seeker2000
Active Member
- Feb 9, 2025
- 118
- 127
I wanted to share this excerpt from C.S. Lewis' book but not sure which category to place it.
In C.S. Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity, Kathleen Norris writes the Forward.
In the last two paragraphs we see a brief sample of the genius of Lewis and an irresistible invitation from Norris.
The “mere” Christianity of C.S. Lewis is not a philosophy or even a theology that may be considered, argued, and put away in a book on a shelf. It is a way
of life, one that challenges us always to remember, as Lewis once stated, that “there are no ordinary people” and that “it is immortals whom we joke with,
marry, snub, and exploit.” Once we tune ourselves to this reality, Lewis believes, we open ourselves to imaginatively transform our lives in such a way that
evil diminishes and good prevails. It is what Christ asked of us in taking on our humanity, sanctifying our flesh and asking us in turn to reveal God to one another.
If the world makes this seem a hopeless task, Lewis insists that it is not. Even someone he envisions as” poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house
full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels” can be assured that God is well aware of “what a wretched machine you are trying to drive,” and asks only
that you “keep on, [doing] the very best you can.” The Christianity Lewis espouses is humane, but not easy: it asks us to recognize that the great religious
struggle is not fought on a spectacular battleground but within the ordinary human heart, when every morning we awake and feel the pressures of the day
crowding in on us, and we must decide what sort of immortals we wish to be. Perhaps it helps us, as surely it helped the war-weary British people who first
heard these talks, to remember that God plays a great joke on those who would seek after power at any cost. As Lewis reminds us, with his customary
humor and wit, “How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different the saints.”
In C.S. Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity, Kathleen Norris writes the Forward.
In the last two paragraphs we see a brief sample of the genius of Lewis and an irresistible invitation from Norris.
The “mere” Christianity of C.S. Lewis is not a philosophy or even a theology that may be considered, argued, and put away in a book on a shelf. It is a way
of life, one that challenges us always to remember, as Lewis once stated, that “there are no ordinary people” and that “it is immortals whom we joke with,
marry, snub, and exploit.” Once we tune ourselves to this reality, Lewis believes, we open ourselves to imaginatively transform our lives in such a way that
evil diminishes and good prevails. It is what Christ asked of us in taking on our humanity, sanctifying our flesh and asking us in turn to reveal God to one another.
If the world makes this seem a hopeless task, Lewis insists that it is not. Even someone he envisions as” poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house
full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels” can be assured that God is well aware of “what a wretched machine you are trying to drive,” and asks only
that you “keep on, [doing] the very best you can.” The Christianity Lewis espouses is humane, but not easy: it asks us to recognize that the great religious
struggle is not fought on a spectacular battleground but within the ordinary human heart, when every morning we awake and feel the pressures of the day
crowding in on us, and we must decide what sort of immortals we wish to be. Perhaps it helps us, as surely it helped the war-weary British people who first
heard these talks, to remember that God plays a great joke on those who would seek after power at any cost. As Lewis reminds us, with his customary
humor and wit, “How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different the saints.”
