Subscribe via RSS Feed

Category: Mere Christianity

Mere Christianity – Week 4

[ 0 ]

Week four in the Christian Book Club brings us to Book 4 Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity.

Lewis tries to explain some basic theology in this book. How do you think he did? Was he able to express fairly complex ideas in a way that was understandable?

After reading Mere Christianity do you think it would be a book you would recommend to someone who had questions about Jesus and Christianity? Why or why not?

I enjoy the parable he borrows from George MacDonald on page 205. “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself”. What do you think of this parable?

I look forward to your comments. Don’t forget to get next month’s book “Prince Caspian”. It’s another Lewis book but I thought it would be fun for us to read it before the movie comes out May 16, 2008. If you don;t have a copy of “Prince Caspian” you can order it at the Christian Book Club Books page.

At the end of each Christian Book Club I would ask you to consider donating a cup of Virtual Coffee to help keep the site up and running. It will cost you $5.00 (five dollars) and you can use a credit card or PayPal account. Pray about it and if you feel like you should just click on the coffee cup at the end of this post or on the home page. If you would like to contribute a larger amount there is a place to do that at the bottom right of the home page. Thank you!

View Post

Mere Christianity – Week 3

[ 0 ]

Week three in the Christian Book Club brings us to “Book 3 – Christian Behaviour”. CS ends chapter 5 with an interesting statement: “…a cold self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute” (p. 103). Lewis obviously believes that spiritual sin is worse than sins of the flesh. How do you feel about that?

On page 121 Lewis sees pride as “the utmost evil”. Why is pride such a huge problem for the Christian?

Do you think CS Lewis is doing a good job in presenting Christianity in a way that unbelievers might get it?

I like what Lewis says about love on page 131; “Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did…. When you are behaving as if you loved someone you will presently come to love him”.

In the chapter on Hope CS talks about people who reject the Christian idea of heaven as spending eternity playing harps. What do you think heaven will be like?

View Post

Mere Christianity – Week 2

[ 0 ]

This week the Christian Book Club will be reading “Book 2 – What Christians Believe”.

Lewis says that repentance “means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death” (p. 57). Real repentance has to do with dealing with our selfishness. Again, I think our culture has taught us that we need to always be looking out for number one. How do we embrace the idea that this selfish part of us has to die. How does this tie in to the death of Christ on the cross?

CS also has a great analogy about how Christians see good on page 63. “…the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life within him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it”. What other analogies have you read so far in the book that you have enjoyed?

View Post
Page 1 of 212