Customer Reviews

Mere Christianity/The Screwtape Letters (Collector's Box Set)

5 star:		(7)
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3 star:		(1)
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The insights, the eloquence, the metaphors, the balance between reality and Scripture, this volume is repleted with the above. It is true, for this volume witness to them all.

We have all quoted CS Lewis or read a quotation from this volume somewhere. I always love to read the primary source if I can. Get this volume, you would not be sorry.

"Screw Tapes" is an excellant read, very thought pervoking. A candid argument for faith in God as supreme being.
"Mere Christianity" is a must read for Christians. It addresses the adversity of the Christian Religion by focusing in on "mere" truths. We would all be better Christians if we remember to remember the main POINT. Thank you Amazon for this excellent purchase.

C.S. Lewis is truly a master of the English language. Having never read any of Lewis' work previous to reading Mere Christianity, I was taken aback by his craftsmanship within the first few pages. This fact, in itself, makes Mere Christianity worth reading if not only for its aesthetic value. The fact is, however, that the skill with which Lewis creates this masterpiece is a mere vessel of the greatest benefit that one might achieve from this work. In the preface, Lewis goes to great lengths to establish that this work was not written to offer any assistance for an individual trying to determine which denomination of Christianity to become associated with. Lewis' purpose it creating this work was to convey Christianity for what it is in the most fundamental of beliefs.

One of the first topics attended to by Lewis is the law of human nature. The message that is delivered in this section appears as if it had been written in direct response to the pages that Richard Dawkins dedicated to this very subject in his recently published work The God Delusion, and it appears as if Lewis' work would hold its own ground in this hypothetical debate, even though it has surrendered the advantage of time. It may not be that Lewis' ideas on this matter are any more valid than those of other great scholar's, instead the value of this work is established in the explicit and fluid manner in which he elaborates each point that is made.

By the end of this work one will have read about what Christians believe, Christian behavior, and also experience a taste of theology. This has to be one of the most poignant works on Christianity, in general, that has been written in the past one hundred years. C.S. Lewis possessed a great literary gift and put it to good use in writing Mere Christianity. Between the message that is passed on through this work and the descriptive illustrations that are utilized to explain some of the more difficult concepts of Christianity; this book is a must read for every Christian. This work can also be appreciated by the secular population, if not only, for the craftsmanship which went into every page.

This set includes some of the best work by C.S. Lewis. Everyone should read these books. I have given this set twice. This time I bought it for my wife, and she loves it. Yes it is displayed in a prominent place, because the set also looks great, but the collection is meant for reading and thinking about the greater things of life.

CS Lewis is easily one of my favorite authors, and with this set he does not disappoint. Well worth the money

C.S. Lewis has a great talent of taking complicated subjects and making them so simple that you almost think yourself stupid. Lewis shows a clear picture of what christians really believe in this book, and with fitting analogies and profound applications, he shows how being a christian doesn't have to be a giant leap of faith into the dark, but can be a firm choice in believing that what the Bible says is factual. (Just like believing a witness in court is telling the truth) Lewis takes on subjects ranging from christian morals and why they are so important for christians to explaining the concept of the Trinity of God (yikes! Heavy subject!). Whether you're a Christian who would like to see the reinforcing explanation of the faith, or anyone else who would like an insight into "mere" christianity, this book is definately for you.

Capitalizing "Fact" in reference to the body of Christian faith just does not make it so.

I have often encountered the "Lewis Trilemma", that Jesus must be a crook, a kook or God. There can be no middle ground, Jesus as merely "a great moral teacher" etc. It's all or nothing. This claim must be made on the basis of the scriptures as a true and accurate account of the life and works of Jesus of Nazareth. The claim thus has no value as the scriptures are not good history nor even especially factual (e.g. the extensive and literary tailoring of the tale in Matthew to be consistent with Jewish prophecy). The trilemma can be thus dismissed as no more than a device that relies on the inertia of cultural history to lean the unsuspecting into the way of the priests and preachers with a verisimilitude of logic.

He starts with what seems to promise a nearly axiomatic development of faith beginning with the observation (in effect a postulate) that a general sort of moral sense that is nearly universal in humankind must be the expression of a supreme being through individuals and cannot be anything else, in particular the end result of an biological evolutionary process. But that is the end of it. Without further ado he jumps to that capitalized "Fact" that his axiom not only requires a God but that this God is, ipso facto, (presto change-o?) the Father, Son and Holy Ghost by way of Jehovah. After that it is just faith all the way. Not convincing. The discussion of the trinity just spirals up into the ether when it gets to the holy spirit. So not only do are we expected to accept on shoddy evidence without question the remarkable life and works of Jesus but also a pile of doctrine such as the holy trinity concocted decades or centuries after the events (and not even original with Christianity at that).

But his axiom is worthless as well. That universal sense of justice, goodness and fair play is well and better explained as evolved behavior (as Dawkins does in The God Delusion). I know that is a terrible affront to our collective hubris that we are the special and unique creation of God and the purpose for which the entire vastness of the universe was created. But it makes more sense than what religions teach.

Lewis is also disingenuous about his spiritual roots when he describes himself as a vile and evil atheist at school who found his way to Christ on a fateful excursion (the one where he went out an apostate and came back a Christian). First of all, is there any evidence of any serious sin in his life prior to religion? I have not encountered any accounts of a wanton rascally roisterer at Oxford. It turns out that as a child he prayed fervently to God (the conventional one) to let his ailing mother live. As so often happens, God decided to answer his prayer with an unequivocal "No". It is shortly after that his so-called atheism begins. It is not atheism to have a long standing snit at God (even for such a solid and understandable reason) then forgive Him. He did not come to Christ. He came BACK to Christ, after a lengthy cooling off period and much encouragement from his believing close associates in the academy. By his own words he admits to being angry with God for not existing during his "atheist" phase. One cannot truly not believe in God and be emotionally involved with him in way that requires his existence at the same time.

Given the terms of belief Lewis professes, I find it remarkable that he could be comfortable in the Anglican church (as he says he is in the book) in the state of liberalism it had reached by his time. He took a shot at this elsewhere via a plainly lost cleric character in the Great Divorce.

I give it 3 for the quality of writing. It is a better than average defense of the indefensible. His repeated disclaimers on theological expertise grow tiresome considering his erudite background.

If you find any of Lewis's ideas here hard to swallow, try out his ideas on animal pain in "The Problem of Pain".

The most serious thought in one and the greatest of fiction in the other. A great combination to put together. These two books give us a glimse of the wide range of writing Lewis did in his lifetime.