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{{Infobox_Contents |
topic_name = Mere Christianity
[[Image:MereChristianity.JPG|thumb|centerZThe cover of the bookcenter]] |
subtopics = [[C.S. Lewis]]
* [[Mere Christianity]]* [[Trilemma argument]] |
opinion_pieces = {{short_opinions}} |
}}
Mere Christianity was adapted from a 1943 series of BBC radio chats broadcast while Lewis was an Oxford don during World War II. The transcripts of the broadcasts, expanded into book form, originally appeared in print as three separate pamphlets, "The Case for Christianity", "Christian Behavior", and "Beyond Personality."
The title, Mere Christianity, indicates the intention of Lewis, an [[Anglican]], to describe the [[Christian]] common-ground. He aims at avoiding controversies to explain those things that have defined [[Christianity]] in nearly all places and times. Lewis restates the fundamental teachings of the Christianity, for the sake of those basically educated as well as the intellectuals of his generation, for whom the jargon of formal Christian theology did not retain its intended meaning.
Of course, the book has not been received entirely without controversy. For example, the chronicle of Lewis's conversion from [[atheism]] contains some of the author's reasons for believing which, as may be expected, some have found to be compelling while others have found unconvincing. Lewis famously arguesthe so-called [[Trilemma Argument]]:
: ''A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool 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 human teacher. He has not left that open to us.''
==Quotes==
'''Extract from the book'''
: ''Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is...''
==Links==
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/people/cslewis_16.shtml BBC - Recording of C.S. Lewis delivering the chapter "The New Men"]
{{returnto}} [[Chrisitan Christianity]] -> [[Christian literature, art, music and media]] -> [[Christian literature]]
[[Category:Christian literature]]