p. 14--stones and gravitation (must obey--laws are really facts)
    • pp. 14-15--humans and the law of human nature; law of nature tells you what humans ought to do and don't
    • p. 15--electrons and molecules (the whole story), but human law is not the whole story
    • p. 15--the train seat (if someone slides in, I get upset)
    • p. 15--war, sometimes traitors are useful, but they are vermin
    • p. 16--football, what is the point of playing football (score goals) the point of football is football
Chapter IV
    If we were to title this chapter, we would call it "Life, the Universe and Everything."
    The major divisions of this chapter are the following:
    • Two views on the universe's origin
      • materialism
      • religious
    • Observation
      • scientific observation (just the facts)
      • observing man from the outside
      • observing man from the inside
    • Someone's running the show
    Lewis uses the following analogies and examples in this chapter:
    • p. 20--comparison of study of cabbages and selves
    • p. 21--analogy of mailman and letter (messages to us)
    • p. 22--comparison of stone obeying gravity and humans having the option of obeying the law of nature
    • p. 23--light switch and life force theory (turn on and off--convenient theory)
Chapter V
    If we were to title this chapter, we would call it "The Law of Moral Progression."
    The major divisions of this chapter are the following:
    • Progression: getting to where you want to be
    • Moral law: who or what is behind moral law
    • Finding either comfort or truth
    Lewis uses the following analogies and examples in this chapter:
    • p. 24--turning the clock back
    • p. 24--going back is the quickest way on (analogy of the road)
    • p. 25--universe is beautiful and dangerous place (watered-down religion)
    • --no good asking the multiplication table to let you off
    • p. 26--either we there is absolute goodness in the universe, or else we are in a hopeless situation
    • p. 28--truth and soft soap (easy religion)