Mere Christianity

Mere - adj, define:
Being nothing more or less than what is specified.
synonyms: just, only, sheer, complete

     A big selling point here is, yes, the new covers that have just come out for all of C.S. Lewis' signature classics - Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Problem of Pain, The Great Divorce, A Grief Observed, and Miracles. I had a lot of fun waiting for each new cover to come into the store, and I'll be honest, I only started collecting these books when I first saw this cover for Mere Christianity.

     But then I started to read, and dear Lord, I am overwhelmed. After the first chapter alone. I know I'm behind the times and so many people have read this already, but there are sure to be others like me who have missed out on this excellence. He is so gentle with his words. And so logical - which the human brain finds so appealing. So logical and so wonderful, and so precisely written, that I am breathless and desperate for more.

     If you're like me, and your doubts are sometimes such a problem - even though you know what you believe, but not necessarily why you believe - Lewis, whether he knows it or not, is in the process of putting those doubts to rest. The process of quelling my inner intellectual debate with comforting reasoning.

     The human heart loves logic. Reason. Proof. And I'm not saying that Lewis removes all of the doubts and explains everything away in the perfect redaction of Christianity - he was only a man. That is not how this works; there is still the question of faith, and belief, and putting trust in God despite the risks and confusion and doubt. But with Lewis' words, that faith and belief that I am already growing is firmer. Stronger. More sure. Set aside doctrine and theology, and he brings you to the basics of what Christianity is, at the root. Because if it is not these things, it cannot be Christianity at all. Mere Christianity - nothing more and nothing less than what it, in fact, is.

"If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of a state or a civilisation, compared with his, is only a moment."

--Book III: Christian Behaviour, Chapter I: The Three Parts of Morality (p.74-75)--

--Elise--

     For more information on Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, visit our website here.