{"id":65030,"date":"2017-08-08T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T16:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=65030"},"modified":"2017-09-12T19:32:11","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T02:32:11","slug":"mere-christianity-book-2-summary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2017\/08\/08\/mere-christianity-book-2-summary\/","title":{"rendered":"Mere Christianity – Book II (Summary)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BookYou can look at my\u00a0more detailed notes<\/a>, but this is an overview of the content of Book II of “Mere Christianity”…<\/p>\n

Chapter 1 – “Rival Conceptions of God”<\/h2>\n

Quotations<\/h3>\n

Truth in other religions<\/strong><\/h4>\n

If you are Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth…[However,] as in arithmetic \u2013 there is only one right answer to a sum\u2026but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others<\/span><\/p>\n

Pantheism<\/h4>\n

\u2026these people think that long before you got anywhere near the divine point of view the distinction [between good and evil] would have disappeared altogether\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n

Pantheists usually believe that God, so to speak, animates the universe as you animate your body: that the universe almost\u00a0is\u00a0God, so that if it did not exist He would not exist either, and anything you find in the universe is a part of God…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you do not take the distinction between good an bad very seriously, then it is easy to say that anything you find in this world is a part of God<\/span><\/p>\n

Non-Pantheists<\/h4>\n

\u2026[these people believe in] a God who takes sides, who loves love and hates hatred, who wants us to behave in one way and not in another\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026God invented and made the universe \u2013 like a man making a picture or composing a tune. A painter is not a picture, and he does not die if his picture is destroyed<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026if\u00a0you think some things really bad, and God really good, then you cannot talk like that. You must believe that God is separate from the world and that some of the things we see in it are contrary to His will\u2026a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on putting them right again<\/span><\/p>\n

Evil and God<\/h4>\n

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of\u00a0just and\u00a0unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line\u2026I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that then my argument against God collapsed too \u2013 for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies<\/span><\/p>\n

Questions<\/h4>\n

1.\u00a0Why does Jack say that when he became a Christian he adopted the more \u201cliberal\u201d view?<\/p>\n

2. Is it possible to affirm the truth of other religions while still holding to the absolute truth claims of Christianity?<\/p>\n

3. Can you think of any religion completely devoid of ALL truth?<\/p>\n

4. Into what two central conceptions of God does Jack say people hold? Do you think we could divide it up in a different way?<\/p>\n

5. In what way do these conceptions of God and our attitudes towards the Moral Law and the Universe relate to each other?<\/p>\n

6. Why does the very question of asking about evil in the world presuppose the existence of God?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Chapter 2 – “The Invasion”<\/h2>\n

Quotations<\/h3>\n

Christianity-and-water<\/h4>\n

\u2026the view which simply says there is a good God in Heaven and everything is all right \u2013 leaving out all the difficult and terrible doctrines about sin and hell and the devil, and the redemption<\/span><\/p>\n

Real things are complicated<\/h4>\n

\u2026The table I am sitting at looks simple: but ask a scientist to tell you what it is really made of \u2013 all about the atoms and how the light waves rebound from them and hit my eye and what they do to the optic nerve and what it does to my brain\u2026and\u2026you will find that what we call \u2018seeing a table\u2019 lands you in mysteries and complications which you can hardly get to the end of…<\/span><\/p>\n

Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed\u2026.it has just that queer twist about it that real things have…<\/span><\/p>\n

If we ask for something more than simplicity, it is silly then to complain that the something more is not simple<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem of pain<\/h4>\n

What is the problem? A universe that contains much that is obviously bad and apparently meaningless, but containing creatures like ourselves who know that it is bad and meaningless<\/span><\/p>\n

Dualism<\/h4>\n

\u2026there are two equal and independent powers at the back of everything, one of them good and the other bad, and that this universe is the battlefield in which they fight out \u00a0an endless war\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026one of them is actually wrong\u2026\u00a0But the moment you say that, you are putting into the universe a third thing in addition to the two Powers\u2026the Being who made this standard is farther back and higher up than either of them, and He will be the real God<\/span><\/p>\n

Evil’s dependency upon Good<\/h4>\n

\u2026in real life people are cruel for one of two reasons \u2013 either because they are sadists\u2026or else for the sake of something they are going to get out of it\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The badness consists in pursuing [good things] by the wrong method, or in the wrong way, or too much\u2026 Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness\u2026[the \u201cBad Power] cannot supply himself either with good things to desire or with good impulses to pervert. He must be getting both from the Good Power. And if so, then he is not independent…<\/span><\/p>\n

Christianity’ conception of evil<\/h4>\n

To be bad, [the Bad Power] must exist and have intelligence and will. But existence, intelligence and will are in themselves good\u2026.even to be bad he must borrow or seal from his opponent. And do you now begin to see why Christianity has always said that the devil is a fallen angel? \u2026evil is a parasite, not an original thing<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel. \u2026the rightful king has landed\u2026and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going<\/span><\/p>\n

Questions<\/h3>\n

1. What two philosophies does Jack claim are\u00a0\u201ctoo simple\u201d?<\/p>\n

2. Why should we not expect a \u201csimple\u201d religion?<\/p>\n

3. Why is its lack of simplicity actually an argument in favour of Christianity? Have you encountered any other surprising motives for credibility for the Christian faith?<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0How can we explain a \u201cbad\u201d universe which contains creatures like ourselves?<\/p>\n

5. What is dualism? Can you name any religions which are dualistic?<\/p>\n

6. How does dualism naturally point to a greater Being, over and above to the \u201cgood power\u201d and \u201cbad power\u201d?<\/p>\n

8. In what way is evil \u201cnot an original thing\u201d? How does this undermine dualism.<\/p>\n

9. What kind of war does Jack say we are fighting?<\/p>\n

Chapter 3 – “The shocking alternative”<\/h2>\n

Quotations<\/h3>\n

All-powerful or all-good?<\/h4>\n

If it is [in accordance with God\u2019s will], He is a strange God, you will say: and if it is not, how can anything happen contrary to the will of a being with absolute power?<\/span><\/p>\n

Free will<\/h4>\n

You make a thing voluntary and then half the people do not do it. That is not what you willed, but your will has made it possible…<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. \u2026free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having…<\/span><\/p>\n

A cow cannot be very good or very bad; a dog can be both better and worse; a child better and worse still; an ordinary man, still more so; a man of genius, still more so; a superhuman spirit best \u2013 or worst \u2013 of all…<\/span><\/p>\n

Selfishness and unhappiness<\/h4>\n

The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first \u2013 wanting to be the centre \u2013 wanting to be God, in fact. That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race\u2026[to] invent some sort of happiness for themselves\u2026apart from God…<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026out of that hopeless attempt [for happiness apart from God] has come nearly all that we call human history \u2013 money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery \u2013 the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy…<\/span><\/p>\n

A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else\u2026God design the human machine to run on Himself\u2026 God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there\u2026[we] are trying to run it on the wrong juice. That is what Satan has done to us humans.<\/span><\/p>\n

God’s rescue mission<\/h4>\n

\u2026He left us conscience\u2026and all through history there have been people trying (Some of them very hard) to obey it<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026those queer stories scattered all through the heathen religions about a god who dies and comes to life again\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026He selected one particular people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was \u2013 that there was only one of Him and the He cared about right conduct<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus’ claim to divinity<\/h4>\n

Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God\u2026 Among Pantheists\u2026there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world, who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

[He] told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was\u2026 the person chiefly offended in all offenses…<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trilemma<\/h4>\n

Christ says that He is \u2018humble and meek\u2019 and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings<\/span><\/p>\n

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic \u2013 on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg \u2013 or else he would be the Devil of Hell\u2026 Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…<\/span><\/p>\n

You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Questions<\/h3>\n

1.Why does the presence of evil in the world pose a threat to the belief in a omniscient, omnibenevolent\u00a0God?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0In what way does free will go a long way to explaining much of the evil in the world?<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Jack says he can\u2019t imagine a creature which has free will but no possibility of going wrong. Do you think this is a reasonable statement?<\/p>\n

4. Do you find Jack\u2019s argument concerning the illogic of arguing against God comforting at all?<\/p>\n

5. How does Jack explain why the great evil of humanity doesn\u2019t show that God made us\u00a0\u201cout of rotten stuff\u201d?<\/p>\n

6. Why do our attempts to find happiness without God fail?<\/p>\n

7. What are the different ways in which God has started the process of rectification of the human race?<\/p>\n

8. Don\u2019t the\u00a0\u201cgood dreams\u201d\u00a0of dying and rising gods just prove that Christianity is a fabrication?<\/p>\n

9. What evidence is presented for Jesus making divine claims? Why is forgiving the sins incomprehensible if Jesus wasn\u2019t God?<\/p>\n

10. Why does Jack say we can\u2019t just say that Christ was a great moral teacher?<\/p>\n

Chapter 4 – “The Perfect Penitent”<\/h2>\n

Quotations<\/h3>\n

The purpose of Jesus coming<\/h4>\n

\u2026as soon as you look into the New Testament or any other Christian writing you will find they are constantly talking about\u2026His death and His coming to life again. It is obvious that Christians think the chief point of the story lies there<\/span><\/p>\n

Theories of the atonement<\/h4>\n

The central belief is that Christ\u2019s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. Theories as to how it did this are another matter\u2026 Theories about Christ\u2019s death are not Christianity: they are explanations about how it works\u2026 We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself\u2026. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

People at their dinners and felt better long before the theory of vitamins was ever heard of: and if the theory of vitamins is some day abandoned they will go on eating their dinners just the same\u2026 A man can eat his dinner without understanding exactly how food nourishes him. A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Substitionary Atonement<\/h4>\n

\u2026[we are] let off because Christ has volunteered to bear a punishment instead of us… If God was prepared to let us off, why on earth did He not do so? And what possible point could there be in punishing an innocent person instead?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026there is plenty of point in a person who has some assets paying it on behalf of someone who has not\u2026.it is a matter of common experience that, when one person has got himself into a hole, the trouble of getting him out usually falls on a kind friend<\/span><\/p>\n

Rebellion and Repentance<\/h4>\n

He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself\u2026fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms<\/span><\/p>\n

This process of surrender \u2013 this movement full speed astern \u2013 is what Christians call repentance\u2026 It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousand of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death…<\/span><\/p>\n

The Repentance Dilemma<\/h4>\n

Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person \u2013 and he would not need it.<\/span><\/p>\n

We mean God putting into us a bit of Himself, so to speak. He lends us a little of His reasoning powers and that is how we think: He puts a little of His love into us and that is how we love one another\u2026 We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it<\/span><\/p>\n

What the incarnation makes possible<\/h4>\n

\u2026we now need God\u2019s help in order to do something which God, in His own nature never does at all \u2013 to surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die. Nothing in God\u2019s nature corresponds to this process at all\u2026 God can share only what He has: this thing in His own nature, He has not<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026supposing God became a man \u2013 suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God\u2019s nature in one person \u2013 then that person could help us. He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man; and He could do it perfectly because He was God. You and I can go through this process only if God does it in us; but God can do it only if He becomes man.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rejecting the gift<\/h4>\n

If [a child] rejected [the adult] because \u2018it\u2019s easy for grown-ups\u2019 and waited to learn writing from another child who could not write itself (and so had no \u2018unfair\u2019 advantage), it would not get on very quickly<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026a man who still has one foot on the bank may give me a hand which saves my life\u2026That advantage \u2013 call it \u2018unfair\u2019 if you like \u2013 is the only reason why he can be of any use to me. To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?<\/span><\/p>\n

Questions<\/h3>\n

1.What is the difference between the Christian belief about Christ\u2019s atonement and the theories surrounding it?<\/p>\n

2. How might we understand substitutionary atonement in terms of a criminal and also as a debtor?<\/p>\n

3. How does Jack explain the atonement in terms of the \u201cthe perfect penitent\u201d?<\/p>\n

4. How does Jack respond to those who say that Jesus\u2019 sufferings, since He was God, would have been easy?<\/p>\n

Chapter 5 – “We have cause to be uneasy”<\/h2>\n

Quotations<\/h3>\n

A new kind of life<\/h4>\n

People often ask when the next step in evolution \u2013 the step to something beyond man \u2013 will happen. But in the Christian view, it has happened already. In Christ a new kind of man appeared: and the new kind of life which began in Him is to be put into us<\/span><\/p>\n

We derived [our old life] from others\u2026without our consent \u2013 and by a \u00a0very curious process, involving pleasure, pain, and danger… We must be prepared for it being odd too. He did not consult us when He invented sex: He has not consulted us either when He invented this<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting the new life<\/h4>\n

I am not saying there may not be special cases\u2026 [However], if you are trying in a few minutes to tell a man how to get to Edinburgh you will tell him the trains: he can, it is true, get there by boat or by a plane, but you will hardly bring that in<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyone who professes to teach you Christian doctrine will, in fact, tell you to use all three\u2026 Do not think I am setting up [these]\u2026 as things that will do instead of your own attempts to copy Christ<\/span><\/p>\n

Belief from authority<\/h4>\n

Do not be scared by the word authority. Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think trustworthy…\u00a0I believe there is such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so…<\/span><\/p>\n

…the Solar System, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n

Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Armada\u2026 We believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them.<\/span><\/p>\n

A man who jibbed at authority\u00a0in other things as some people do in religion would have to be content to know nothing all his life<\/span><\/p>\n

Protecting the New Life<\/h4>\n

Your natural life is derived from your parents; that does not mean it will stay there if you do nothing about it\u2026. You have to feed it and look after it: but always remember you are not making it, you are only keeping up a life you got from someone else\u2026 even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam \u2013 he is only nourishing or protecting a life he could never have acquired by his own efforts<\/span><\/p>\n

A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, abut a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again\u2026 because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (tin some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bodily Nature<\/h4>\n

\u2026the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion\u2026 There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God.. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it<\/span><\/p>\n

Those who have not heard<\/h4>\n

\u2026God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026if you are worried about the people outside, the most unreasonable thing you can do is remain outside yourself\u2026 If you want to help those outside you must add your own little cell to the body of Christ who alone can help them<\/span><\/p>\n

God’s Delay<\/h4>\n

Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and\u00a0then\u00a0announced he was on our side<\/span><\/p>\n

Questions<\/h3>\n

1. Jack describes salvation in terms of a new life. Can you think of Scripture passages where this motif is taken up?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0How does Jack contrast the old life and the new life, particularly with regards to its strangeness and its mode of reception?<\/p>\n

3. What are the primary ways in which Jack says the new life are communicated? On what basis? Do you agree with all these? Is this an exhaustive list? What other ways do you think there are?<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0How does Jack feel about believing something based on authority?<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0What light is shed on the Christian experience by understanding salvation in bodily terms?<\/p>\n

6. How does Jack respond to those who complain about the exclusiveness of Christianity?<\/p>\n

7. How does Jack reply to those who complain about God\u2019s subtle, elusive action and who would much prefer he \u201cinvade in force\u201d?<\/p>\n

Resources<\/h2>\n

These are some of the resources I consulted:\u00a0CS Lewis Institute Questions<\/a>,\u00a0CS Lewis.Org Study Questions<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Mere Christianity Study Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I also listened to the\u00a0Mere Christianity podcast<\/a>\u00a0where a group of evangelical Christians discuss the book in quite some detail. I didn’t always agree with everything they said, but it was certainly thought-provoking and made a five-hour round-trip to LA much more enjoyable \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can look at my\u00a0more detailed notes, but this is an overview of the content of Book II of “Mere Christianity”… Chapter 1 – “Rival Conceptions of God” Quotations Truth in other religions If you are Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[218,2969,4365,4371],"class_list":["post-65030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","tag-cs-lewis","tag-featured","tag-mere-christianity","tag-mere-christianity-study"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Clive.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65030"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65250,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65030\/revisions\/65250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}