Outside #3
One of
my favorite books that I have read outside of classes has been “Mere
Christianity” by CS Lewis. As a Christian, it has been very interesting and
encouraging for me to study Lewis and to begin to understand the rational
foundations of the Christian religion. It is a powerful statement about
Christianity that it is not simply an emotional or spiritual tradition, but a
historical and rationally verifiable worldview. Faith, in this sense, is not
simply a blind belief…but a trust in something that we can have confidence in.
Lewis’ writings have been extremely important for me as a believer and have
helped me to grow considerably in my faith and my understanding of God.
With
this in mind, it has been very intriguing for me to take this PHIL 451 course
and to delve deeper into Lewis’ philosophy of myth and truth. I have read “Mere
Christianity” and some of Lewis’ other more intellectual works prior to taking
this class, but I had never read any of his myth narratives before. What I’ve
found is that Lewis has a unified focus across all his writings—that of
revealing the truth of Christianity. The powerful thing about this focus of
his, however, is that he is able to accomplish it through multiple styles of
writing and multiple genres.
In
“Mere Christianity,” Lewis writes from a popular-level philosophy, using common
sense illustrations and appealing to a priori knowledge to express the truths
of Christianity in a straightforward way. In his myth writings, however, Lewis
approaches the same goal from a different angle. As I’ve discussed in some of
my other blogs, Lewis is able to masterfully communicate transcendent truths
through the use of fictional myths. “The Space Trilogy” shows us the depravity
of mankind in a dystopian future. “The Chronicles of Narnia” show us that
perfect love and grace are not confined to this world. “Till We Have Faces”
shows us the supremacy of the one true God. Each work is distinct from the
others in the devices it uses, but each work is like the others in that it demonstrates
truths that we can all understand deep within ourselves. Lewis’ mastery of
multiple genres is nothing short of brilliant.
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