Mere Christianity

In the preface, Lewis describes what he was trying to accomplish in writing this book. He wanted to give the basis of Christianity and he wanted it to not resemble any particular denomination, he just wanted 'mere' Christianity. He says that Christianity is like a hall with many rooms and the rooms being the denominations. "If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in." In order to do this he had to say nothing about all aspects that were controversial among different denominations. In order to do this Lewis had to go step by step through Christianity. He does a good job of proving one point first before he builds on it and moves on. Also, I liked that he has the entire second chapter for answering questions that people had about his first chapter.

In the first chapter, Lewis explains what the law of human nature is and how it is seen in everyone. There are moral standards that we have built into us and when we break one we try to make up excuses for why it was not our fault or why there was an exception to the rule. Lewis uses the example of taking someones seat. If someone sits down somewhere first and then gets up and you take their seat, you both know that it should not be taken. You will try to justify it though by saying that he left or some other excuse. You never try to convince the other person that taking their seat isn't wrong because you know it is. People say that the law of human nature is just instincts and not a law of what is right and wrong. The example of someone drowning can be used to explain this. If someone is drowning you have the instinct to help them but also the instinct of self-preservation. Saving yourself would likely be the stronger instinct so if there is no moral law to guide you then you would not save them. The fact that many times people do go against their stronger instincts shows that there is a moral law. I think these chapters are good for us to read because it is always helpful to get a logical and simple proof of something we believe in.