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One Minute Book Review: C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity: A Biography

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This last weekend I finished C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity: A Biography. Just to be clear, this isn’t a biography of C.S. Lewis, it’s a biography of a book he wrote.

George Marsden recounts the genesis of what is probably Lewis’ most famous Christian apologetics book, Mere Christianity. He traces how Lewis’ talks to the RAF transitioned into radio addresses on the BBC and these were converted into three separate books which were ultimately collected together under the single title “Mere Christianity”. 

It was interesting to hear the criticisms which were offered at the time against both Lewis and his arguments by skeptics, as well as the reception of his work over time among different Christian denominations. 

If you like learning about C.S. Lewis, but want to read something a little different from the usual popular biographies, I’d thoroughly recommend this book!

The Dawah Dilemma

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The Qur’an speaks about Allah helping the followers of Jesus and keeping them “uppermost”, but this presents a dilemma since, historically, this has to refer to Trinitarian Christians… which is a very strange thing for Allah to support. If it wasn’t Trinitarian Christians, who exactly has remained “uppermost” since the time of Christ?

O believers! Stand up for Allah, as Jesus, son of Mary, asked the disciples, “Who will stand up with me for Allah?” The disciples replied, “We will stand up for Allah.” Then a group from the Children of Israel believed while another disbelieved. We then supported the believers against their enemies, so they prevailed. – 61:14

˹Remember˺ when Allah said, “O Jesus! I will take you and raise you up to Myself. I will deliver you from those who disbelieve, and elevate your followers above the disbelievers until the Day of Judgment. Then to Me you will ˹all˺ return, and I will settle all your disputes. – 3:55

Why wouldn’t you want this in your Bible?

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I originally had the following post scheduled for this weekend, but since yesterday Joe posted an article entitled Defending the Deuterocanon Book by Book (Part 1), I thought I’d post it a little earlier…

In case you were unaware, Catholic Bibles are bigger than Protestant Bibles. Protestant Bibles are lacking the following books:

Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, …
…as well as three chapters of Daniel (3:24-90; 13; 14) and six chapters of Esther (10:14-16:14)

Occasionally I run across a non-Catholic who insists that this Deuterocanonical books (referred to as the “apocrypha” by Protestants) should not be part of the Bible. I don’t usually get too much into the apologetic arguments in favour of the inclusion of the Deuterocanon, although they certainly do exist. Instead, I just invite the person simply to read them! I usually suggest that they start with Wisdom, Sirach and Tobit as they’re my favourites.

Before they do that though, I always invite them to start by the following extract from Wisdom, to which I’ve added a series of underlined New Testament hyperlinks. Does any of this sound strangely familiar?

…the ungodly by their words and deeds summoned death… they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves…

“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training. He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange. We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father.

Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life; for if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected.” Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them, and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls…”

Wisdom 1:16, 2:1, 12–22 
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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 13 (“The inevitable”)

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paradise

The last couple of chapters have covered new and interesting material, focussing on the Biblical characters such Moses and the Blessed Mother. Today, however, we return to the Qur’an’s sweet spot: judgment, Heaven and Hell.

Surah 56 – “The inevitable” (Al-Waqia)
A portrait of the Resurrection is painted, a day when “the earth is shaken” and “mountains are broken down”. We are told that mankind will become “[of] three types”:

  1. The Companions of the right who go to Paradise
  2. The Companions of the left who go to the Fire
  3. The Forerunners who go to Paradise

I’m not exactly sure what makes “The Forerunners” distinct from “The Companions of the right”.

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TOT: Joyful Discernment

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TOT-ND

On the 1st February, a new Theology On Tap series was kicked off at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Paradise Hills. Sister Peter Marie and Sister Elizabeth Marie from the Nashville Dominicans gave a talk on “Joyful Discernment”. They were accompanied by some of their Dominican brothers, Fr. Stephen Maria Lopez and Fr. James Moore, who joined them for the Q&A session.

If you would like to hear audio from other San Diego “Theology On Tap” sessions, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play or manually via the RSS feed.

“Joyful Discernment” (Download)

“Q&A” (Download)

Questions asked during the Q&A were:

•  How long have you been a teacher? What has been your favourite subject to teach?

• What is “sanctifying grace”?

• I felt called to a ministry and that’s now complete. I’m not currently feeling called to anything in particular. Should I wait or should I actively be looking?

• Have you ever experienced synchronicities in your life which you felt were of God?

• Is it selfish to ask God for clarity in your vocation?

• Is it free will if God already knows what I’m going to choose?

Catholic Dating: Occam’s Razor

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Since beginning this series a couple of weeks ago, I have received a lot of positive feedback. This has come almost exclusively from the ladies. Well, let’s see how long that lasts… 😉

So far in my response to the question “Why doesn’t that nice Catholic boy ask me out?”, I have omitted a rather obvious possible answer: he doesn’t want to.

Occam’s Razor states, broadly speaking, that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. So, if a gentleman doesn’t ask out a lady, the simplest explanation is that he’s not sufficiently motivated to do so. It’s tough, I know, but it’s a legitimate explanation.

On the whole, when someone wants something, he seeks it out. If he doesn’t, then the chances are that he doesn’t really want it enough. So, in general, if a guy really wants to ask a girl out, he will. If he doesn’t, then he won’t.

Friendship to Romance?

Why am I saying this and running the risk of offending my female readers?

I’m bringing this up because in the past when I’ve heard the fairer sex complain about a guy’s lack of romantic advances, I’ve sometimes felt that they were willing to accept any explanation other than the simplest answer. These lamentations have sometimes turned into complicated defenses for a guy’s apparent lack of romantic attention. Could it just be that he didn’t want to be more than a platonic friend?

He's Just Not That Into You

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