November 2012: Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

What is Mere Christianity?

“There has been a great deal of soft soap talked about God for the last hundred years. That is not
what I am offering.” What, in your opinion, is Lewis offering us in Mere Christianity?

Enemy territory

What did you make of Lewis’ analogy of Christians as “living in enemy territory”? Is this a
biblical principle? In what other ways might the analogy be applicable to our lives?

A great moral teacher

Despite Lewis’ famous words about the foolishness of accepting Christ simply as “a great
moral teacher,” it seems that many people today still take that attitude towards Jesus. Why?

Pride

“The essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride.” Why does Lewis say so? Do you agree? How do we recognize pride in (a) others, (b) ourselves?
What should our reaction be?

Faith

“Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing
moods.” Would you agree with this definition of faith?

outside view

Do you find Lewis’ picture of God as outside time, viewing the whole of it at once, helpful?

fear

Lewis says that we are “naturally afraid” of the spiritual world. Should we be scared of it? If so,
why? If not, is our fear due to a wrong understanding of the spiritual world or a wrong reaction
to it?

The lesser of two evils

“The devil… sends errors into the world in pairs – pairs of opposites. And he always encourages
us to spend a lot of time thinking which is the worse… He relies on your extra dislike of the one
error to draw you gradually into the opposite one.” Can you think of any particular errors
Christians might be tempted to make out of a frantic desire to avoid their opposites?

humans

“Never, never pin your whole faith on any human being.” Is Lewis telling us never to trust
anybody?

Perfection

Is it possible to be perfect, as Christ told us to be? In what way(s)?

Niceness

“A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from
God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world – and might even be
more difficult to save.” Do you agree that “niceness” can make people more difficult to save?
How?

Gaining by losing

It’s one of Lewis’ main premises that in turning to Christ we become real personalities, and more
ourselves. Do you agree that in order to gain your life you must lose it? What does the losing
involve?

Your view

Did reading this book make you view what it means to be a Christian in a new light?
Specifically, how?