C.S. Lewis

C.S.Lewis was a foremost British Theologian, a film, starring Anthony Hopkins, was made of his life  "Shadowlands"  and he is best known for his children's books
"The Narnia Chronicles" and "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" and also for the book "Mere Christianity"
 

These are two articles quoting the words of C.S.Lewis covering two main points of the Christian Gospel ---The Resurrection and Why does Evil exist ?


 

The Resurrection

As this qualification suggests, to preach Christianity meant primarily to preach the Resurrection. Thus people who had heard only fragments of St. Paul's teaching at Athens got the impression that he was talking about two new gods, Jesus and Anastasis (i.e. Resurrection) - Acts 17:18.

The Resurrection is the central theme in every Chrtistian sermon reported in the Acts. The Resurrection, and its consequences, were the "gospel" or good news which the Christians brought: what we call the "gospels", the narratives of Our Lord's life and death, were composed later for the benefit of those who already accepted the gospel.

They were in no sense the basis of Christianity: they were written for those already converted. The miracle of The Resurrection, and the theology of that miracle, comes first: the biography comes later as comment on it.

Nothing could be more unhistorical than to pick out selected sayings of Christ from the gospels and to regard those as the datum and the rest of the New Testamenmt as a construction upon it.

The first fact in the history of Christendom is a number of people who say they have seen the Resurrection. If they had died without making anyone else believe this "gospel" no gospels would ever have been written.
 
 

Return to Top  |  Why does Evil exist ?  |  More about C.S.Lewis  |  Home Page
 


 

Why Does Evil Exist?

It was of no interest to God to create a species consisting of virtuous automata, for the 'virtue' of automata who can do no other than they do is a courtesy title only, it is analogous to the 'virtue' of the stone that rolls downhill or of the water that freezes at 32 degrees.

To what end, it may be asked, should God create such creatures? That He might be praised by them? But automatic praise is a mere succession of noises. That He might love them? But they are essentially unloveable, you cannot love puppets.

And so God gave man free will that he might increase in virtue by his own efforts and become, a free moral being, a worthy object of God's love.

Freedom entails freedom to go wrong: man did, in fact, go wrong, misusing God's gift and doing evil. Pain is a by-product of evil; and so pain came into the world as a result of man's misuse of God's gift of free will.
 
 

(Dr. Joad as quoted in the "Christian World of C.S. Lewis" by Clyde Kilby pp. 65-66)
 
 
 

Return to Top  |  The Resurrection  |  More about C.S.Lewis  |  Return to Home page