Mere Christianity - Preface

Lewis Sets Things Up

Our journey through Mere Christianity begins! Thanks for coming along. Be sure and comment with thoughts or questions. It makes the trip much more fun. Keep two things in mind along the way. One, I’m no expert on Lewis, just a devotee greatly impacted by his works. Two, there is no well-developed outline here, just me hoping that whenever we reach the end, I’ll be able to say, like Col. Hannibal on the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together.” If it doesn’t turn out that way, please accept my apologies now. Well, alrighty then (to quote the beloved Ace Ventura), let’s get started.

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The early to mid-1940s were dark and troublesome times in England, especially for those living in highly populated cities like London, Bristol, and Liverpool. Nightly, Hitler dispatched swarms of bomber planes to decimate buildings and terrorize residents. Families huddled in the train tunnels, praying the bombs didn’t drop too close. They emerged at day’s light, hoping theirs was not one of the countless homes destroyed. As British resiliency buckled, an executive with the religious broadcasting service of the BBC asked CS Lewis to give a series of radio talks in the hopes that they might encourage the many weary souls. The executive’s wishes were realized as these over-the-air talks grew so popular Lewis’s voice became as recognizable as Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s (go here to hear Lewis’s actual voice in a rare recording).

As Lewis admits in the preface, those broadcasts later became the book Mere Christianity. By the way, always read an author’s preface if he or she writes one. They often include some of the best stuff, such as why the book was written and the approach taken. Lewis does not disappoint here. He warns readers at the start he has no intention of helping anyone decide between the differing denominations, including Catholicism. He clarifies, “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.”

Lewis refused to jump in the ring with those fighting over theological differences falling outside the range of beliefs held common to “nearly all Christians at all times.” This resonates with me as a pastor in a denomination that tends to see itself as doctrinally superior among the other options out there. Many in my tribe get more excited about gaining another denominational convert than they do a Christ-follower. I’m ashamed to admit it, but the “old me”—a fellow I often refer to as Brad 1.0—used to say arrogantly that if you gave a brand new Christian a Bible and locked him in a closet, he’d come out a Baptist. Lewis helped me repent of that. Now, you are likely to hear me say I am a Christian Baptist, not a Baptist Christian if you understand what I mean.

Speaking of doctrinal differences, Lewis argues 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.” And, “One of the things Christians are disagreed about is the importance of their disagreements.” What a good word, especially in these crazy, divisive days. Arguing about the divinity of Jesus is one thing (a common belief held by all Christians at all times and a sign of orthodoxy), but sparring over uncommon and second-tier issues is another, issues like whether a woman can preach the Good News or sprinkling versus dunking. It’s rarely productive and pushes people away from hearing the gospel.

Old Jack left the more qualified and able to tackle the finer points of theology, focusing instead on defending “Mere Christianity,” a phrase not original to him. He borrowed it from an earlier Christian writer, but his use of it refers to a reduction of the Christian faith to its essentials common to all denominations (yes, even the Catholic Church).¹

Lewis defines a Christian as “one who accepts the common doctrines of Christianity” and then explains the importance of not letting words (like Christian) lose their meaning, as happened to the word gentleman. A Christian is not just someone who acts nicely or is virtuous but a person who has embraced the tier-one doctrines such as you must be born again to inherit eternal life. I would be surprised if you didn’t smile, cock your head back, and go hmmm here. Welcome to the Oxford Don’s uncanny ability to illustrate and explain the complicated in the simplest, most straightforward way. We will come across his brilliant knack for that again and again, his final two paragraphs in the preface a case in point I’d encourage you to read at least twice, soaking up their wisdom.

“I hope no reader will suppose that ‘mere’ Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions,” Lewis writes in those closing words, “as if a man could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else. It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in.” Be sure, he says, to “obey the rules common to the whole house” and be kind to those who entered a different room than you, along with those still loitering in the breezeway.

This has stuck with me, changing how I see Christendom. It should not be a morass of competing camps, each eyeing the other with spiteful suspicion, but a very big house (God’s house) with a multitude of rooms. Mere Christianity, those things common to all Christians of all time and every denomination or theological bent, is the hall with many doors leading to those rooms. We point people there first, allowing them to find their way into whatever room they feel led, not based on fickle tastes but truth. All have something to offer. Is that relevant for today or what, some eighty years later? God used Lewis to help free me from the blindness that comes when you lock yourself in one of those rooms, refusing to acknowledge the contributions of a brother or sister down the hall. I cannot imagine how monochrome my faith would be if I hadn’t knocked on a few doors where folks like the late Dr. Tim Keller (Presbyterian), N.T. Wright (Anglican), and Karen Swallow Prior (a woman, gasp!) lives.

Lewis knows how to wrap things up with a bow. I don’t think it could be said any better or needed more than right now. What stood out to you in the Preface? Did something not make sense? Let me know in the comments. For next week, read Book One, Chapter One: The Law of Human Nature.

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Go here to get help with some of the oddities and colloquialisms peculiar to Lewis’ background and time, such as H.C.F and “Uncle Toby” mentioned in the Preface, as well as simple breakdowns of his thoughts. Caution: I have not reviewed all of this site’s content.

1. Richard Baxter was a 17th-century Anglican minister who used the term in his book “The Saints’ Everlasting Rest.”