MERE
CHRISTIANITY
C. S. LEWIS
A revised and amplified edition,
with a new introduction,
of the three books
Broadcast Talks, Christian Behaviour and Beyond Personality
Copyright
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
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First published in Great Britain by Geoffrey Bles 1952
Copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte Ltd 1942, 1943, 1944
Cover design and illustration by Kimberly Glyder
The right of C. S. Lewis to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007461219
Ebook Edition © June 2009 ISBN: 9780007332243
Version: 2015-11-24
Contents
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
PREFACE
FOREWORD
BOOK 1. RIGHT AND WRONG AS A CLUE TO THE MEANING OF THE UNIVERSE
Chapter 1 - THE LAW OF HUMAN NATURE
Chapter 2 - SOME OBJECTIONS
Chapter 3 - THE REALITY OF THE LAW
Chapter 4 - WHAT LIES BEHIND THE LAW
Chapter 5 - WE HAVE CAUSE TO BE UNEASY
BOOK 2. WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE
Chapter 1 - THE RIVAL CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
Chapter 2 - THE INVASION
Chapter 3 - THE SHOCKING ALTERNATIVE
Chapter 4 - THE PERFECT PENITENT
Chapter 5 - THE PRACTICAL CONCLUSION 60
BOOK 3. CHRISTIAN BEHAVIOUR
Chapter 1 - THE THREE PARTS OF MORALITY
Chapter 2 - THE CARDINAL VIRTUES
Chapter 3 - SOCIAL MORALITY
Chapter 4 - MORALITY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS
Chapter 5 - SEXUAL MORALITY
Chapter 6 - CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE
Chapter 7 - FORGIVENESS
Chapter 8 - THE GREAT SIN
Chapter 9 - CHARITY
Chapter 10 - HOPE
Chapter 11 - FAITH
Chapter 12 - FAITH
BOOK 4. BEYOND PERSONALITY: OR FIRST STEPS IN THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY
Chapter 1 - MAKING AND BEGETTING
Chapter 2 - THE THREE-PERSONAL GOD
Chapter 3 - TIME AND BEYOND TIME
Chapter 4 - GOOD INFECTION
Chapter 5 - THE OBSTINATE TOY SOLDIERS
Chapter 6 - TWO NOTES
Chapter 7 - LETS PRETEND
Chapter 8 - IS CHRISTIANITY HARD OR EASY?
Chapter 9 - COUNTING THE COST
Chapter 10 - NICE PEOPLE OR NEW MEN
Chapter 11 - THE NEW MEN
BOOKS BY C. S. LEWIS
About the Publisher
PREFACE
because his medium naturally lends itself to that method: but a writer ought not to use italics for the same purpose. He has his own, different, means of bringing out the key words and ought to use them. In this edition I have expanded the contractions and replaced most of the italics by a recasting of the sentences in which they occurred: but without altering, I hope, the popular or familiar tone which I had all along intended. I have also added and deleted where I thought I understood any part of my subject better now than ten years ago or where I knew that the original version had been misunderstood by others.
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. This omission is intentional (even in the list I have just given the order is alphabetical). There is no mystery about my own position. I am a very ordinary layman of the Church of England, not especially high, nor especially low, nor especially anything else. But in this book I am not trying to convert anyone to my own position. 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 the 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. And 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. Finally, 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.