A clear and deeply informed account of a religious work that seems to have no expiration date."— Kirkus McGrath, Alister (2013). C. S. Lewis: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet. Tyndale House Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4143-3935-1. Heaven forbid, some people might realize the inheritance and gift they could receive and actually choose to find out about God by taking an Alpha course or reading that "Bible" thing ;)

van Biema, David (10 July 2006). "Reconciling God and Science". Time. Vol.168, no.3. pp.46–48 . Retrieved 20 August 2022. Duncan, Graham A. (2020). "CS Lewis's 'Mere Christianity,' by G. M. Marsden". Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae. 46 (2): 1–2. doi: 10.25159/2412-4265/5564. eISSN 1017-0499. ISSN 2412-4265. There were just some wonderful things that really shaped my expectations of what the Christian life is … It felt like it was giving me just lots of light-bulb moments of clarity and understanding of aspects of my faith that were difficult to put into words — but Lewis was really good at doing that, using really concrete and practical and beautiful analogies that added a lot of meaning to my understanding.I write to ask whether you would be willing to help us in our work of religious broadcasting ... The microphone is a limiting, and rather irritating, instrument, but the quality of thinking and depth of conviction which I find in your book ought sure to be shared with a great many other people. [1]

Mere Christianity is a popular, not an academic, book, which is not directed towards a readership of academic theologians or philosophers. It is simply unfair to expect Lewis to engage here with detailed philosophical debates, when these would clearly turn his brisk, highly readable book into a quagmire of fine philosophical distinctions. Mere Christianity is an informal handshake to begin a more formal acquaintance and conversation." The next third of the book explores the ethics resulting from Christian belief. He cites the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. After touching on these, he goes into the three theological virtues: hope, faith, and charity. Lewis also explains morality as being composed of three layers: relationships between man and man, the motivations and attitudes of the man himself, and contrasting worldviews.It is no wonder that Christians should revere a miracle-working carpenter: I think one must be the son of a god to build an attic before the rest of the house. Ultimately, Lewis contends that the goal of Christianity is for the person, with Christ’s help, to expand “beyond personality,” to reach toward the level of existence enjoyed by God. This is achieved by allowing the Holy Spirit to guide the person’s actions and by using Christ as model and mediator. Christian Themes The book is full of good humor and amiable narrative, but Lewis doesn't compromise or sugar-coat the cornerstones of the Christian faith. It is what it is, and by the time one is through with the book, whether he decides it is something he wants to make the central part of his life or not, there is no question as to what is actually is. The lines of choice are quite cleanly cut, and there's no room left to meander in the middle without a good deal of trying to convince oneself that he/she didn't just read what he thinks he did.

Interestingly, while most Christian concepts of the Trinity emphasize the relationship of love, Lewis seems to emphasize a relationship of power or being. The Father shares power and wisdom with the Son through the Holy Spirit. The Christian, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the mediation of Christ, can participate in the Father’s power and wisdom through prayer. Morality is in that sense a means of self-discipline to handle God’s power properly. Surely we would, us avuncular old shitbags in cardigans puffing on our pipes and living in the real world as we do. What caused the switch? By studying the faith (as an effort to become better at atheism) he found religion. A strange, roundabout way to go by things but nonetheless thoroughly interesting. The following January and February, Lewis gave the next set of talks on what would become “What Christians Believe”. The talks remained popular and because of the success of the newly released The Screwtape Letters, Lewis’s publisher was happy to publish the broadcast talks as books that year. Every time Lewis embarked on a thought, it would grow and blossom in intriguing ways until he would simply bunch together the whole bundle, tie it with a bow, label it 'god's handiwork' with a reverent nod, and move on, never reaching an insight. It made me think the allegory in Onan has been widely misread.

Hinten, Marvin D. (2007). "The World of Narnia: Medieval: Magic and Morality". In Edwards, Bruce L. (ed.). C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy. Vol.2: Fantasist, Mythmaker, and Poet. Praeger Perspectives. pp.71–92. ISBN 978-0-275-99116-6. the reason we do not execute witches is that we do not believe there are such things. If we did… surely we would all agree that if anyone deserved the death penalty, then these filthy quislings did?” (p.24) One of the most striking features of Mere Christianity is its clarity of language — especially its effective uses of imagination, metaphor, and analogy. Sometimes people assume that Lewis was primarily a rationalistic apologist, and they dismiss him without much attention or even say that such rationality is out-of-date in the twenty-first century. But as many commentators have pointed out, while there are some conspicuous arguments in Mere Christianity, Lewis appeals more essentially to the imagination. As a literary person and writer, he understood reality through analogies and images. So, the Lewis of Narnia and his other imaginative works is also the Lewis of Mere Christianity. Kilby, Clyde S. The Christian World of C. S. Lewis. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1964. Kilby was one of the pioneers of Lewis scholarship. Includes a chapter on each of Lewis’s major fictional and apologetic works, including Mere Christianity. I like Lewis, both his tone and his mind. I wanted to find something compelling in him. I wanted to find something that tied his observations together. I sense Lewis also wanted to find something he could attach himself to. After being alone and afraid in a grand world ripped by World Wars, who wouldn't feel a desperate need for meaning?

The fourth set of talks did not take place until 1944. The script drafts had a much wider scope originally, and Lewis prepared for 10-minute talks when the BBC was giving him 15. The timing of these talks was important and strictly adhered to because due to technology and WWII, Germany would broadcast propaganda through the English-spoken " Lord Hawhaw" during any dead air. Due to the timing of the fourth set of talks (10:20pm), Lewis said he couldn't do them all live and would have to record some. One of the strongest habits of thought both in Lewis’s day and in our own is to think that newer understandings of the most basic aspects of life and reality are better than older understandings. Lewis, as a student of history, recognized that many of the “latest ideas” of one’s own day will look quaint to future generations. When Lewis himself was on his journey to becoming a Christian, he came to realize that there was good reason to put one’s trust in ideas that had lasted a long time, rather than in the latest fads that would come and go. C.S. Lewis (born November 29, 1898, Belfast, Ireland [now in Northern Ireland]—died November 22, 1963, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England) Irish-born scholar, novelist, and author of about 40 books, many of them on Christian apologetics, including The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity. His works of greatest lasting fame may be The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of seven children’s books that have become classics of fantasy literature. They are being asked to give up their very “self” as a sovereign entity, and to experience Christ living in them. “To become new men means losing what we now call ‘ourselves.’ Out of our selves, into Christ, we must go” (224). Elsewhere he writes, “This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. . . . The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs” (199). We are being made into creatures who can obey the command, “Be ye perfect” (198). We are to be transformed “from being creatures of God to being Sons of God” (220). That is possible only by being “in Christ,” who is the first instance of this new humanity. So, there must be “a real giving up of the self” (226). Lewis’s lifelong quest for timeless truths led him not only to emphasize core Christian doctrines, but also to be able to reach wide audiences. As a student of the history of literature, he was alert to finding common traits of human nature, revealed in many guises in differing times and places. So when he was asked to speak on the BBC to quite literally every sort of person in England, he knew where to start — with common human experience.As an aside, I personally did not become a Christian because of the 'scientific facts,' although I did assure myself that I wasn't committing intellectual suicide by doing so. I used to be very fond of evolution. If you want this same validation, you can either talk to a Christian who knows the facts (as I did), or read something like what Lewis has presented. Simple.