Blogging Mere Christianity - Part 2

In my opinion Book I. of Lewis' Mere Christianity is worth the price of the book by itself. What a gift it is to be able to explain somewhat complex ideas in such conversational ways as Lewis does in this book. It has been a treat to read this work once again and I look forward to hearing what others think about it as well, especially some of you first time readers.

Here are a few lines from Book I. that I have underlined. What has stood out to you.

"If we do not believe in decent behaviour, why should we be so anxious to make excuses for not having behaved decently?" (Book I., ch. 1, p. 6)

"The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other." (Book I., ch. 2, p. 11)

"You find out more about God from the Moral Law than from the universe in general just as you find out more about a man by listening to his conversation than by looking at a house he has built." (Book I., ch. 5. p. 23)

Happy reading!

Blogging Mere Christianity - Part 1

In recent months I've had a number of people express to me that they always wanted to read the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. This book has been one of my favorite reads and deserves another read through.

I proposed to some to read this book together and discuss over winter break. Now I know that some (like myself) haven't had a winter break in years. According to my calendar tomorrow is Christmas Eve and the kids are out of school.

So let's begin. Here's something that caught my eye only a couple pages into the preface:

"One of the things Christians are disagreed about is the importance of their disagreements. When two Christians of different denominations start arguing, it its usually not long before one asks whether such-and-such a point "really matters" and the other replies: "Matter? Why, it's absolutely essential." (p. vii.)

What things do you consider "absolutely essential" to what you believe? How do you determine what is "absolutely essential" and what might not "really matter"? What do you do when you find yourself at odds with another Christian on "such-and-such" a point?

Looking forward to reading this (again) with you and reading your thoughts.