Ok…I know what you’re thinking.

“Yo Zack, i’ve heard of that guy, isn’t that the same dude that wrote the Narnia series?”

Yes, you are absolutely correct. Same guy.

Those are great books too, don’t get me wrong I have read a few of them over the course of my schooling. But this book has changed me for the better. Please allow me to explain.

‘Mere Christianity’ is not just a list of do’s and don’t’s for people who claim to be Christian. This book is a very practical (and deeply philosophical) work that provides solid evidence for why the Christian faith works for humanity.

Now I, myself, being a Christian, was challenged by the claims of Lewis in this book. From issues concerning morality and the ways of the universe to the challenging doctrine of the Trinity. But for every claim, there was reasonable evidence to back it up as well as simple analogies to help the reader better understand what the author was trying to communicate.

Look, Lewis was a British guy who complied this work during WWII. Honestly, I haven’t read much work from that time period other than historical documents and even those can be used to help us learn from the mistakes of the past.

‘Mere Christianity’ was as challenging, intriguing, and practical then, i’m sure, as it is to me now reading it in 2010, almost 50 years later. This whole work of just over 200 pages is broken down into 4 books. Here they are:

#1-Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe

#2-What Christians Believe

#3-Christian Behaviour

#4-Beyond Personality: First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity

Each section has something to offer for the common spiritual seeker who is interested in Christian ideas, theology, or about the meaning of life itself. Lewis uses a very educated, but also very common style of language in communicating even the most complicated of Christian ideas.

I could just keep going on and on about how awesome this book is and how I learned a lot about own faith from it, etc. If you have even read this far, know I appreciate you very much for doing so. Understand that I have never been much of a reader personally and that I had never thought of much use for reading about Christianity outside of the Holy Bible itself, before I looked into other sources such as this one.

This book is great for someone who has been raised as a Christian and is struggling to defend their faith, someone has been to church a few times and has wondered about God and has questions, or even someone who has never had any exposure at all to spiritual or theological ideas. Basically, it’s for everyone.

I strongly encourage you to give this book a chance. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s ok. Wherever you might be in your spiritual/ life journey, I encourage you to look into this wonderful book.

Know that I will be praying for you in your journey as well.

I’ll leave you with some quotes from the man himself, Clive Staples Lewis:

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?”

“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.”

“If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake.”

“This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there’s a rumor going around the shop that some of us are someday going to come to life.”

“Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.”

“The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. What we try to keep for ourselves is just what we are sure to lose.”

Blessings to you and yours.