"Mere Christianity"

[germys9]

Does anyone know if C.S. Lewis ever convert to catholicism? Even if he didn’t, I heard that his book Mere Christianity is a good book that would help a noncatholic see a how a catholic views the church. Would anyone recommend it?

 

[La_Chiara]

I am pretty sure that C.S. Lewis was Anglican and never converted to the Catholic Church. I just started reading “Mere Christianity” last night. He states in the introduction that he deals with issues that are common to most mainline Christian faiths and will stay away from issues (like the Virgin Mary) on which there is disagreement.

 

[Mijoy2]

Highly recommended. I’d go as far as to say one of the very best books available.

 

[JGC]

Mere Christianity is a great book.

He uses an analogy of a house, stating that the areas of agreement we have are in the hallway, but that this is a place to wait, not to live, to live we must enter into one of the rooms and that the worst of the rooms would be preferable to staying in the hallway…

 

[Fidelis]

Lewis never became a Catholic, although his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, a devout Catholic, was instrumental in bringing him to Christianity. There are a couple of good books that explore this issue, notably a recent one by Joseph Pearce (just do an amazon.com search for Joseph Pearce). One thing that I heard was that Lewis was born into a fiercely anti-Catholic family environment and that he could never quite overcome his native bigotry toward Catholicism.

As to the book, Mere Christianity, it is excellent. I have read it several times, refer to it often and recommend it to anyone who would benefit by discovering a rational basis for Christianity. I just got the book on CD and am waiting for just the right time to listen to it.

 

[SusanL]

I recently bought the book because I heard it was so instrumental in conversions. My brother claims to be an agnostic. He is 11 years older than me, very materialistic; however, I think that he might be looking a little bit for the meaning of life. You know, the “is this all there is?” kind of thinking. I suspect he is headed there. He is in his 50’s.

I figured that I would read the book and then hand it over to him. Since it was written by a protestant, I thought that maybe it would stand a better chance of conversion than anything catholic I might give him. He was raised Methodist.

What do you think?

 

[Fidelis]

I think if your brother reads the book seriously and thoughtfully, he and you should have some very interesting conversations. It is definitely a mind opener. The fact that Lewis can do this with clarity, humor and brevity makes this book hard to put down–or ignore. Yes, you should read it first, so you can be ready to discuss it.

 

[RNRobert]

I’m a great fan of C.S. Lewis and have almost everything written by him. ‘Mere Christianity’ is probably one of his best works. Ironically, I’ve read several bios of C.S. Lewis who considered the book ‘a failure!’

 

[Antonio_B]

germys9:

Does anyone know if C.S. Lewis ever convert to catholicism? Even if he didn’t, I heard that his book Mere Christianity is a good book that would help a noncatholic see a how a catholic views the church. Would anyone recommend it?

I’m not so sure Mere Christianity will lead one to see how a Catholic views the Church, but indeed it is excellent Christian reading. I don’t think C.S. Lewis ever converted to Christianity but given his understanding of Christianity, I feel he would have felt very much at home in Catholicism.

Antonio

 

[RNRobert]

Antonio B:

I don’t think C.S. Lewis ever converted to Christianity but given his understanding of Christianity, I feel he would have felt very much at home in Catholicism.

Antonio

Did you mean to say “Catholicism” instead of Christianity? Lewis belonged to the Anglican Church (“not especially ‘high,’ nor especially ‘low,’ nor especially anything else,” as he wrote in Mere Christianity) but his views on things like the sacraments (plus he went to confession, and was temporarily healed by the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick by Anglican ministers) and his belief in Purgatory, gave him a very Catholic perspective. However, I think he had problems with Catholic doctrines like the veneration of the Saints; the posthumous anthology God in the Dock contains a couple letters he wrote to the periodical ‘Church Times’ regarding the invocation of saints and the Anglican Church setting up a process for canonization similar to the Catholic Church. He felt that it would cause a schism in the church.

 

[Gerry_Hunter]

Antonio B:

I’m not so sure Mere Christianity will lead one to see how a Catholic views the Church, but indeed it is excellent Christian reading. I don’t think C.S. Lewis ever converted to Christianity but given his understanding of Christianity, I feel he would have felt very much at home in Catholicism.

Antonio

The book is, of course, insufficient to ground one in the Catholic faith, but as a Christian apologetic, it is very good.

Lewis’s own journey to faith is perhaps revealing. He writes in “Surprised by Joy” that he first ceased to be an atheist, and became a theist. As a second step, he became a Christian (Anglican). “Mere Christianity” is a valuable apologetic for those who reject the Christian concept of God. It clears the ground to make them open to considering that God exists, and gives an overview of the Christian world view. From there, like Lewis, they can progress to Christian faith, hopefully to the fullness of that faith in the Catholic Church, either initially or eventually.

Blessings,

Gerry

 

[Antonio_B]

Gerry Hunter:

The book is, of course, insufficient to ground one in the Catholic faith, but as a Christian apologetic, it is very good.

Lewis’s own journey to faith is perhaps revealing. He writes in “Surprised by Joy” that he first ceased to be an atheist, and became a theist. As a second step, he became a Christian (Anglican). “Mere Christianity” is a valuable apologetic for those who reject the Christian concept of God. It clears the ground to make them open to considering that God exists, and gives an overview of the Christian world view. From there, like Lewis, they can progress to Christian faith, hopefully to the fullness of that faith in the Catholic Church, either initially or eventually.

Blessings,

Gerry

What else can I tell you other than we agree?

Antonio

 

[Maccabees]

When Lewis was alive he was no doubt a very loyal high church anglican ie anglo-catholic.

He did have some very catholic views on certain things Anglicans consider optional. He believed in purgatory and confession and the ecuharist as the body and blood of christ. All very catholic beliefs.

He was not a big fan of the communion of saints plus he was very shall we say English so a national church appealed to him more than say the papacy.

Anyways many evangelicals are avid readers of Lewis for one his apologetics is far beyond the evangelical apologetics I see on the market which comes down to Bible ping pong. Lewis was a writer, philosopher, and theologian all rolled into one evangelicals have no one like him Catholics have had a deep history of such people like G.K. Chesterton and even today we have Peter Kreeft.
They have Tim Lahaye, people he is no Lewis or Chesteron or Kreeft but he’s the best fundies and evangelicals have so those with a brain gravitate to a more nueteral corner of Lewis who is so ecunemical that his Christian apologetics can apply to any trinitarian church.
But of course you be introduced to some concepts such as purgatory that you automatically dismiss as an evangelical but when Lewis doesn’t perhaps those catholic views gain credibility with the low church fans of Lewis.

Lewis was also a very big critque of modernist religion and women ordination. Both issues have taken over the Anglcian community. Perhaps he would be catholic had he stayed alive to see the errors of the Anglcian communion. Of course the gay ordination thing would not have gone over with Lewis either.

 

[RNRobert]

Maccabees:

He was not a big fan of the communion of saints plus he was very shall we say English so a national church appealed to him more than say the papacy.

Actually, he was Irish, born near Belfast into a Protestant family.

Maccabees:

Anyways many evangelicals are avid readers of Lewis for one his apologetics is far beyond the evangelical apologetics I see on the market which comes down to Bible ping pong. Lewis was a writer, philosopher, and theologian all rolled into one evangelicals have no one like him Catholics have had a deep history of such people like G.K. Chesterton and even today we have Peter Kreeft.
They have Tim Lahaye, people he is no Lewis or Chesteron or Kreeft but he’s the best fundies and evangelicals have so those with a brain gravitate to a more nueteral corner of Lewis who is so ecunemical that his Christian apologetics can apply to any trinitarian church.

Yes, I’ve found in my readings of Protestant and Catholic writers that Protestant writers don’t have the depth of Catholic writes (C.S. Lewis being a notable exception)…

Maccabees:

Lewis was also a very big critque of modernist religion and women ordination. Both issues have taken over the Anglcian community. Perhaps he would be catholic had he stayed alive to see the errors of the Anglcian communion. Of course the gay ordination thing would not have gone over with Lewis either.

In the posthumous anthology God in the Dock, Lewis writes in his 1948 essay “Priestesses in the Church?” that if women were ordained, “The Church of England herself would be torn apart by the operation.” Very prophetic.
I find it ironic that Lewis has been embraced by Evangelicals and Catholics while he is largely ignored by those of his own communion…

 

[Mijoy2]

SusanL:

I recently bought the book because I heard it was so instrumental in conversions. My brother claims to be an agnostic. He is 11 years older than me, very materialistic; however, I think that he might be looking a little bit for the meaning of life. You know, the “is this all there is?” kind of thinking. I suspect he is headed there. He is in his 50’s.

I figured that I would read the book and then hand it over to him. Since it was written by a protestant, I thought that maybe it would stand a better chance of conversion than anything catholic I might give him. He was raised Methodist.

What do you think?

I was a little younger then your brother when I began the “is this all there is” kind of thinking. My first encounter was a protestant radio station who gave a phone number to call for people who wanted to talk to someone after a Billy Graham talk. I made the phone cal and talked to a very caring man who, after hearing my objections to faith, recommended the book Mere Christianity as a starter.

i took his advice and now have back to the Catholic faith after much searching. SusanL, I think it is probably the best place for a “is this all there is” kind of thinking person to begin.

Instead of clouding a person just beginning to contemplate faith with all the many dogma of the Church (which can come with time), it focuses on the primary and most basic roots of our faith. Love, understanding Jesus’s sacrifice for us, our pride and the virture of humility. Great place to begin!

 

[SusanL]

Mijoy2:

I was a little younger then your brother when I began the “is this all there is” kind of thinking. My first encounter was a protestant radio station who gave a phone number to call for people who wanted to talk to someone after a Billy Graham talk. I made the phone cal and talked to a very caring man who, after hearing my objections to faith, recommended the book Mere Christianity as a starter.

i took his advice and now have back to the Catholic faith after much searching. SusanL, I think it is probably the best place for a “is this all there is” kind of thinking person to begin.

Instead of clouding a person just beginning to contemplate faith with all the many dogma of the Church (which can come with time), it focuses on the primary and most basic roots of our faith. Love, understanding Jesus’s sacrifice for us, our pride and the virture of humility. Great place to begin!

Thank you. I’m going to start reading. Sue

 

[Lorarose]

A great link on C.S. Lewis:

ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ26.HTM

 

[Maccabees]

RNRobert:

Actually, he was Irish, born near Belfast into a Protestant family.

**
**The Church of Ireland is part of the Anglican Communion, and considers itself to be that part of Irish Church which was reformed in the 16th century. So he could be very Irish and still very Anglican. In either case he was in nationalist mindset with regard to the church rather than a catholic one.