Top 30 Apologetics Books (#16): C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
By Rob Bowman | Plus, Charles Taylor and the Immanent Frame | A Note from Paul Copan
Quotable
Charles Taylor uses the term immanent frame to refer to how in the current cultural context people view everything in terms of a natural rather than a supernatural order. The modern social imagination, which is deeply imbedded in much of our culture, works from the assumption that while people can find significance or meaning in life (immanence), there is no higher, divinely given purpose that has been assigned to them (transcendence).
A helpful way of understanding the immanent frame is to picture a two-story building. Our premodern ancestors lived in a two-story world. Humans lived on the first level but believed in the existence of a second floor—a higher realm. Theirs was an enchanted world where higher beings were assumed to be active and relevant to the affairs of everyday life. There was something greater beyond this life, a higher realm of existence that gave meaning and purpose to life. In contrast, today we live in a disenchanted, one-story world that denies the existence of the divine or the supernatural. In much of the West, the commonly shared habits, goals, and symbols of day-to-day life and the meaning commonly ascribed to it point us to the physical world around us and normally no further. Thus, as we inherit these habits, goals, and symbols from our culture, we consciously and subconsciously absorb (though mostly subconsciously) the drive to live for, long for, and learn of things on the first level.
And yet even within this one-story frame, some have reacted against the moral order of modernism, which seeks to offer meaning, significance, and morality without ultimate, transcendent meaning or an ultimate, transcendent God. Although some have found the disenchanted new moral order freeing, many others have found it uninspiring and feel it lacks “fullness.”* These diverse attitudes have led to what Charles Taylor refers to as the “ ‘nova’ effect,” which describes how, even within immanent frame, there has been a “multiplication of a greater and greater variety of different spiritual options.”
But even when religious activity is present, we still find ourselves in a secular age, an environment in which even the religious are strongly aware of the contestability of their beliefs. In this present age, it seems there is no position that cannot and should not be called into question from a variety of angles. In the next chapter, we will discuss more trends associated with the immanent frame, but for now it is enough to note that the contestability of beliefs in late modernism has made us more prone to doubt.
*James K. A. Smith provides a helpful gloss for Taylor’s usage of fullness: “A term meant to capture the human impulsion to find significance, meaning, and value—even if entirely within the immanent frame” (How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor [Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2014,] 141).
— Joshua D. Chatraw and Mark D. Allen, Apologetics at the Cross: An Introduction for Christian Witness (Zondervan, 2018), 207, 208.
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#16: C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1944)
Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963), known to his friends as “Jack,” was almost without doubt the most popular Christian apologist internationally in the twentieth century. Reportedly over 200 million copies of Lewis’s books have been sold, including the beloved seven-volume Chronicles of Narnia, a three-book science fiction series, and many other books in addition to his works of apologetics. No wonder, then, that Time magazine labeled him the twentieth century’s “most-read apologist for God.”
Lewis’s best-known apologetic work, Mere Christianity, was really a combination of three books (The Case for Christianity, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality). A 1993 Christianity Today poll found it far and away the most influential book in readers’ Christian lives, apart from the Bible. In its original form as BBC radio talks during World War II, Mere Christianity may actually have contributed in some measure to the Allied victory by encouraging faith and hope among the British people.
We will focus here on The Case for Christianity, the first part of Mere Christianity. This work is itself divided into two “books.” Book I is entitled “Right And Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe.” Here Lewis presents the moral argument for God. He explains that this argument shows that there is a Power, something or someone behind the moral law but does not prove that the God of Christianity is that Power. This Power, however, must be something like a Mind. Since this Mind expects moral behavior of us and we all too often fail to produce it, what we have found so far is bad news.
The good news is what Christianity has to offer, based on God having revealed himself. This is the subject of Book II, “What Christians Believe.” Here Lewis argues that neither pantheism nor dualism can adequately account for evil, which is neither illusory nor a power equal to good. This leaves theism, the belief that God created the world and made humans with the capacity to make choices—a capacity we have misused by doing evil. God’s response to evil was to come as a human being, Jesus. Here Lewis presents his most famous argument: that since Jesus claimed to be God, he must either be a very bad man (either consciously evil or completely insane) or actually be God. Since Jesus clearly was not a very bad man, he must really be God. Lewis was quite aware, by the way, that many critics argue that Jesus never made divine claims, an argument he addresses elsewhere. Here Lewis focuses attention on the Gospel accounts of Jesus forgiving sins—something critical scholars would have an especially difficult time dismissing as later legend. As Lewis points out, Jesus was either incredibly arrogant to think he had the authority to forgive someone of every sin he had ever committed, or Jesus really had that authority.
75 years after it was first published, Mere Christianity is today constantly one of the bestselling Christian apologetics books on Amazon.
Note: This series originally appeared in the Apologetics Book Club group on Facebook and was revised for publication as a book, Faith Thinkers: 30 Christian Apologists You Should Know (Tampa, FL: De Ward, 2019). The book includes an introduction, additional quotes from each of the 30 books, readings for each author, and a list of other recommended readings. For a free excerpt from the published book, please visit https://faiththinkers.org.
—Rob Bowman Jr.is an evangelical Christian apologist, biblical scholar, author, editor, and lecturer. He is the author of over sixty articles and author or co-author of thirteen books, including Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ, co-authored with J. Ed Komoszewski. He leads the Apologetics Book Club on Facebook.
A Note from Dr. Paul Copan
As I think about the Advent season, I am reminded about my recent trip to Israel, where I was able to see where “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God became a Jew! As we proclaim the gospel, we tell others the good news that God is with us—that he took on our humanity; that he identifies with us in our weakness, distress, and temptations; and that he rescues us from the powers of sin, death, and the devil.
This message is not only powerful and transformational. It is also publicly defensible. With our Worldview Bulletin, we seek to equip our readers as they proclaim and defend the good news of the gospel. Please join the growing number of subscribing members who draw on resources we ourselves have found helpful in articulating and giving reasons for the good news of Jesus in the marketplace of ideas.
Blessings,
Paul Copan
Book Highlight
*Unless otherwise noted, descriptions are those provided by the publisher, sometimes edited for brevity.
2019 Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year: Apologetics
2018 The Gospel Coalition Book Award: Evangelism & Apologetics
Amid the pluralism and secularism of Western culture, Christian apologetics has experienced a renewal of interest. In Apologetics at the Cross, Joshua D. Chatraw and Mark D. Allen provide an introduction to the field, acquainting students and lay learners with the rich history, biblical foundation, and ongoing relevance of apologetics.
Unique in its approach, Apologetics at the Cross presents the biblical and historical foundations for apologetics, explores various contemporary methods for approaching apologetics, and gives practical guidance in "how to" chapters that feature many real-life illustrations. With their respectful approach, which pays special attention to the attitude and posture of the apologist, Chatraw and Allen equip Christians to engage skeptics with the heart as well as the mind.
Conversational in tone and balanced in approach, Apologetics at the Cross provides a readable introduction to the field of apologetics. Readers will be informed and equipped for engaging a wide range of contemporary challenges with the best in Christian thought.
Endorsements
"In our culture, the practice of apologetics has moved from being a 'boutique' topic for specialists to being a requirement for even having a conversation with one’s neighbor. Joshua Chatraw and Mark Allen have produced the most comprehensive, accessible, and up-to-date manual on Christian apologetics that I know of. Despite how full its treatment of the subject, it is eminently readable. The authors present all the various approaches to apologetics respectfully, proposing their own pathway that incorporates a large range of insights from many disciplines and thinkers. Highly recommended."
— Timothy Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan
“One of the best books about apologetics I have read. It offers a compelling vision for the place of apologetics in the life of individual believers and the church, drawing on the rich wisdom of the Christian past and the best recent approaches to the apologetic task.”
— Alister E. McGrath, Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford
Find Apologetics at the Cross at Logos, Amazon, Zondervan, and other major booksellers.