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Mere Christians: Inspiring Stories of Encounters with C.S. Lewis
The spiritual legacy of a literary master - and mentor To many who have discovered his books, C.S. Lewis is more than simply a writer; he has been a spiritual mentor. Here over fifty Christians share how meeting the mind and imagination of Lewis in his books sparked the beginning or changed the course of their spiritual journey. These inspiring reflections have been shared by ordinary laypeople as well as many well-known leaders and writers including: Philip Yancey Charles Colson Anne Rice Randy Alcorn Francis S. Collins Joy Davidman Liz Curtis Higgs George Gallup Jr. Walter Hooper Thomas Howard Jill Briscoe David Lyle Jeffrey This unique celebration of Lewis's spiritual legacy will be treasured by all those who treasure Lewis's words.
266 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 1, 2010
Interesting, but not compelling. Reads like fifty-five extended cover blurbs about Lewis books.
Would only interest fans of Lewis, who don't need the encouragement to read him . . . other than maybe the feeling of community, as in "Oh, you like him for that reason? Yes, me, too."
Would only interest fans of Lewis, who don't need the encouragement to read him . . . other than maybe the feeling of community, as in "Oh, you like him for that reason? Yes, me, too."
June 18, 2021
Disclaimer: I love CS Lewis. So every book I read by him or about him will be rated through this filter. If you haven’t read Lewis (ever or lately), you do not know what you are missing.
When I received this book, I was disappointed. The subtitle “Inspiring Stories of Encounters with CS Lewis” was, I thought, misleading. I expected stories from people who knew Lewis personally and were relating how his physical presence impacted their lives.
Instead, this is a collection of essays about how the many different writings of Lewis impacted them. Which, as it turned out, was both rewarding and impactful. It’s even better because Lewis is no longer physically present with us, but he left us with something far greater - his logically inspired works regarding faith.
There are 55 essays in all. Some from names I recognized, many from unfamiliar names. Some essays were from hard core atheists who found The Truth and other essays were from people raised in the faith who had drifted away or were searching for something deeper. Everyone was impacted by the words of Lewis. It was interesting to me how people were touched by so many different stories he left behind. From his autobiography to his science fiction to his stories about Narnia or his defense of the Christian faith.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Lewis. But beyond that, it demonstrates how important our words are to others. Not our physical presence, but the life we lead and the words we leave behind.
Once again, thank you CS Lewis.
When I received this book, I was disappointed. The subtitle “Inspiring Stories of Encounters with CS Lewis” was, I thought, misleading. I expected stories from people who knew Lewis personally and were relating how his physical presence impacted their lives.
Instead, this is a collection of essays about how the many different writings of Lewis impacted them. Which, as it turned out, was both rewarding and impactful. It’s even better because Lewis is no longer physically present with us, but he left us with something far greater - his logically inspired works regarding faith.
There are 55 essays in all. Some from names I recognized, many from unfamiliar names. Some essays were from hard core atheists who found The Truth and other essays were from people raised in the faith who had drifted away or were searching for something deeper. Everyone was impacted by the words of Lewis. It was interesting to me how people were touched by so many different stories he left behind. From his autobiography to his science fiction to his stories about Narnia or his defense of the Christian faith.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Lewis. But beyond that, it demonstrates how important our words are to others. Not our physical presence, but the life we lead and the words we leave behind.
Once again, thank you CS Lewis.
September 16, 2020
I appreciated the camaraderie created by shared gratitude, but there were a lot of similarities among the stories, so they tended to blur together. Imagine a friend telling you how he first engaged with CSL. That would be a good jumping off point for a great conversation. But imagine fifty strangers in a row telling how they first engaged with CSL. That's more like interminable surface-skimming small talk. I eventually bumped up the audiobook speed to get through it faster. I skipped two chapters -- Chuck Colson and Joy Davidman -- having recently read their (auto)bios.
The readers were good. Considering they had to speak for so many different writers, they managed to represent them all fairly and stay out of their way.
The readers were good. Considering they had to speak for so many different writers, they managed to represent them all fairly and stay out of their way.
April 15, 2015
I didn't dislike the book, but it wasn't terrific. Some interesting stories, but I was hoping for more from people who had actually met Lewis, not just read him. As one reviewer said, this would make an excellent bathroom book to be read in snippets.
September 27, 2015
[The Problem of Pain] Lewis reminded me that pain arises from the evil in the world and formed no part of God's plan for us. There are just some things God cannot change, at least not just now. Nevertheless, Christians MUST try to prevent and alleviate pain and suffering, however and whenever we can. [This person became the best nurse they could be].
Pain and suffering can also have a character-building effect, not just on the caregiver, but also on the innocent children and their parents, who suffer in various ways. The problem of pain still annoys me, but I must trust that God knows best [see Rom 8:18]. (22)
Lewis' spiritual autobiography [Surprised by Joy].
All my books are touched by Lewis, because ultimately the books we write are the overflow of the books we've read. (41)
Today God still uses Lewis to draw me further up and further in. My favorite paragraph, forever engraved on my heart--words found at the end of The Last Battle--is one of God's greatest gifts to me. I have read these words at many memorial services, and I hope that one day they will be red at mine.
'And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.'
Randy Alcorn [www.epm.org]. (42)
Some time later I experienced an unfounded attack on my reputation that struck at the very heart of my professional insecurities. Only then did I discover the real impact of Lewis's teaching in my life. In the midst of my agitation, I was forced to come face to face with the realization that I had the type of pride that Lewis in Mere Christianity described as the great sin. I was also forced into the realization that my insecurities were part of a self-centered false self. For perhaps the first time in my life, I truly experienced the daily battle of dying to self that required every ounce of my spiritual will. The pain that resulted from my false sense of pride helped me finally to realize that my false self would always lead me to heartache.
Even to this very day, the moment that I become conscious of stirrings of a feeling of self-importance, I rush directly to book 3, chapter 8 of Mere Christianity for my fix of reality therapy.
Mary DeKonty Applegate [wrote The Critical Reading Inventory]. (45)
Tony Applegate had dreams to make a fortune in life.
But I began to have strangely recurring thoughts about God and his insistent message that I should be doing something for others, not merely myself [so he went to seminary]. (46)
He sought the Lord with his wife.
I expected that I would again knock on the door but would again receive no answer. But I got something very different instead. I discovered Lewis's notion of God as the hunter, 'pulling at the other end of the cord,' calling me to acknowledge how wrong I had been nearly all of my life [God had been seeking me out all along]. (48)
C.S. Lewis opened a window on my mind for God's grace to shine through and strangely warm my imagination. Puddleglum [in The Silver Chair] says to the witch:
'Suppose we HAVE only dreamed, or made up, all those things--trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones...I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia...Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that's a small loss if the world's as dull a place as you say.'
Puddleglum's response gave my imagination a new answer to the questions I had been wrestling with. Puddleglum seemed to be saying that a world without meaning and hope is a world not worth believing in. Put more starkly, Puddleglum was saying that if truth is meaningless, then what is false is the better bet (of course, in a world where truth is meaningless, there really is no measure for what IS false, and in Puddleglum's world Narnia and Aslan really are true). (50-1)
Tom Arthur helped create a C.S. Lewis festival, which continues annually (www.cslewisfestival.org).
He also started a Socratic Club at his school [public debating on issues of the day]. (52)
Joy does not always come easily, especially during depression, but in reading Perelandra I learned the blessing of fighting for it. Throughout the Space Trilogy, the protagonist Elwin Ransom grapples with his role in multiple worlds. On Perelandra, Ransom experiences depression in addition to isolation, confusion, apprehension, and skepticism. While externally he is caught up in a cosmic struggle between heaven and hell, internally he is engaged in a struggle more enervating than anything he experienced on earth. I have always liked how Lewis portrays Ransom as fighting the devilish Un-man with his mind AND his body, because sometimes it takes every sort of strength to fight for good--especially in the midst of depression.
God had a specific task for Ransom, and Ransom is committed to doing it, despite what he regards as his limitations. (57)
...no matter what happens to me, I am not alone, and depression cannot deny God's purpose.
The Pilgrim's Regress was the most autobiographical of Lewis's fictional works.
He KNEW what he wrote. He didn't just think of it; he lived it. We all have our secrets [but] ...Lewis helped reveal to me how we all stand bare before God.
...to be fully human and Christian, the mind and the heart cannot be separated. Approaching God with one or the other, we lose half of the relationship. A life without both is empty and miserable. I have always been an intellectual. My challenge has been the sensual, allowing myself to experience pleasure and accepting enjoyment unburdened by analysis.
Lewis modeled for me how living in the light of God's presence means stimulating emotion, not suppressing it or permitting it to be suppressed. Lewis communicated to me the joys that await a mind and heart fully united.
...Lewis showed me that faith and reason serve best and shine brightest when they are bound together. Surrendering one for the sake of the other causes both to wither. (58)
Daniel Bailey [likely] now has a PhD in materials chemistry after exploring nanotechnology, which involves building and characterizing materials and devices at the nanoscale, or atomic level. (A nanometer is one BILLIONTH of a meter, about one TEN-THOUSANDTH the width of a human hair.) This will revolutionize energy, computers, medicine, and security. (58-9)
I found his reputation as an 'apostle to the skeptics' entirely justified. Lewis's ability to present complex moral arguments in everyday language and his observation that if you can't turn your faith into the vernacular, 'then either you don't understand it or you don't believe it,' made an indelible impression on me. (64)
[In Suprised by Joy, his spiritual autobiography] ...I find particularly resonant the vivid analogy of travelers who are lost in the woods. The sudden discovery of a signpost initially excites enthusiasm and relief among the wayfarers, but its relevance becomes less significant once they are on the right road and are passing signposts every few miles. Such is the influence of our spiritual mentors.
www.cslewisinireland.com [Ronald W. Bresland's site, who is a Lewis scholar]. (64)
In The Problem of Pain, Lewis says, 'There is no doctrine I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this (the doctrine of Hell), if it lay in my power. But it has the full of support of Scripture and, specially, of Our Lord's own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the proper support of reason. If a game is played, it must be possible to lose it.' (66)
The Great Divorce later gave me an unforgettable picture of the ominous emptiness of the Grey Town. Totally self-centered folk departed after death to the Grey Town, where they were haunted by the fear that the grey would someday turn into infinite night. There is no hope of escaping the Grey Town, which houses real personalities who have absolutely no meaning or significance. (66)
It was The Weight of Glory that later made heaven believable for me... He writes, 'At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door...We cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get IN.' And again: 'A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside.' GLORY! (66)
...it was not difficult for me to acknowledge the very real possibility of hell. The evidence of people behaving hellishly had become overwhelmingly evident as the Allies liberated the Nazi concentration camps. It was easy to conceive of another evil realm, a place where hellish things happened in an afterworld. Reason also dictated that there must be an opposite to this hellishness. (67)
[In] Mere Christianity] 'If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.' (67)
The Screwtape Letters: ...the devil will attack my 'holy habits' first, last and always.
Uncle Screwtape reproaches the apprentice demon, Wormwood, for permitting his 'patient' to become a Christian. 'All the HABITS of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favor.'
If a convert's habits remain the same, they will realize little of their life in Christ. (69)
New Modernity= from 'thinking to feeling.' (70)
Lewis' argument of 'Lunatic, Liar, or Lord' ...either this was absolutely true or absolutely insane. (73)
Pain was God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. (76)
I learned that culture was a storehouse of sub-Christian values, often a pleasure and an inspiration, but never a salvation. I turned this into my own expression, used often now, that culture can provide epiphanies but not theophanies. Lewis would have said it better, but I owe the thought to him. (77)
The Quotable Lewis [book].
In Australia we launched a conference called C.S. Lewis Today (www.cslewistoday.com).
Two people gave their lives to Christ and it made them think of a Lewis aphorism: 'like when a man, after long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.' (77)
[From Mere Christianity:] 'We 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.' I realized that my scientific life was looking at the house, while I had never considered the conversation (the moral law) as evidence of God. I needed to study the Creator.
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
Also: Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, Vol. 55, Number 3, September 2003.
[Francis Collins, 80)
Chuck Colson was changed by 'Pride' in Mere Christianity. (84)
14 people started the New York C.S. Lewis Society in 1969, the oldest of such groups, still largest, and still going strong. (86)
Francis Thompson symbolized God as the 'Hound of Heaven,' pursuing on relentless feet. With me, God was more like a cat. He had been stalking me for a very long time, waiting for his moment; he crept, nearing so silently that I never knew he was there. Then, all at once, he sprang. (92)
See the books 'Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C.S. Lewis" and 'A Passion for Souls: The Life of D.L. Moody.' (96)
You've noticed that too often, other Christians make disappointing ambassadors for the kingdom. Now I want you to work on the hard part--to yourself become an effective ambassador for the kingdom. (97)
That was an ingenious answer but not a very emotionally satisfying one [God knew in advance @ unreached peoples]...worry less about the MECHANISM of salvation and to focus more on the AUTHOR of salvation. (98)
In Perelanda...a profound meditation on the nature of good and evil. It suggests that we all carry Adam and Eve around inside of us, that we reach for the wrong fruit every day, and that we too often try to assert a godlike control over our own lives. (100-1)
See 'Francis Shaeffer: An Authentic Life.'
He taught me that it wasn't so much new truths that I needed but the frequent reminder of the same old truths and duties that one tires of and neglects--the duty of trust and obedience that I am so apt to carelessly forget and shirk. (110)
Lewis points out that we must conclude that Jesus was either God (as he claimed), a madman, or a liar. (114)
I would imagine that MERE CHRISTIANITY--and this passage in particular--may have transformed and converted more people in the world than nearly all other Christian books. (115)
...faith often comes before, not after, understanding. In fact, Lewis said we should test this proposition for ourselves, and, if we are not believers, to act as if we did believe, and discover the new world of God's truth. (115)
This is how we discover the meaning of life [in order to save my life, I am to lose it, in God]. [At end of Mere Christianity, it says:]
Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre in your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in. (115)
[See books by Gallop: 'The Gallup Guide--Reality Check for Churches in the 21st Century,' 'The Next American Spirituality,' & 'Surveying the Religious Landscape.']
...in the chapter 'Renaissance,' I wrote: 'Could Lewis' Joy be the desire for God, which contains, at the same moment, the presence of God? Could this mean that the mere desire for God is 'more desirable than any other satisfaction?' Could it be that all natural beauty was created for one main purpose--to inspire Joy, that is to say, to inspire the desire for God?' (117)
See 'The C.S. Lewis Index' & George MacDonald's 'The Princess and the Goblin.'
G.K. Chesterton & Charles Williams.
See Lewis' essays: 'The Grand Miracle,' 'Christian Apologetics,' 'Religion: Reality or Substitute?' 'God in the Dock,' & 'On Ethics.'
Joy Was His Name-THE BEST CHAPTER IN THE BOOK!
I had spent the last ten years in bitter opposition to God...If I were on the other side of the earth [Chicago to Budapest], who would be there to continue their efforts?
Although I was a missionary kid, I simply decided one day that I no longer accepted that title.
I had succeeded in holding God at bay for ten years, but now suddenly I felt him bursting into the room, uninvited [as he read Surprised by Joy, Joy=God].
[It turns out she told God over and over 'I'm so tired.' Then she told her sister what happened and WHEN. The sister grew VERY quiet. God woke her up that night to pray for her and those events PERFECTLY reflected the timing of her experiences in Budapest!]
Lewis too, embraced theism before a more specific faith came into focus.
He [Lewis] did, present a tremendous argument for the validity of the Bible.
[She lost passion for theater]. I would only regain my passion for theater when it was joined with that 'far superior and endlessly echoing passion for God.' (129-33)
Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. -Mere Christianity
'the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from.' (136)
''When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.'
Christ did 'not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it.' (136)
'The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become.' (137)
See J.B. Philip's 'Letters to Young Churches: A Translation of the New Testament Epistles.'
This man [Lewis] makes it sound as if the events recorded in the New Testament took place about five minutes ago, and are as important now as they were then.' (140)
...in chapter 14 of 'Miracles,' [it says] 'In science we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity we find the poem itself.' (142)
See Letters to Malcolm; An Experiment on Criticism (which is considered by Jeffrey to be the BEST Lewis book; "The Apologist's Evening Prayer."
See C.S. Lewis: Apostle to the Skeptics.
An old proverb says that "Some people come into our lives and quickly go, but others stay awhile and leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same." (146)
Notre Dame historian Mark Noll credits Clyde S. Kilby with being 'the one who introduced Americans to Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton and to their bracing vision of God's creating grace." (158)
It seemed Lewis had written books that scratched all my itches. (159-60)
I still marvel at Lewis's insight into Milton's Satan; Lewis says that it is much easier for a writer to create a character much worse than himself, while very difficult to create a character who is far better.
...he may be remembered by future generations as a composite of John Milton, John Bunyan, and Dr. Samuel Johnson. (160)
John C. Lennox:
In his brilliant book Mere Christianity, he asserted that the moral behavior of human beings from all cultures pointed toward the existence of a moral code that transcended culture. What is more, he showed that this is exactly what one would expect on the basis of the biblical account of the status of human life as created in the image of God.
...but he also rapidly disposed of the false notion that science does not involve faith by observing that no science could be done without prior faith in the rational intelligibility of the universe.
...he argued that belief in rationality itself is destroyed by the reductionist-atheist-materialist view that holds that the universe and life are nothing but the end product of unguided forces operating on matter.
Lewis's book MIRACLES helped me to see the flaws in David Hume's oft-cited arguments against miracles in general and the resurrection of Jesus Christ in particular. Against the prevalent notion that miracles 'break the laws of nature,' Lewis argued that the laws of nature are not causes but, rather, are our descriptions of what normally happens, so that the Creator, who is ultimately responsible for the regularities in the cosmos, is not a prisoner of those regularities. He is perfectly free to feed something new into the system. It is therefore absurd to suggest that science has shown that God could not encode himself into human life ('the Word became flesh' John 1:14). (162-3)
In The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton starts by saying, 'There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place.' (165)
Pain and suffering can also have a character-building effect, not just on the caregiver, but also on the innocent children and their parents, who suffer in various ways. The problem of pain still annoys me, but I must trust that God knows best [see Rom 8:18]. (22)
Lewis' spiritual autobiography [Surprised by Joy].
All my books are touched by Lewis, because ultimately the books we write are the overflow of the books we've read. (41)
Today God still uses Lewis to draw me further up and further in. My favorite paragraph, forever engraved on my heart--words found at the end of The Last Battle--is one of God's greatest gifts to me. I have read these words at many memorial services, and I hope that one day they will be red at mine.
'And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.'
Randy Alcorn [www.epm.org]. (42)
Some time later I experienced an unfounded attack on my reputation that struck at the very heart of my professional insecurities. Only then did I discover the real impact of Lewis's teaching in my life. In the midst of my agitation, I was forced to come face to face with the realization that I had the type of pride that Lewis in Mere Christianity described as the great sin. I was also forced into the realization that my insecurities were part of a self-centered false self. For perhaps the first time in my life, I truly experienced the daily battle of dying to self that required every ounce of my spiritual will. The pain that resulted from my false sense of pride helped me finally to realize that my false self would always lead me to heartache.
Even to this very day, the moment that I become conscious of stirrings of a feeling of self-importance, I rush directly to book 3, chapter 8 of Mere Christianity for my fix of reality therapy.
Mary DeKonty Applegate [wrote The Critical Reading Inventory]. (45)
Tony Applegate had dreams to make a fortune in life.
But I began to have strangely recurring thoughts about God and his insistent message that I should be doing something for others, not merely myself [so he went to seminary]. (46)
He sought the Lord with his wife.
I expected that I would again knock on the door but would again receive no answer. But I got something very different instead. I discovered Lewis's notion of God as the hunter, 'pulling at the other end of the cord,' calling me to acknowledge how wrong I had been nearly all of my life [God had been seeking me out all along]. (48)
C.S. Lewis opened a window on my mind for God's grace to shine through and strangely warm my imagination. Puddleglum [in The Silver Chair] says to the witch:
'Suppose we HAVE only dreamed, or made up, all those things--trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones...I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia...Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that's a small loss if the world's as dull a place as you say.'
Puddleglum's response gave my imagination a new answer to the questions I had been wrestling with. Puddleglum seemed to be saying that a world without meaning and hope is a world not worth believing in. Put more starkly, Puddleglum was saying that if truth is meaningless, then what is false is the better bet (of course, in a world where truth is meaningless, there really is no measure for what IS false, and in Puddleglum's world Narnia and Aslan really are true). (50-1)
Tom Arthur helped create a C.S. Lewis festival, which continues annually (www.cslewisfestival.org).
He also started a Socratic Club at his school [public debating on issues of the day]. (52)
Joy does not always come easily, especially during depression, but in reading Perelandra I learned the blessing of fighting for it. Throughout the Space Trilogy, the protagonist Elwin Ransom grapples with his role in multiple worlds. On Perelandra, Ransom experiences depression in addition to isolation, confusion, apprehension, and skepticism. While externally he is caught up in a cosmic struggle between heaven and hell, internally he is engaged in a struggle more enervating than anything he experienced on earth. I have always liked how Lewis portrays Ransom as fighting the devilish Un-man with his mind AND his body, because sometimes it takes every sort of strength to fight for good--especially in the midst of depression.
God had a specific task for Ransom, and Ransom is committed to doing it, despite what he regards as his limitations. (57)
...no matter what happens to me, I am not alone, and depression cannot deny God's purpose.
The Pilgrim's Regress was the most autobiographical of Lewis's fictional works.
He KNEW what he wrote. He didn't just think of it; he lived it. We all have our secrets [but] ...Lewis helped reveal to me how we all stand bare before God.
...to be fully human and Christian, the mind and the heart cannot be separated. Approaching God with one or the other, we lose half of the relationship. A life without both is empty and miserable. I have always been an intellectual. My challenge has been the sensual, allowing myself to experience pleasure and accepting enjoyment unburdened by analysis.
Lewis modeled for me how living in the light of God's presence means stimulating emotion, not suppressing it or permitting it to be suppressed. Lewis communicated to me the joys that await a mind and heart fully united.
...Lewis showed me that faith and reason serve best and shine brightest when they are bound together. Surrendering one for the sake of the other causes both to wither. (58)
Daniel Bailey [likely] now has a PhD in materials chemistry after exploring nanotechnology, which involves building and characterizing materials and devices at the nanoscale, or atomic level. (A nanometer is one BILLIONTH of a meter, about one TEN-THOUSANDTH the width of a human hair.) This will revolutionize energy, computers, medicine, and security. (58-9)
I found his reputation as an 'apostle to the skeptics' entirely justified. Lewis's ability to present complex moral arguments in everyday language and his observation that if you can't turn your faith into the vernacular, 'then either you don't understand it or you don't believe it,' made an indelible impression on me. (64)
[In Suprised by Joy, his spiritual autobiography] ...I find particularly resonant the vivid analogy of travelers who are lost in the woods. The sudden discovery of a signpost initially excites enthusiasm and relief among the wayfarers, but its relevance becomes less significant once they are on the right road and are passing signposts every few miles. Such is the influence of our spiritual mentors.
www.cslewisinireland.com [Ronald W. Bresland's site, who is a Lewis scholar]. (64)
In The Problem of Pain, Lewis says, 'There is no doctrine I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this (the doctrine of Hell), if it lay in my power. But it has the full of support of Scripture and, specially, of Our Lord's own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the proper support of reason. If a game is played, it must be possible to lose it.' (66)
The Great Divorce later gave me an unforgettable picture of the ominous emptiness of the Grey Town. Totally self-centered folk departed after death to the Grey Town, where they were haunted by the fear that the grey would someday turn into infinite night. There is no hope of escaping the Grey Town, which houses real personalities who have absolutely no meaning or significance. (66)
It was The Weight of Glory that later made heaven believable for me... He writes, 'At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door...We cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get IN.' And again: 'A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside.' GLORY! (66)
...it was not difficult for me to acknowledge the very real possibility of hell. The evidence of people behaving hellishly had become overwhelmingly evident as the Allies liberated the Nazi concentration camps. It was easy to conceive of another evil realm, a place where hellish things happened in an afterworld. Reason also dictated that there must be an opposite to this hellishness. (67)
[In] Mere Christianity] 'If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.' (67)
The Screwtape Letters: ...the devil will attack my 'holy habits' first, last and always.
Uncle Screwtape reproaches the apprentice demon, Wormwood, for permitting his 'patient' to become a Christian. 'All the HABITS of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favor.'
If a convert's habits remain the same, they will realize little of their life in Christ. (69)
New Modernity= from 'thinking to feeling.' (70)
Lewis' argument of 'Lunatic, Liar, or Lord' ...either this was absolutely true or absolutely insane. (73)
Pain was God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. (76)
I learned that culture was a storehouse of sub-Christian values, often a pleasure and an inspiration, but never a salvation. I turned this into my own expression, used often now, that culture can provide epiphanies but not theophanies. Lewis would have said it better, but I owe the thought to him. (77)
The Quotable Lewis [book].
In Australia we launched a conference called C.S. Lewis Today (www.cslewistoday.com).
Two people gave their lives to Christ and it made them think of a Lewis aphorism: 'like when a man, after long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.' (77)
[From Mere Christianity:] 'We 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.' I realized that my scientific life was looking at the house, while I had never considered the conversation (the moral law) as evidence of God. I needed to study the Creator.
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
Also: Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, Vol. 55, Number 3, September 2003.
[Francis Collins, 80)
Chuck Colson was changed by 'Pride' in Mere Christianity. (84)
14 people started the New York C.S. Lewis Society in 1969, the oldest of such groups, still largest, and still going strong. (86)
Francis Thompson symbolized God as the 'Hound of Heaven,' pursuing on relentless feet. With me, God was more like a cat. He had been stalking me for a very long time, waiting for his moment; he crept, nearing so silently that I never knew he was there. Then, all at once, he sprang. (92)
See the books 'Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C.S. Lewis" and 'A Passion for Souls: The Life of D.L. Moody.' (96)
You've noticed that too often, other Christians make disappointing ambassadors for the kingdom. Now I want you to work on the hard part--to yourself become an effective ambassador for the kingdom. (97)
That was an ingenious answer but not a very emotionally satisfying one [God knew in advance @ unreached peoples]...worry less about the MECHANISM of salvation and to focus more on the AUTHOR of salvation. (98)
In Perelanda...a profound meditation on the nature of good and evil. It suggests that we all carry Adam and Eve around inside of us, that we reach for the wrong fruit every day, and that we too often try to assert a godlike control over our own lives. (100-1)
See 'Francis Shaeffer: An Authentic Life.'
He taught me that it wasn't so much new truths that I needed but the frequent reminder of the same old truths and duties that one tires of and neglects--the duty of trust and obedience that I am so apt to carelessly forget and shirk. (110)
Lewis points out that we must conclude that Jesus was either God (as he claimed), a madman, or a liar. (114)
I would imagine that MERE CHRISTIANITY--and this passage in particular--may have transformed and converted more people in the world than nearly all other Christian books. (115)
...faith often comes before, not after, understanding. In fact, Lewis said we should test this proposition for ourselves, and, if we are not believers, to act as if we did believe, and discover the new world of God's truth. (115)
This is how we discover the meaning of life [in order to save my life, I am to lose it, in God]. [At end of Mere Christianity, it says:]
Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre in your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in. (115)
[See books by Gallop: 'The Gallup Guide--Reality Check for Churches in the 21st Century,' 'The Next American Spirituality,' & 'Surveying the Religious Landscape.']
...in the chapter 'Renaissance,' I wrote: 'Could Lewis' Joy be the desire for God, which contains, at the same moment, the presence of God? Could this mean that the mere desire for God is 'more desirable than any other satisfaction?' Could it be that all natural beauty was created for one main purpose--to inspire Joy, that is to say, to inspire the desire for God?' (117)
See 'The C.S. Lewis Index' & George MacDonald's 'The Princess and the Goblin.'
G.K. Chesterton & Charles Williams.
See Lewis' essays: 'The Grand Miracle,' 'Christian Apologetics,' 'Religion: Reality or Substitute?' 'God in the Dock,' & 'On Ethics.'
Joy Was His Name-THE BEST CHAPTER IN THE BOOK!
I had spent the last ten years in bitter opposition to God...If I were on the other side of the earth [Chicago to Budapest], who would be there to continue their efforts?
Although I was a missionary kid, I simply decided one day that I no longer accepted that title.
I had succeeded in holding God at bay for ten years, but now suddenly I felt him bursting into the room, uninvited [as he read Surprised by Joy, Joy=God].
[It turns out she told God over and over 'I'm so tired.' Then she told her sister what happened and WHEN. The sister grew VERY quiet. God woke her up that night to pray for her and those events PERFECTLY reflected the timing of her experiences in Budapest!]
Lewis too, embraced theism before a more specific faith came into focus.
He [Lewis] did, present a tremendous argument for the validity of the Bible.
[She lost passion for theater]. I would only regain my passion for theater when it was joined with that 'far superior and endlessly echoing passion for God.' (129-33)
Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. -Mere Christianity
'the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from.' (136)
''When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.'
Christ did 'not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it.' (136)
'The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become.' (137)
See J.B. Philip's 'Letters to Young Churches: A Translation of the New Testament Epistles.'
This man [Lewis] makes it sound as if the events recorded in the New Testament took place about five minutes ago, and are as important now as they were then.' (140)
...in chapter 14 of 'Miracles,' [it says] 'In science we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity we find the poem itself.' (142)
See Letters to Malcolm; An Experiment on Criticism (which is considered by Jeffrey to be the BEST Lewis book; "The Apologist's Evening Prayer."
See C.S. Lewis: Apostle to the Skeptics.
An old proverb says that "Some people come into our lives and quickly go, but others stay awhile and leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same." (146)
Notre Dame historian Mark Noll credits Clyde S. Kilby with being 'the one who introduced Americans to Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton and to their bracing vision of God's creating grace." (158)
It seemed Lewis had written books that scratched all my itches. (159-60)
I still marvel at Lewis's insight into Milton's Satan; Lewis says that it is much easier for a writer to create a character much worse than himself, while very difficult to create a character who is far better.
...he may be remembered by future generations as a composite of John Milton, John Bunyan, and Dr. Samuel Johnson. (160)
John C. Lennox:
In his brilliant book Mere Christianity, he asserted that the moral behavior of human beings from all cultures pointed toward the existence of a moral code that transcended culture. What is more, he showed that this is exactly what one would expect on the basis of the biblical account of the status of human life as created in the image of God.
...but he also rapidly disposed of the false notion that science does not involve faith by observing that no science could be done without prior faith in the rational intelligibility of the universe.
...he argued that belief in rationality itself is destroyed by the reductionist-atheist-materialist view that holds that the universe and life are nothing but the end product of unguided forces operating on matter.
Lewis's book MIRACLES helped me to see the flaws in David Hume's oft-cited arguments against miracles in general and the resurrection of Jesus Christ in particular. Against the prevalent notion that miracles 'break the laws of nature,' Lewis argued that the laws of nature are not causes but, rather, are our descriptions of what normally happens, so that the Creator, who is ultimately responsible for the regularities in the cosmos, is not a prisoner of those regularities. He is perfectly free to feed something new into the system. It is therefore absurd to suggest that science has shown that God could not encode himself into human life ('the Word became flesh' John 1:14). (162-3)
In The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton starts by saying, 'There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place.' (165)
January 25, 2021
Mere Christians is a compilation of testimonials, stories, telling about the impact CS Lewis's books have had on the lives of many who have become pivotal in Kingdom work, through their own writing, pastoring, professorial work. The stories are touching, intellectual, homey, inspiring, and poignant, and reinforce the impact CS Lewis's life work had on people who then touch many others.
The constant theme is that somehow, the Holy Spirit has used this humble, brilliant, imaginative man to unlock doors preventing many from wholehearted acceptance of the wonder, the seemingly impossible, the immensity, the miraculousness, and the perfect logic, of God.
The list of Lewis's works given as powerful pivot points in people's lives was significant and varied, but there were some named much more often than others: Mere Christianity and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, to no one's surprise, but also often named were:
* The Silver Chair at the powerful moment when Puddleglum puts his foot in the fire, and declares his loyalty to Narnia even if it turns out it isn't real.
*Surprised By Joy
*'Til We Have Faces
*The Three Loves
*The Last Battle, with its thrilling sight of what Heaven might be like, of the cry to "Go further up! Go further in!" and the insight that this mortal life are like the covers of a book, one whose real story can only now begin! as we move into eternal life
*The Great Divorce, stripping people's excuse of rejecting God over the teaching about hell
*Shadowlands,who which gave great hope to those treading water
*The Magician's Nephew, with its concept of the land between the worlds...
*The Preface to Milton's Paradise Lost
and more I'm not remembering right now... but these were each named as instrumental, over and over, as the concepts and words God used to turn the light on spiritually and intellectually, to free the reader to embrace a God too big to understand, so outside of the constraints of His creation, so irrefutably logical.
Three things I particularly loved were:
1) The deep thrill as I remembered my reaction to reading THAT passage,
2) The recommendations of some CS Lewis books I have never read! as well as those of others of the Inklings, and
3) The recommendation, repeated by several contributors, to adopt a Life Author, a "Shadow Mentor" - and spend your life reading their works until you hear their "voice" in daily life. I spent many years mentoring a young mom through difficult years, and some time later, she called me long distance with a spiritual and moral dilemma. When I spoke, she joyfully said, "I knew that's what you would say! I felt like I could hear you say it! but I needed to hear it with my ears to be sure!" Though several years and 100s of miles away, she knew me well, because she had paid attention when I sat with her and applied the Scriptures to daily life. I had moved from mentor to shadow mentor. Isn't that what Paul felt when he said "There is no greater joy than to see your children walking in the truth!"? That is what I had in my Godly husband, now with Christ, and what I have with Elisabeth Elliot, and what I have, too, this book made me realize, in C S Lewis! I can hear them from the distance as God speaks to my heart.
[I would given it 5 stars, but for the propensity of the a few of the contributors to come uncomfortably close to putting too high a praise on the message-bearer, instead of the Lord who sent the message - a very subjective reaction on my part, and a sensitive area, having spent time in a Bible-based but narcissisticly pastored "church" ("cult?").]
My tearfilled heart's cry at the end of the book? "Lord, let me be Your donkey!!"
The constant theme is that somehow, the Holy Spirit has used this humble, brilliant, imaginative man to unlock doors preventing many from wholehearted acceptance of the wonder, the seemingly impossible, the immensity, the miraculousness, and the perfect logic, of God.
The list of Lewis's works given as powerful pivot points in people's lives was significant and varied, but there were some named much more often than others: Mere Christianity and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, to no one's surprise, but also often named were:
* The Silver Chair at the powerful moment when Puddleglum puts his foot in the fire, and declares his loyalty to Narnia even if it turns out it isn't real.
*Surprised By Joy
*'Til We Have Faces
*The Three Loves
*The Last Battle, with its thrilling sight of what Heaven might be like, of the cry to "Go further up! Go further in!" and the insight that this mortal life are like the covers of a book, one whose real story can only now begin! as we move into eternal life
*The Great Divorce, stripping people's excuse of rejecting God over the teaching about hell
*Shadowlands,who which gave great hope to those treading water
*The Magician's Nephew, with its concept of the land between the worlds...
*The Preface to Milton's Paradise Lost
and more I'm not remembering right now... but these were each named as instrumental, over and over, as the concepts and words God used to turn the light on spiritually and intellectually, to free the reader to embrace a God too big to understand, so outside of the constraints of His creation, so irrefutably logical.
Three things I particularly loved were:
1) The deep thrill as I remembered my reaction to reading THAT passage,
2) The recommendations of some CS Lewis books I have never read! as well as those of others of the Inklings, and
3) The recommendation, repeated by several contributors, to adopt a Life Author, a "Shadow Mentor" - and spend your life reading their works until you hear their "voice" in daily life. I spent many years mentoring a young mom through difficult years, and some time later, she called me long distance with a spiritual and moral dilemma. When I spoke, she joyfully said, "I knew that's what you would say! I felt like I could hear you say it! but I needed to hear it with my ears to be sure!" Though several years and 100s of miles away, she knew me well, because she had paid attention when I sat with her and applied the Scriptures to daily life. I had moved from mentor to shadow mentor. Isn't that what Paul felt when he said "There is no greater joy than to see your children walking in the truth!"? That is what I had in my Godly husband, now with Christ, and what I have with Elisabeth Elliot, and what I have, too, this book made me realize, in C S Lewis! I can hear them from the distance as God speaks to my heart.
[I would given it 5 stars, but for the propensity of the a few of the contributors to come uncomfortably close to putting too high a praise on the message-bearer, instead of the Lord who sent the message - a very subjective reaction on my part, and a sensitive area, having spent time in a Bible-based but narcissisticly pastored "church" ("cult?").]
My tearfilled heart's cry at the end of the book? "Lord, let me be Your donkey!!"
November 26, 2024
This book is an excellent collection of personal stories from a small sample of people who have been positively affected by the works of C.S. (Jack) Lewis. Some reviews I have seen about this book say it isn't a compelling read, the articles reading like "blurbs" advertising Lewis. I think this is the wrong way to look at this book, however. It's much more like a devotional which can been read as slow or fast as the reader wants to read it. In the book of Revelation we are told that we overcome "by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony". This book is a collection of Christians telling portions of their testimony and how Lewis intersected with their lives in vital ways, giving great encouragement. I definitely recommend this book to everyone who is either a fan of Lewis or even mildly interested in him.
July 23, 2019
The subtitle to this one was misleading: “Inspiring Stories of Encounters with CS Lewis.” I’d assumed that this would contain stories from people who’d actually met him, but this was actually just essays from people who were affected/inspired/transformed by Lewis’ work (and only three of those had actually met him). But despite my disappointment (and the fact that I just wasn’t interested enough to read every single essay), this book has made me want to go read everything that CS Lewis has written, so it certainly wasn’t time wasted. It was a good idea but just not what I’d hoped it would be.
October 11, 2023
Very interesting book. I have not read another book like it. It was a collection of reflections by people who’s faith began through reading C.S. Lewis. I enjoyed it and was supposed to see how big of an influence Lewis had and still has in the world.
August 28, 2023
I finished reading this Eaudiobook from Hoopla on Sunday, August 27, 2023 at 1:37 a.m.
November 18, 2023
I will soon read Mere Christianity. Will be available in two weeks. This book is surprising to me, because so much of the theology of Lewis is wrong. It is testimonials of 50+ people who were sharing their appreciation for Lewis, and what he meant to them. Did these not know what he believed? Most don’t, because he then would not be known as the best writer of his time or a great theologian. I don’t like the word mere in the context of Christians or Christianity. It implies just, no more than and no less than. Christians are “ the righteousness of God in Christ,” a new creation in Christ, and loved as much, by the Heavenly Father, as Jesus is loved. For we are in Christ, united with Him, and accepted as such. Lewis was an atheist, then a theist, then Catholic, and lastly, Anglican. That should tell us a lot. Anglican is a break away from Catholicism. As he grew got older, some of his beliefs changed for the better. He couldn’t continue to be Catholic because they made Mary the center of their faith, and always have. He came to the belief that the Pope was not infallible, as Catholics have always believed. They worship Mary and the Pope. Mary is called co creator, since she brought Jesus into the world. She is said to be the mother of God. Not so. She is the mother of Jesus, the second person of the trinity, clothed in flesh. God doesn’t have a mother. Did more research on Lewis , I concluded that his beliefs had not changed very much. People can quote Scripture and not believe it. They can say they do and may not. This was Lewis. The majority think he believed rightly. How so many missed or miss his real beliefs is scary. God can use those whom He chooses, and many have been blessed by this man. Glad He did. Maybe the devil blinded us to his true beliefs, giving the Holy Spirit the opportunity to use him. I’m not blinded any longer. I know the Bible better than most. If I had known his beliefs at the beginning, I would not have fallen for his teachings. He can be extremely hard to understand on top of every thing else. I am free from his rhetoric, but I will read Mere Christianity with eyes wide open!!! CathyR
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 30, 2014
A collection of 55 stories by men and women whose lives were dramatically impacted by Lewis and his writing. Inspiring and fascinating—not only that many became Christians as a result of reading Lewis, but whose careers often bore a connection to him. Some of the writers are well-known, some everyday folk.
Lewis admirers will connect with the stories and the writers . . . and perhaps be motivated to write their own stories.
Lewis admirers will connect with the stories and the writers . . . and perhaps be motivated to write their own stories.
June 5, 2014
This is a book written by those who have been influenced by the writings of C.S. Lewis. The book does not exhaust by any means those whose lives have been changed or influenced by him, but it was very interessting to read about so many people who liked his writings.
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" and "To Whom It May Concern"
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" and "To Whom It May Concern"
October 30, 2016
I picked this one up expecting to hear stories of people who personally knew and interacted with C.S. Lewis. Instead I heard testimonies of well accomplished and even famous Christians whose lives were positively affected by his writings, speeches, and books. It's a good book but one that would be great for people who don't know much about Lewis and are wondering if he's worth reading.
Want to read
May 17, 20252025 May. Just heard a fantastic podcast interview of the author: "The Secret Message of Till We Have Faces" (That'll Preach). Do not be deterred by the click-baity title.
2016. Recommended by a colleague who loves Lewis and knows the narrators.
2016. Recommended by a colleague who loves Lewis and knows the narrators.
April 20, 2011
Compelling, fascinating, a chapter a day opens up new horizons on Lewis.
October 30, 2012
Interesting to see how C.S. Lewis has influenced other people. More of a bathroom read.
April 10, 2017
A great collection of personal stories.
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