1. Mere Christianity

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

My first book for the 2009 reading year. This was a birthday gift from my wife, so it bumped to the top of the list. I am glad I did that. I did not know what to expect because all I knew of C S Lewis was that he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. I never read those books, but I did see the movies. I do recall them being my brother's favorite quite some time ago. This book is not like those books at all.

I enjoyed the way this was written from the very beginning. I felt as if I was sitting in a living room having a discussion with the writer. I felt like he would explain something, that would raise another question, then he would explain that also. It really felt more like a conversation than reading a book.

The subject matter is deeply personal so I will not expand on my personal beliefs in this blog, but I will comment on the book itself. This blog is about the book, not about me.

The author spent a lot of time basing his argument for Christianity on the basis of morality. How the existence of right and wrong in the world lead him from one conclusion to the next. He admittedly argued against his own findings for quite some time, but eventually reached conclusions that caused him to abandon atheism for Christianity.

I enjoyed reading it and will admit it has caused me to reflect on some of my own life.

The book is divided into four sections. I especially enjoyed the first and third sections, 1 being "right and wrong as a clue to the meaning of the universe" and 2 being "christian behavior". I read the sections on social morality and christian marriage at least twice.

I liked some of the analogies the author used in this book; a fleet of ships representing all people and a lock and key representing a man and wife being two.

It seemed to me that this book was written as a way for the author to explain why he made the decisions he had made. He did not do it to confront or to tackle controversial issues. It looks like he was making an attempt to find common ground with everyone in order to explain why he decided Christianity was true.