Purchase Mere Christianity on Amazon.
Book I: Right And Wrong As A Clue To The Meaning Of The Universe
Chapter 1: The Law of Human Nature
Watch C.S. Lewis Doodles – “Right & Wrong” – https://youtu.be/QmHXYhpEDfM .
A. Universal
“There has been a great deal of soft soap talked about God for the last hundred years. That is not what I am offering.” ─ Jack
1. Read Romans 2:14-16.
In your opinion, what is Lewis offering in Mere Christianity?
2. Read Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7.
The Law of Human Nature is not the same as the laws of science. What does this say about the difference between humans and other created things?
3. Read Romans 1:18-23.
Can the Law of Human Nature be suppressed? Can it be applied inequitably?
B. Universally Broken
4. Read Romans 3:23; James 4:17.
Why do humans not follow their own law as other objects do?
5. Lewis stated that we find common traces of a universal standard of right and wrong in all religions. Do you detect traces of a universal standard in society today?
6. How have philosophers explained or refuted the notion of universal moral law?
Chapter 2: Some Objections
Watch C.S. Lewis Doodles – “Some Objections” – https://youtu.be/l_VYCqCexow .
A. Moral Law: Evolved Herd Instinct?
“The Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play; our instincts are merely the keys.” ─ Jack
1. Read Romans 7:21-24.
Do you agree with Lewis that we can appeal to an objective, God-given “Moral Law”?
2. What is the difference between desire and conscience?
3. Read Genesis 2:16-17; 3:4-5.
When two impulses conflict, what is the “decider”? What is the higher authority we appeal to determine if applying or suppressing our instincts would be good or bad?
B. Moral Law: Social Convention?
4. Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
Can Moral Law be taught?
5. Do moral laws change over time?
6. Can you think of examples, in addition to Lewis’, to address the issue of knowing and applying Moral Law?
Chapter 3: The Reality of the Law
Watch C.S. Lewis Doodles – “The Reality of the Moral Law” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqsAzlFS91A&feature=youtu.be .
“I’m not concerned at present with blame. I’m trying to find truth.” ─ Jack
1. Consequences
1. How is the Law of Human Nature/Moral Law distinguished from other laws?
2. Odd Reality
2. We explain away our failure to follow Moral Law. Why?
3. Unlike Physical Laws
3. Read 2 Corinthians 4:17-5:1 and Romans 1:19-20.
How does Moral Law represent a different form of reality?
Immanuel Kant said that the Universal Moral Law, or “Categorical Imperative,” leads to reason and the discerning of good will from duty.
“Both love of mankind, and respect for their rights are duties; the former however is only a conditional, the latter an unconditional, purely imperative duty, which he must be perfectly certain not to have transgressed who would give himself up to the secret emotions arising from benevolence.”
“Morality is not really the doctrine of how to make ourselves happy but of how we are to be worthy of happiness.”
“The death of dogma is the birth of morality.”
“May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law.”
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel said that reason is reality, which is worked out over time and within society (history and human relationships).
“The laws of morality are not accidental, but are essentially Rational. It is the very object of the State that what is essential in the practical activity of men, and in their dispositions, should be duly recognized; that it should have a manifest existence, and maintain its position. It is the absolute interest of Reason that this moral Whole should exist; and herein lies the justification and merit of heroes who have founded states – however rude these may have been.”
Chapter 4: What Lies Behind the Law?
Watch C.S. Lewis Doodles – “What Lies Beyond the Moral Law”
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcRFYGr1zcg&feature=youtu.be .
“If there was a controlling power outside the universe, it could not show itself to us as one of the facts inside the universe — no more than the architect of a house could actually be a wall or staircase or fireplace in that house.” — Jack
A. The Materialist View & The Religious View
1. How does Lewis distinguish the Materialist View from the Religious View?
B. The Questions Science Answers
2. Read Deuteronomy 29:29.
What are the limitations of science?
3. What does science ask and what can it answer?
C. Psychoanalytic Observation
4. What are the limitations of psychoanalysis?
5. Read 1 Corinthians 2:6-13.
What can we deduce about morality from observing human behavior?
D. The Life-Force Philosophy
6. Read John 1:9-14.
Does this notion of life-force (a mindless god), or a perpetual becoming, bring any movies to mind? Other cultural movements or popular views?
“Matter or mind, reality has appeared to us as a perpetual becoming. It makes itself or it unmakes itself, but it is never something made. Such is the intuition that we have of mind when we draw aside the veil, which is interposed between our consciousness and ourselves. This, also, is what our intellect and senses themselves would show us of matter, if they could obtain a direct and disinterested idea of it.”
─ Henri Bergson in Creative Evolution, 1911.
Chapter 5: We Have Cause To Be Uneasy
Watch C.S. Lewis Doodles – “We Have Cause To Be Uneasy” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdHFU1Hsd-w&feature=youtu.be .
“Most of us have got over the pre-war wishful thinking about international politics. It is time we did the same about religion.” ─ Jack
A. “Going back is the quickest way on.”
1. Why is it so difficult for us to go back in order to progress?
2. What is this “wishful thinking” when it comes to religion?
3. What are some examples of religious illusions?
B. Discovering Moral Law on Our Own
4. If we are created by a great creative being, is this Creator good?
5. Is this Creator indulgent?
6. Read Hebrews 10:26-27, 12:28-29.
What is our dilemma with respect to goodness?
C. Dismay and Comfort
7. Read Romans 6:17-18, 7:21-8:1 and 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.
What is our only hope and comfort?
8. Read Matthew 5:4 and 9:10-13.
What must come before true comfort? Whom did Jesus come for?
Book II: What Christians Believe
Chapter 1: The Rival Conceptions of God
Watch C.S. Lewis Doodles – ”The Rival Conceptions of God”
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaGwF7A79_w&feature=youtu.be .
“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.”
─ Jack
A. Traces of Truth
1- What is the one thing Christians should NOT believe?
2- What MUST atheists believe?
3- Read Acts 17.
How did Paul use his knowledge of other religions and philosophies to his advantage?
B. Division of Humanity
4. What is the primary, big division of Humanity?
5. And which side of this division is the minority? Why?
C. Nature of Your God
6. What is the nature of the Pantheist’s god(s)?
7. How does Lewis illustrate this viewpoint?
8. What is the nature of the God of the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam)?
9. Read Matthew 10:34-39 and Luke 12:51-53.
Is Christianity a fighting religion?
10. How is the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam beyond good and evil?
D. World Gone Wrong
1. Why has the world gone wrong?
2. Why did Lewis previously reject Christianity’s answer for this wrong world?
3. What is the obvious flaw of Atheism?
4. What does Lewis say about the nature of anything real?
Chapter 2: The Invasion
Watch “PHILOSOPHY – Religion: Classical Theism 6 (Evil and Goodness in the World)” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vku0LcbNSzo&feature=youtu.be .
“Enemy-occupied territory — that is what the world is.” ─ Jack
A. Christianity-and-water
1. How is this fashion of Christianity like Atheism?
2. How does Lewis advise us in dealing with these folks holding simple views?
B. The Dilemma
1. Read Genesis 3: 17-19 and Romans 8:20-23.
How did the world go wrong?
2. How does Lewis say Dualism compares to Christianity?
C. Dualism’s Big Problem
1. What does Lewis say is “a catch” with Dualism?
2. How does the Dualist describe good power and bad power? Do any movies or novels come to mind?
3. What does Lewis say Christians need to understand about the dynamics, or nature, of good and evil?
D. Goodness & Evil
1. Read Genesis 3:6, 16:2, Leviticus 10:1-2, and 2 Samuel 6:5-7.
What is wickedness? What are good things that could precede bad?
2. What does Lewis say about the root of evil and nature of Satan?
E. Dualism & Christianity
1. How is Christianity similar to Dualism? How do the two differ?
2. Read Ephesians 2:1-2, 1 John 5:19, Jude 6, and 2 Peter 2:4.
What does Christianity say about the state of the world?
3. What term does Lewis use to describe the state of the world?
Chapter 3: The Shocking Alternative
Watch “The True Myth” – https://youtu.be/NzBT39gx-TE .
“This impossibility of letting in daylight on a delusion does sometimes cover and conceal a delusion of divinity. It can be found, not among prophets and sages and founders of religions, but only among a low set of lunatics. But this is exactly where the argument becomes intensely interesting; because the argument proves too much. For nobody supposes that Jesus of Nazareth was that sort of person. No modem critic in his five wits thinks that the preacher of the Sermon on the Mount was a horrible half-witted imbecile that might be scrawling stars on the walls of a cell. No atheist or blasphemer believes that the author of the Parable of the Prodigal Son was a monster with one mad idea like a Cyclops with one eye. Upon any possible historical criticism, he must be put higher in the scale of human beings than that. Yet by all analogy we have really to put him there or else in the highest place of all.”
— G.K. Chesterton from The Everlasting Man, 1925
A. God’s Will
1. Read Ezekiel 18:23, 32 & 33:11; 2 Peter 3:9; and 1 Timothy 2:3-4.
Is the state of the world in accordance with God’s will?
2. What is the familiar example Lewis gives for illustrating how God applies His omnipotence in the world?
B. Free Will
3. How is the outcome worth the cost for God?
4. What does Lewis say about our arguing against God on this point?
C. Dark Power
5. What does Lewis say that God has designed the human machine to run on?
6. Read Genesis 3:5-6 and Isaiah 14:12-14.
But what do we do? How do we try to find happiness?
D. Good Dreams
7. Lewis said that God has given us a conscience and sent us good dreams. Why?
8. What were Jesus’ claims about himself?
E. “The Trilemma”
9. Why would it be preposterous for anyone but God to forgive sins?
10. Read Matthew 9:1-8, Luke 7:48-50, and Mark 2:5-12.
Jesus must be a _________, _________, or __________.
Chapter 4: The Perfect Penitent
Watch “Is Jesus Lord, Liar or Lunatic?” – https://youtu.be/67c7UfrNsPc .
“A man can eat his dinner without understanding how food nourishes him. A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works; indeed, he certainly would not know how it works until he has accepted it.” ─ Jack
A. God in Enemy Territory
1. Read John 3:16-18, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, John 1:29, Matthew 20:25-28, and
Romans 4:23-25.
Why did God infiltrate this enemy-occupied territory?
2. Read Titus 2:11-14, and Ephesians 2:4-7.
How did God infiltrate this enemy-occupied territory?
B. Two Theories
3. Why does Lewis think that Penal Substitution is “a very silly theory”?
4. Read Romans 5:12-14, 6:23; Colossians 2:13-15, and Acts 3:19.
According to the Payment of Debt theory, what is the debt that only Christ can pay?
C. The Nature of Repentance
5. Read Colossians 1:21-22.
How is our bad behavior more than a character flaw?
6. How does God help us repent?
D. The Catch-22
7. Read 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 3:13, and 1 John 3:4-5.
What does God do to perfect our repentance?
8. Read Hebrews 2:14-15, 5:8-9; Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:3-11, and Philippians 2:8.
How do we share in God’s death?
E. The Complaint
9. In what sense does Lewis say the atonement was “easy” for Jesus?
10. What examples does he use to illustrate this assertion?
Chapter 5: The Practical Conclusion
Watch “Jesus on Trial”: https://youtu.be/8CN-pzZweSg .
“[A Christian] does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” ─ Jack
A. New Man and a New Life
1. Read Mark 2:21, John 3:3-8, Romans 6:4, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and Revelation 21:5-7.
What does Lewis say is the three-part process taught to us by Jesus (the conductors of this new kind of life)?
2. What is the basis of this authority under which we practice this process?
3. How does Lewis distinguish a live body from a dead one? How does this relate to a living life?
B. Good Works
4. How do we please God?
5. How does this Christian perspective differ from the world’s?
C. Life in Christ
6. Read 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, 12:14-27; Ephesians 5:29-33, and Romans 12:4-5.
In what way is life in Christ physical?
7. What does Lewis say about matter?
D. The “Unreached”
8. What does Lewis say is the best way to reach others with the gospel?
9. What does Lewis say about those who have never heard the gospel in this life?
E. Invade by Force?
10. Read 2 Corinthians 5:10 and Hebrews 9:27-28.
Why doesn’t God just invade by force rather than come behind enemy lines?
11. “When the author walks on the stage, the play is over.” Explain this
Book III: Christian Behavior
Chapter 1: The Three Parts of Morality
Watch RZIM’s “The Behavior of Christians” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG5aZygZLQI&feature=youtu.b .
“It seems then, that if we are to think about morality, we must think of all three departments: relations between man and man; things inside each man; and relations between man and the power that made him.” ─ Jack
A. Moral Ideals vs. Moral Rules
1. Read Proverbs 14:12.
How does Lewis distinguish moral ideals from moral rules?
2. How is morality like arithmetic?
B. The Human Machine Going Wrong
3. Read Matthew 7:12; Romans 14:7, 15:1-3; and Matthew 18:6.
What does Lewis say are the two ways that the human machine goes wrong?
4. Read Matthew 5:29-30, 6:22-24, 7:3-5; and Romans 7:5.
Explain Lewis’s fleet of ships analogy.
C. Morality’s Three Parts
“ You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you cannot have a good society.” ─ Jack
5. What are the three parts of morality according to Lewis?
6. Which part have people been most preoccupied with?
7. Read Matthew 16:26.
What does Lewis say about the importance of the individual?
Chapter 2: The Cardinal Virtues
Watch this TED talk by Bryan Stevenson (his grandmother; Rosa Parks): https://youtu.be/c2tOp7OxyQ8 .
“God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers. If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all.” ─ Jack
A. Prudence
1. Read Matthew 10:16.
What is prudence?
2. What does Lewis say is “sharpened” by being a Christian?
B. Temperance
3. Read Galatians 5:19-23; 1 Corinthians 9:25; and Titus 1:7-8.
What is temperance?
4. Read Colossians 2:20-23 and Galatians 5:13.
What is the danger of legalism?
C. Justice
5. Read Isaiah 1:16-17; Jeremiah 22:3, 7:5-7; Matthew 5:7.
What is justice?
6. What do you think Lewis would say about social justice movements? What did Jesus’ justice look like?
D. Fortitude
7. Read Mark 15:43; Acts 6:8-10, 7:54-60; Philippians 1:20; James 5:10-12; and Hebrews 11:32-38.
What is fortitude?
8. How does practicing courage and the other virtues make heaven better?
Chapter 3: Social Morality
Watch Tim Keller speak on social justice: https://vimeo.com/25491917?ref=em-share
“Mercy is most empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving.”
— Bryan Stevenson in Just Mercy
A. The “Golden Rule”
1. Is the “Golden Rule” concept exclusive to Christianity?
2. Why does the “Golden Rule” concept reappear in so many sermons?
B. Politics
1. Read Luke 20:20-26; and 1 Peter 5:1-4.
Why should church leaders not operate political programs?
2. Who should manage political and economic affairs?
3. What does Christianity prescribe for society politically and economically?
C. Charity
1. Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, 11-15; and James 2:14-17.
Why is charity essential to Christian morality?
2. What are the steps to achieving the “ Golden Rule”?
“God created all things to be in a beautiful, harmonious, interdependent, knitted, webbed relationship to one another. Just as rightly related physical elements form a cosmos or a tapestry, so tightly related human beings form a community. This interwoveness is what the Bible calls shalom, or harmonious peace…. The only way to reweave and strengthen the fabric is by weaving yourself into it.”
— Tim Keller in Generous Justice
Chapter 4: Morality and Psychoanalysis
1. What two things are involved when making a moral choice?
2. Read Romans 7:13-25.
What then does psychoanalysis try to do?
3. What does Lewis say about how humans and God differ from how they judge other men?
4. Read Matthew 7:1-5; Romans 2:1-3, 14-16; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, 6:1-3.
Why are Christians told not to judge others?
Chapter 5: Sexual Morality
Watch C.S. Lewis Doodle “On ‘Sexual’ Morality” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBp8M8M4DMs .
1. Chastity and modesty are not the same thing. How does Lewis distinguish them?
2. Read Jude 5-7; Romans 1:24-32, 6:19-23.
Do you agree with Lewis that our sexual instinct has gone wrong?
3. Read Matthew 15:17-20, 21:28-32.
Lewis speculates that perhaps it is better for those who don’t take marriage seriously to live together unmarried. What do you think of this statement?
Chapter 6: Christian Marriage
Watch this video (at :39, :48, 1:26 marks): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY4hymR0IS8 .
Watch this video (at 4:55 mark): Agape – “Love for someone even if they don’t deserve love.” https://youtu.be/uMEU-aS8Eu0?list=PLzh0rkspa1qvxIpxhCw4AZJlVD_wWBL3s .
1. Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
What do you make of Lewis’ model of Christian marriage?
2. Listen to Lewis speak about the four loves (storge, philia, eros, and agape): http://cslewis.drzeus.net/multimedia/audio/
How does Lewis describe the Christian view of love?
3. Read Genesis 3:16 and Ephesians 5:23-30. Why is the man the head?
Chapter 7: Forgiveness
Watch these video clips from the film War Horse:
1. https://youtu.be/pxexf9ie2XQ
2. https://youtu.be/__HAP5zeNhk
3. https://youtu.be/SoMrBOEq-fU
“It is laid down in the Christian rule, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ Because in Christian morals, ‘thy neighbour’ includes ‘thy enemy,’ and so we come up against this terrible duty of forgiving our enemies.” — Jack
A. Worse than Chastity
1. Read Leviticus 19:18; Luke 10:25-29; Exodus 23:4-5; Matthew 5: 43-48; Luke 6:27-36; Romans 12:17-21.
How do we forgive truly evil people?
2. Read Matthew 6:11-15; Mark 11:25; Matthew 18:21-22, 33-35.
How do we receive forgiveness?
B. Learning to Forgive
3. How do we start learning to forgive?
4. How is loving our neighbor different from being fond of or being nice to our neighbor?
5. How do we hate the sin and love the sinner?
C. The Real Test
6. Are we inclined to believe the best or the worst about our enemies?
7. Where does this lead us?
8. Does loving our enemy mean never punishing him/her?
9. How is Christian morality different from ordinary morality?
Chapter 8: The Great Sin
“Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” — Jack
A. Vice of All Vices
1. Read Psalms 10:1-4, 40:4; Proverbs 6:16-19, 8:13, 11:12, 16:5, 21:4; Isaiah 13:11; Jeremiah 49:16; Ezekiel 16:49-50; Amos 6:8.
What does Lewis say is pride’s opposite?
2. Read 2 Samuel 22:28; Proverbs 29:23; Matthew 18:4; James 4:6.
Do you agree with Lewis that pride is the source of all other vices?
B. The Anti-God State of Mind
3. What is every person’s pride rooted in?
4. Read 2 Corinthians 7:14; Psalms 18:27; 138:6; 147:6; Proverbs 3:34.
What does pride ultimately lead to?
C. Spiritual Cancer
5. Where does pride come from, metaphysically speaking?
6. How do people appeal to pride to control other vices?
7. Describe healthy pride, the kind that is not spiritual cancer.
Chapter 9: Charity
Watch this summary of Mother Teresa’s service: https://youtu.be/hUUM893Jd20.
“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did.” — Jack
Charity is the first of the “Theologic Virtues.”
A. Meaning of Charity
1. Read Acts 20:35; 1 John 3:17-18; Colossians 3:14.
How does Lewis define charity?
2. Read John 13:1-16, 34-35.
How does Lewis distinguish “like” from “love”?
3. Lewis says that encouraging affection for our neighbors is a means to the true goal of charity. But how might affection hinder charity?
B. A Simple Rule
4. How do we come to love our neighbor, especially one who is difficult to like?
5. Explain the difference between worldly charity and Christian charity.
6. Read Romans 8:17, 28 and Ephesians 2:4-9.
How do we apply the simple rule of Christian charity to loving God?
7. Read John 3:16 and Romans 8:31-39.
How does God’s love for us differ from our love for Him and others?
Chapter 10: Hope
Watch the reading of “Thirst” – https://youtu.be/w8Cnk_Yq_wY .
“If I find myself in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.” — Jack
Hope is the second of the “Theologic Virtues.”
A. Not Wishful Thinking
1. Read 1 John 3:1-10.
A common saying among American Christians is, “We live in the world but are not of the world.” What do you think Lewis would say to that?
2. What is our “real want for heaven,” which we often don’t recognize?
B. Sehnsucht
3. Read Romans 8:18-25 and 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.
According to Lewis, what are the three ways of dealing with unfulfilled Sehnsucht?
4. What good purpose might earthly pleasures serve?
Chapters 11 & 12: Faith
Watch this scene from the film Little Boy:
1. https://youtu.be/RsxRUYLsOOs
2. https://youtu.be/u8mIe5Ctp2M
“Christ offers something for nothing. He even offers everything for nothing.” — Jack
Faith is the third of the “Theologic Virtues.”
There are two levels of faith, according to Lewis: 1- mere belief or acceptance; and 2- understanding our true standing before God.
A. Acceptance
1. Read James 2:19 and Psalms 14:1.
What are two poor forms of “acceptance” faith?
2. Read Matthew 14:28-31.
How is faith like learning to swim?
3. Read Luke 8:11-14.
What should Christians in difficult or tempting circumstances do?
B. Understanding
4. Read Romans 1:18-20, 2:1-3 and 12-14, and 3:9-24.
How does the “understanding” level of faith begin?
5. Read Job 41:11 and Romans 4:13-16, 6:23.
What are two discoveries necessary for faith in the higher (understanding) sense?
C. Supernatural Help
6. Read Romans 7:15-24.
What does higher faith require?
7. Read Isaiah 64:6-8 and John 6:27-29.
How do we recognize our “growing up” in our faith?
8. Read Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Philippians 1:21, and 2 Timothy 2:15.
What household object does Lewis reference to illustrate the interaction of faith and works?
Book IV: Beyond Personality
Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity
Chapter 1: Making & Begetting
“Doctrines are not God; they are only a kind of map.” — Jack
“This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues, and there is a great rumour going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.” — Jack
1. Read John 14:26-28, 15:26, 16:12-15.
What are the two things to remember about the “map” of Christianity?
2. How are we like statues? How is Christ unlike a statue?
3. Read Ephesians 2:4-10.
How do we get zoe?
Chapter 2: The Three-Personal God
Watch Ravi Zacharias explain the Trinity: https://youtu.be/c9gwoZNudCI .
“If you are looking for something super-personal, something more than a person, then it is not a question of choosing between the Christian idea and the other ideas. The Christian idea is the only one on the market.” — Jack
1. Read Matthew 13:10-17; John 8:12; Luke 11:34-36.
Explain Lewis’ “three dimensions” approach to understanding the Trinity.
2. How does the Trinity “ pull up” human toward God?
Chapter 3: Time & Beyond Time
Listen to the first 4 ½ minutes of this audio clip of Jack speaking on prayers beyond time: https://youtu.be/m3jYLGcDUFE .
“God is not hurried along in the Time-Stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel.” — Jack
1. Read 2 Peter 3:8; Exodus 3:13-14; John 8:56-59; Hebrews 1:10-12; Revelation 4:8.
How can God hear the concurrent prayers of all those who are praying?
2. Does God have history? Explain.
Chapter 4: Good Infection
“God is love, and that love works through men — especially through the whole community of Christians. But this spirit of love is, from all eternity, a love going on between the Father and the Son.” — Jack
1. Read John 1:1-4; Revelation 22:13; 1 Corinthians 8:5-6; John 15:5-6, 26.
How is Christ manifested as the expression of God? As the light and heat of the lamp?
2. Read Romans 5:5; Galatians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 3:16-18.
What is the role and activity of the Holy Ghost?
3. How do we “catch” “good infection”? What is it?
Chapter 5: The Obstinate Toy Soldiers
Watch “Do We Have Free Will?” – https://youtu.be/xhYMKuLvc6g .
“In the long run God is not one but Himself and what He does is like nothing else.” — Jack
“That is the whole point. For the first time we saw a real man. One tin soldier — real tin, just like the rest — had come fully and splendidly alive.” — Jack
1. Read Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 3:26; Philippians 2:5-11; Ephesians 4:11-13.
Explain the breakdown of Lewis’ toy soldiers analogy.
2. Read Hebrews 7:4-10.
What is the fundamental difference Christ makes to the “whole human mass”?
Chapter 6: Two Notes
“[The devil] always sends errors into the world in pairs — pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is the worse.” — Jack
1. Read Genesis 2:7-9.
Describe Note 1. Why is God’s process painful?
2. Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.
Describe Note 2. Lewis says that we (Christians) should not become a ________ or a ________.
Chapter 7: Let’s Pretend
Watch this clip from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY-fhfuDEUA .
“Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.”
— Jack
1. Read Matthew 5:48; 1 Corinthians 11:1; Ephesians 5:1-2; Philippians 3:17;
1 Thessalonians 1:6-7.
What is the benefit of “dressing up” as Christ?
2. Can unbelievers carry “good infection” and bring others closer to Christianity? Explain.
3. Read 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Ephesians 4:20-24; Colossians 3:9-10.
How is “putting on Christ” even much more than just practicing what Christ taught?
Chapter 8: Is Christianity Hard or Easy?
Watch this clip from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhxMor9E3KM .
“The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.” — Jack
1. Read Matthew 7:13-14, 16:24-25; Luke 18: 23-25; Romans 6:6-8, 8:12-14.
What’s the fundamental element demanded by Christianity?
2. If we are like an egg, then we must be ___________ or _____ ______.
3. Why does the church exist?
Chapter 9: Counting the Cost
Watch this clip from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLtNZgWK32A .
“God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.” — Jack
1. Read Matthew 19:16-22; Hebrews 2:10, 10:1; James 1:4.
What does Lewis say the Lord means by, “Be ye perfect”?
2. What is the cost?
Chapter 10: Nice People or New Men
Watch this clip from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtXTmA98oo0 .
“God became man to turn creatures into sons….” — Jack
1. Read Matthew 21:38-32; Luke 10:29-37, 16:15; 2 Corinthians 5:16-19.
If Christianity is true, then why aren’t all Christians nicer than non-Christians?
2. Why is it unreasonable to divide the world into the two camps of Christian and non-Christian?
Chapter 11: The New Men
Watch this clip from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIcBb7tfvos .
“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.” ─ Jack
1. Read John 8:12, 12:25.
How does Lewis connect (and contrast) evolution with “transformation”?
2. When thinking about history, who are truly and always “the early Christians”?
3. How are “the new men” not a monolith?
Watch this clip from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIcBb7tfvos .
“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.”
— Jack in his conclusion of Mere Christianity
Listen to Jack’s recorded words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3jYLGcDUFE .
Resources
About Jack and Mere Christianity
• Link to an interesting blog post about Lewis’ conversion to Christianity (with cool dramatization of Tolkien and Lewis having a conversation):
• Link to Walter Hooper’s C.S. Lewis Companion Guide:
• Link to Leanne Payne’s The Real Presence
• Link to the official C.S. Lewis site: https://www.cslewis.com/us
• Link to the C.S. Lewis Festival site: http://www.cslewisfestival.org
• Link to “Into the Wardrobe” site: http://cslewis.drzeus.net
• Link to the C.S. Lewis Institute: http://www.cslewisinstitute.org
• Link to C.S. Lewis Doodles: https://www.youtube.com/user/CSLewisDoodle
• Link to Ravi Zacharias’ website: http://rzim.org
Christian Apologetics Works By C.S. Lewis
• The Problem of Pain,1940
• The Abolition of Man,1943
• Miracles, 1947 (revised 1960)
• The Four Loves, 1960
• God in the Dock, essays published in 1970
• The Weight of Glory, essays published in 1980
By other authors
• Can Man Live Without God? by Ravi Zacharias, 1994 and 1996
• Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias, 2000 and 2002
• Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton, 1908
• The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton, 1925
• The Grand Central Question by Abdu Murray, 2014
C.S. Lewis’Christian-themed Fiction
• The Pilgrim’s Regress, 1933
• Space Trilogy
o Out of the Silent Planet,1938
o Perelandra, 1943
o That Hideous Strength, 1945
• The Screwtape Letters, 1942
• The Great Divorce, 1945
• The Chronicles of Narnia
o The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,1950
o Prince Caspian,1951
o The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 1952
o The Silver Chair, 1953
o The Horse and His Boy,1954
o The Magician’s Nephew,1955
o The Last Battle, 1956
• Til We Have Faces, 1956