My Little Attempt to Promote C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity



C.S. Lewis, my hero



Reading C.S Lewis’s Mere Christianity is like drinking a hot coffee during the rainy day. His words are very persuasive and every line has invincible strings that turn your heart into a joyful soul, singing ‘Amen. Amen. Amen’. I find myself always says: “Ah ha! I understand it clearly now!” He brings sparks into old truths and polished it until you almost can’t identify is this a new one or an old ideas. He doesn’t add to it nor reduce its power; but faithfully he maintains its standards up to the limits. I almost tempted to underline every gems of wisdom in this book, but I restraint myself from doing it. If I did, my book might turn into a drawing book – I’m not sure I want to treat it that way.

 Indeed, if you’re a C.S. Lewis’ kind of thinker who appreciate logic, mystery and imaginations all together, you might as well want to read his other non-fiction book such as this one (and ‘The Screwtape Letters’, ‘The Great Divorce’, ‘The problem of Pain’, ‘Miracles’, ‘The Grief Observed’ etc.; beside fiction books such as ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ etc.)

Let me quote some of his wits from his book Mere Christianity, a taste and see either you're interested to read him or not;

“If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man’s outward actions – if he continues to be just as snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was before – then I think we must suspect that his ‘conversion’ was largely imaginary; and after one’s original conversion, every time one thinks one has made an advance, that is the test to apply. Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in ‘religion’ mean nothing unless they make our actual behavior better; just as in an illness ‘feeling better’ is not much good if the thermometer shows that your temperature is still going up, in that sense the outer world is quite right to judge Christianity by its results.

Christ told us to judge by results. A tree is known by its fruit; or, as we say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. When we Christians behave badly, or fail to behave well, we are making Christianity unbelievable to the outside world. The war-time posters told us that Careless Talk costs Lives. It is equally true that careless Lives cost Talk. Our careless lives set the outer world talking; and we giving them grounds for talking in a way that throws doubt on the truth of Christianity itself.”

(Mere Christianity. Copyright (c) 1952, C.S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Published by HarperCollins. Page 207-208) 

Wow! Though it was written in the year of 1952, C.S. Lewis’s word is much relevant today as it was before. He writes like he was writing it to you personally. He writes for every seasons, every situations (though his setting was during the World War I) and for every person under the planet earth.

 In conclusion, I want you, readers; okay I hope (perhaps ‘I want’ sounds demanding) to consider reading classic books such as by C.S. Lewis’. Classic books make you think, and that’s what books suppose to be. Christopher Morley says, “The only real use of books is to make a person think for himself. If a book will not set one to thinking, it is not worth shelf room.”
I agree, Mere Christianity worth shelf book. Buy it!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.