Exploring C.S. Lewis’ Wisdom in Mere Christianity

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis records a series of radio broadcasts. These broadcasts, now transcribed into a single volume, contain some of the most powerful apologetic elements of the Christian faith. Get this work, and 29 others, when you pick up the C.S. Lewis Collection.

The four divisions

Mere Christianity is broken into four sections:

• Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe
• What Christians Believe
• Christian Behaviour
• Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity

What Christians believe

In the segment “What Christians Believe,” Lewis introduces one of the best-known apologetic arguments—that Jesus cannot simply be a good moral teacher:

One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic.

A moral man would not make such a claim unless it was true, and no simple human can truly forgive the sins of the world. Now, there remain two options:

This man we are talking about either was (and is) just what He said or else a lunatic, or something worse. Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. God has landed on this enemy-occupied world in human form.

Few things exhibit Lewis’ sharp intellect better than his logical paradigms. His clear, rational thinking has led to the conversion and assurance of many, yet he maintained a deep humility throughout his life.

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