C. S. Lewis
British writer and literary scholar (1898 to 1963) who taught at Oxford and Cambridge, author of the Chronicles of Narnia and of Christian apologetics including Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters.
From the book Mere Christianity18 korrents
C. S. Lewis did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsOne of the things Christians are disagreed about is the importance of their disagreements.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsEver since I became a Christian I have thought that the best, perhaps the only, service I could do for my unbelieving neighbours was to explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsThe Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play: our instincts are merely the keys.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsWe all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsI hope no reader will suppose that 'mere' Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions—as if a man could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else. It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsIf God is like the Moral Law, then He is not soft.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Our reading
Their wordsOnly a Person can forgive.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsChristianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Our reading
Their wordsFor Christianity is a fighting religion.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Our reading
Their wordsConsequently atheism turns out to be too simple.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsBesides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsGoodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsBecause free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Our reading
A faith with a good God but without sin, hell, the devil or redemption is a boys' philosophy
Their wordsIt is the view I call Christianity-and-water, the view which simply says there is a good God in Heaven and everything is all right—leaving out all the difficult and terrible doctrines about sin and hell and the devil, and the redemption. Both these are boys' philosophies.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsYou must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsBut let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Our reading
Their wordsEnemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
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Their wordsNow, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it.
↗Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 2012 edition, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)books.google.com All 18 from this book
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.