Mere Christianity part II

This is my second blog post of my response to reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. I found out that we do not do 125 word responses for every reading! I wish we did! So, as a compromise, on the days that I do not have a response to post, I will post a favorite quote from the reading comment on it.

This week's response was to Lewis' argument in Book II concerning how God, who in His nature is good and loving, allow for evil to exist. Lewis argues that in order to understand what is truly good, one must already know of that which is evil (or vice versa.) Lewis contends:

A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. (p. 41)

and later, he argues

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning. (p. 41)

Lewis' conclusion is that God, while loving and ultimately good in nature, must allow for evil to exist if He wants to express His love.

so, here is my response:

Lewis argues that God created beings with the free potential (free will) to choose between right and wrong and that man ultimately chose to do wrong which thereby separated him from God. While several people try to wonder how an all loving, good, and righteous God allow evil into a perfect world he created. It seems illogical, for as the apostle John states, God is Love. It appears to be against God’s nature to allow evil to exist. But alas, in reality

you cannot conceive what is evil without first conceiving what is good. In his perfect nature, God had to allow evil to be an option for man because without evil, God’s true love would not exist.

grace and peace,
jeremy

Mere Christianity

I have been given the blessing of being Dr. G's class called The Life and Thought of C.S. Lewis! I have been waiting 3 years to take this course and I am finally able to dig into the literary brilliance that is C.S. Lewis! One of our assignments for each Lewis book we read is to write a 125 word max. response to particular things we read.

We just began reading Mere Christianity (MC)! I read MC when I was 15 and back then, I didn't really understand what Lewis was saying. 7 years later I am much more literate and a much brighter individual, and Lewis' words actually make sense to me. I thought it would be a great blogging venture if I shared each of my responses with the world as I make my way through the book. I will be posting my responses every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (the days I have the C.S. Lewis class.) and I would love to hear your feedback on each post!

The first response was to write an alternative analogy to what C.S. Lewis called the "Hallway of the Church." In MC, Lewis says that the Christian church is like standing in a hallway filled with doors and each door leads to a different Christian denomination, the doorman being symbolizing the distinctive each denomination contains. The "Mere" Christian stands in this hall, with a world of choices ahead of him.

here is my alternative to the analogy of the Hallway:

I think the exploration of the church Lewis describes could also be described like a Billiards table. Every individual is holding a pool cue and given the choice of which pocket to shoot the ball into. Imagine each colored ball as a common practice held by all Christians (Eucharist, baptism, prayer, etc) and depending upon which pocket it rolls into determines how it is expressed. We have the decision to choose which pocket we will go into, and we always chose the one that is most accessible; the church that suits our preference. But what would happen if chose another ball and pocket? Would our faith still be the same? Is God still loved? Is Christ still the center?

Grace and Peace,

Jeremy

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