S1E1 – MC – “Preface” (Part 1)

The initial discussion of the Preface of “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis.

S1E1: Preface (Part 1) (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

Chit-Chat

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Discussion

01. “Summary”

• David and Matt outline the layout of the Preface to “Mere Christianity”.

02. “Infighting”

• “Mere Christianity” began as a series of wartime radio talks.
• Lewis tells the readers that the purpose of the book is not to decide between different denominations, making the book more about foundational, general principles.

The reader should be warned that I offer no help to anyone who is hesitating between two Christian ‘denominations’. You will not learn from me whether you ought to become an Anglican, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

• Matt thought that this was a good book for atheists especially, and for those interested in Catholicism, he recommends “Rome Sweet Home” by Scott Hahn. David added Trent Horn’s “Why We’re Catholic”.

Ever since I became a Christian I have thought that the best, perhaps the only, service I could do for my unbelieving neighbours was to explain and defend teh belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times. i had more than one reason for thinking this. In the first place, the questions which divide Christians from one another often involve points of high Theology or even of ecclesiastical history, which ought never to be treated except by real experts. I should have been out of my depth in such waters: more in need of help myself than able to help others.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

…Secondly, I think we must admit that the discussion of these disputed points has no tendency at all to bring an outsider into the Christian fold So long as we write and talk about them we are much more likely to deter him from entering any Christian communion than to draw him into our own. Our divisions should never be discussed except in the presence of those who have already come to believe that there is one God and that Jesus Christ is His only Son.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

03. “Back to Basics”

I got the impression that far more, and more talented, authors were already engaged in such controversial matters than in the defence of what Baxter calls ‘mere’ Christianity. That part of the line where I thought I could serve best was also the part that seemed to be thinnest. And to it I naturally went.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

• Baxter was a 16th century Anglican, who used the term “mere Christianity” in his book “The Saint’s Everlasting Rest”.

All this is said simply in order to make clear what kind of book I was trying to write; not in the least to conceal or evade responsibility for my own beliefs. About those, as I said before, there is no secret. To quote Uncle Toby: ‘They are written in the Common-Prayer Book.’

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

• Uncle Toby is a fictional character from “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” by Lawrence Sterne.

The danger clearly was that i should put forward as common Christianity anything that was peculiar to the Church of England or (worse still) to myself. I tried to guard against this by sending the original script of what is now Book II to four clergymen (Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic) and asking for their criticism. The Methodist thought I had not said enough about Faith, and the Roman Catholic thought I had gone rather too far about the comparative unimportance of theories in explanation of the Atonement. Otherwise all five of us were agreed.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

So far as I can judge…the book, however faulty in other respects, did at least succeed in presenting an agreed, or common, or central, or ‘mere’ Christianity…Certainly I have met with little of the fabled odium theologicum from convinced members of commuions different from my own.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

04. “Watered-Down Faith”

…It may possibly be of some help in silencing the view that, if we omit the disputed points, we shall have left only a vague and bloodless H.C.F. The H.C.F. turns out to be something not only positive but pungent; divided from all non-Christian beliefs by a chasm to which the worst divisions inside Christendom are not really comparable at all.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

• The term H.C.F. is very important to understand. It stands for “highest common factor”, a term from mathematics that is the highest number that could be divided into two numbers (e.g. the H.C.F. of 8 and 12 is 4).

If I have not directly helped the cause of reunion, I have perhaps made it clear why we ought to be reunited.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

05. “Silence”

…I should be very glad if people would not draw fanciful inferences from my silence on certain disputed matters.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

…Such silence need not mean that I myself am sitting on the fence. Sometimes I am. There are questions at issue between Christians to which I do not think we have been told the answer. There are some to which I may never know the answer: if I asked them, even in a better world, I might (for all I know) be answered as a far greater questioner was answered: ‘What is that to thee. Follow thou Me.’

But there are other questions as to which I am definitely on one side of the fence, and yet say nothing. For I am not writing to expound something I could call ‘my religion’, but to expound ‘mere’ Christianity, which is what it is and what it was long before I was born and whether I like it or not.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

Oddly enough, you cannot even conclude, from my silence on disputed points, either that I think them important or that I think them unimportant. For this is itself one of the disputed points.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

06. “Lewis’ Humility”

Ever since I served as an infantryman in the First World War I have had a great dislike of people who, themselves in ease and safety, issue exhortations to men in the front line. As a result I have a reluctance to say much about temptations to which I myself am not exposed. No man, I suppose, is tempted to every sin. It so happens that the impulse which makes men gamble has been left out of my make-up; and, no doubt, I pay for this by lacking some good impulse of which it is the excess or perversion.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface

• As shown in “The Great Divorce”, when we surrender our vices to God and he removes them from us, the process is painful, but amazing virtue can come from it.
• St. Paul is the greatest example of this, following his encounter with Christ on the Road to Damascus.

Wrap Up

More Information

• David’s outline and notes for the Preface are available here.

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