The Summer of C.S. Lewis
Nestled between an interstate move, preparing to start school, and becoming as stay-at-home mom again, I deemed this summer “The Summer of C.S. Lewis.” I dedicated my efforts to read as many works by the twentieth century intellectual giant as possible. I completed one! Yep, one! But it was one more than I had read in the previous 28 summers of my life!
Here are a few of my favorite thoughts from Mere Christianity, the writings based on his radio talks during the war torn 1940s.
“Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness.”
“One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting everyone else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons – marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.”
“If our expenditures on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small.”
“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.”
The radio talks recorded in Mere Christianity were created to explain to non-Christians in Britain the basic beliefs of Christianity. Lewis’s simple, everyday language and examples bring to life his faith and convictions in Christ. I found myself diving deeper into my own beliefs and was challenged to go beyond mere Christianity into a deeper understanding and practice of my own faith.
What books did you read this summer and how have they impacted you?
