Mere Christianity Book 1 Summary

The book Mere Christianity was derived from a series of radio talks by C.S. Lewis during World War two. The book is divided into four other small books each one providing one of the overall tenants of Christianity within its chapters.

The first chapter of Christian Thought and Practice, by Natalie Kertes Weaver introduced theology of Christianity. This was broken up into five major topics. The topics are: terms used in the study of religion, a functional understanding of Christian theology, facets of Christian theology, types of theology, and audiences and practitioners of Christian thought. The author explains the importance in detail of all of the above points.

Chapter three of Engaging the Christian Scriptures goes into detail over selective parts of the sections of history, writings, and prophets. Chapter three gives the reader information over several books in the Bible such as Joshua, Judges, Jeremiah, etc. The chapter dives into the text of Joshua and gives the reader useful insight over Joshua and him leading the Israel across the Jordan river to conquer the land of milk and honey, Jericho. The book of Judges purpose was to teach Israel that God is faithful and certain to punish sin therefore each person must remain loyal and devoted to the Lord. The purpose of Jeremiah was to warn of the destruction that they were about to face and to urge Judah to return and submit to God. Towards the end

The cardinal virtues are seven virtues that help guide us to have good morality. Prudence is the first virtue and is having the common sense enough to think about what you are doing and what are the consequences. Temperance is finding moderation in your lifestyle. Justice includes traits like honesty, the ability to give-and-take, keeping promises, and so on. Fortitude includes two kinds of courage: the

Award-winning journalist, Lee Strobel wrote The Case for Christ to retrace and enlarge his journey toward becoming a Christian. Strobel once atheist, and now Christian, shares how he began to look upon the Bible and God. As an atheist, Strobel lived the life of selfishness and only worried to please himself. When his wife began to go to church he wasn’t very pleased until after he saw the positive and attractive change in her. This is the start of his curiosity and investigation about Christianity. He wanted to understand what changed her like this. He wanted to relate with his wife so he decided to study about this and attend church services with her. Strobel began his journey and interviewed thirteen leading scholars who defended their views concerning the historical reliability of the New Testament. Strobel splits the case for Christ into three basic sections: Examining the Record, Analyzing Jesus, and Researching the Resurrection.

In Aristotle's, *place name here*, book he writes an overview of virtues we need to follow in order to reach our full potential. Having knowledge of the

C.S. Lewis covers many topics in his fourth book contained in Mere Christianity titled BEYOND PERSONALITY: OR FIRST STEPS IN THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. He addresses such topics as theology, what it means to be the Son of God, the three personal God, the relationship of God and time, the cost of being a Christian, how God works to turn us into image of Christ, why Christian growth is both hard and easy, and also what he thinks about our old personalities before becoming Christians. These are all relative topics that apply to us and our daily lives. Learning and understanding this book can help a Christian tremendously in forming a deeper relationship with God.

“It seems that much more likely that human thought is not God’s but God-kindled”(44). Lewis explained before that God can interfere in the physical world and that it may interrupt the usual course of nature all the while of asserting self-consistency. Humans may decide for themselves what they eat for breakfast on a day-to-day basis, but in the big scheme of things it is actually God who makes their decisions for them. “to realize for the first time how majestically indifferent most reality is to man, and who perhaps abandons his religion on that account, may at that moment be having his first genuinely religious experience”(81).God allows humans to make their own decisions, but by making their ultimate ones He is able to guide them back to

Religion, this is a word that has created many debates and arguments due to the world having multiple viewpoints and beliefs. C.S. Lewis decided that he would write about multiple views of Christianity, in his book “Mere Christianity.” Lewis writes about some of the main issues in Christianity, such as, ethics and humanities evident conscience. The deeper into his work one goes, the writing opens up the eyes of the reader to new views and new rationales of Christianity.

Many people believe that that the motivation of the Christian church is to radically “change the world”. However, through his book To Change The World, James Davison Hunter explains how this common believe is a misconception. Rather, he shows readers that, from a sociological perspective, while Christians thrive in many areas of life by reaching others individually, they fundamentally components of creating cultural change.

Nathan Hatch wrote this book to help understand American Christianity and the courses of action that have brought us to the present. The books states that Hatch is a professor at the University of Notre Dame where he teaches history and also works with graduate studies. However, a recent inquiry finds that he is president of Wake Forest University, a position he has held since 2005. A well renowned scholar, Hatch has been very influential in studying religion and history.

In chapter one, Lewis makes two fundamental points. The first is that all people have this idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and they cannot to get rid of it. Secondly,

I had no idea religion could be so logical.” I feel like, if I had only gone to the church I was going to back home, I would have had my Christian roots in sands of hyperspiritualism and what some call “moralistic therapeutic deism.” Lewis introduced me to the logic of Christianity, so I could begin to wrestle with it mentally as well as spiritually. He also showed me, through the first part of the book, the dire need of humanity for a savior. Human law is a sore substitute for the divine moral law, and all of our goodness is a mere shadow of how good we were meant to

“ You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left it open to us. He did not intend to.” (Lewis 78.) In Mere Christianity, Lewis talks about the silliness of accepting Jesus as another great moral teacher. According to Lewis, we must all make a choice to call Jesus liar, lunatic, or Lord.

With the emergence of the television evangelist we have witnessed the rise of the prosperity gospel which promises that Jesus will assist you to live out the American dream of worldly success, wealth, health, and prosperity. In just viewing the title of this book which highlights the gospel and success you have to take a deep breath because just looking at the cover it appears that the book promotes the gospel of success. However, this book by Kirbyjon Caldwell describes a pathway to holistic salvation. In addition, God wants his children to experience salvation in every area of their lives. Kirbyjon Caldwell writes this book to demonstrate how to use the principles of holistic Salvation because God wants you to be successful in all areas of