Mere Christianity

I had always heard that Lewis was known for his book entitled Mere Christianiy, and when I knew I was going to take this class I was most excited to finally have the opportunity to read part of this book, I had the opportunity before I guess but I never got around to it. Just the title of the book, Mere Christianity, is intriguing in itself. In the Preface Lewis tells us that he writes this to believers as well as non-believers, and he doesn't write it to get people to change their denomination or persuade them to join in his denomination, it is simple a book merely about Christianity.

Keeping that same theme about bringing non-believers into the realms of Christianity, Lewis made a profound analogy which I really like. He says that Christianity itself is the hall of a giant house. He says that he wants to bring people into the hall, but that isn't where their journey should stop. When they reach the hall they "must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house." He then goes on to say that there are many different doors that may be entered from the hall, but it may take some people a long time to decide which door to enter while some people may know which door they should proceed through almost right away. Here the different doors represent different denominations of the Christian faith and this is where Lewis says, "But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, where there are fires and chairs and meals." I thought this whole analogy was interesting because it shows the Lewis just wanted to get people excited about Christianity and he wanted to bring them into the "hall", from there it is up to them what door and room they want to enter.

Another analogy that Lewis brought up that I really like is when he relates the notes of a piano to the Moral Law. He says, "Strictly speaking, there are no such things as good and bad impulses. Think once again of a piano. It has not got two kinds of notes on it, the 'right' notes and the 'wrong' ones. Every single note is right at one time and wrong at another. The Moral Law is not any one instinct or any set of instincts: it is something which makes a kind of tune by directing the instincts." I like this quote alot because Lewis explains so beautifully how there are certain circumstances and situations where we must distinguish how to react to them/the Moral Law, and if some of these situations didn't occur like they did, then our actions might be out of place according to the Moral Law, just like some notes can be played out of place in a song on the piano.