British Literature

Mere Christianity  is written by C.S. Lewis in the year 1952. Clive Staples Lewis was born in England in 1898. He became one of the most influential 20th century Christian writers and people of his time. He grew up in a religious household, but later drifted from the faith. It was not until 1930 that he regained his religous beliefs, and he recommited his life to Jesus. Lewis wrote abot 21 books, in addition spoke on many radio stations. Lewis actually spoke on the BBC network countless times, attempting to lift morals of the distraught people during WW2, and discuss the Christain faith. All of these talks were later compiled and composed into the book Mere Christianity, which is considered a work of Christian literature. 

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Lewis attempts to explain and expand on the ideas of the Christian faith in his book, Mere Christianity. He tries to answer questions both Christian and non-Christians have posed, and shine a light on different controversial topics. He tries to explain many notions, such as: desire, imagination, Objective values vs Relativism, myth, immorality, and comprehensiveness. Lewis attemps to explain the faith in a very thougthful way, and tries to pull everyone in. 

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Four of the majors themes are as follows: 

1. Morality, Religion, and Reason - "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. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up" (Lewis 41-42).

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2. Good, Evil, and Free Will - "Badness cannot succeed even in being bad in the same way in which goodness is good. Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled" (Lewis 44). 

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3. Christianity and Practice - "Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him" (Lewis 131). 

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4. Faith, Works, and Salvation - "What matters is the nature of the change in itself, not how we feel while it is happening. It is the change from being confident about our own efforts to the state in which we despair of doing anything for ourselves and leave it to God" (Lewis 146).

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