Has anyone read "Mere Christianity"?

Question

What were the arguments posed by Lewis?

Answer 1

It's a disappointing work from an otherwise brilliant man. "People are basically moral animals, therefor God." It's succinct enough in its general purpose, but I disagree with most that it is a work of apologetics. What little argument there is in it, is weak to the point of laughablity. The real value is for this works ellucidation of Christian theology and the Christian moral sense. In this area alone does Lewis succeed at being informative.

Answer 2

The book is actually compiled from a series of radio broadcasts, so it's hard to really summarize in a short sentence.

He does talk a lot, as the other answerer says, about the concept of Moral Law, so I guess that could be said to be the main theme of the book. The arguments contained in it have been adopted by Christians at large, and really dumbed down. The one that I particularly remember is called the "trilemma" which is an argument against the idea that Jesus existed but he was just a moral teacher/prophet. It claims that Jesus couldn't have just been a good person, because he claimed to be God, then he must have been a liar, lunatic, or the Lord. It's not aimed at atheists who think that Jesus never existed, but rather at people who try to disclaim the divinity of Jesus. Too many Christians just end up misusing his arguments. In all honestly, a lot of the arguments don't really hold much water and are seemingly easily deconstructed...but the book is an argument for a return to fundamentals, not an evangelizing tool for non-Christians.

I'm not a fan of his apologetics style, although Lewis is one of my favorite authors. Narnia is great, but it's sad that most people think of him in terms of that and Mere Christianity. He's written so many great works, both fictional and non, I really enjoy his philosophy ("Abolition of Man") and his autobiography is quite good too. "Till We Have Faces" is hands-down one of my favorite books, and although this doesn't have much to do with your question, I just thought I'd throw in a little plug here at the end. :)

Answer 3

My "favorite" is the lunatic, liar or lord. Basically, he has a false trichotomy where Jesus was either a crazy man, a liar or god. Unfortunately, he fails to take into account other possibilities such as Jesus didn't exist, his claims were changed in subsequent retellings of the story, or whatever else you can think of.

Lewis was a nice guy and a good author, but he should have never stepped into apologetics. It ruins all who try it.

Answer 4

His main argument was from the universal concept of morality. Not that everyone agreed on WHAT was right or wrong - but that everyone had the notion that a right and wrong existed.