Book Review: Mere Christianity (Book 2 Summary)

In Book 2, Lewis explained the core beliefs of “Mere Christianity”:

1. That there is one God, who is a Mind, and who is distinct from His creation, the universe and all life in it;

2. That His creation was good from the beginning but that it was perverted or corrupted by an “invasion” of evil;

3. That evil is the result of man freely choosing to do bad things and putting himself first instead of God; but free will is also the only thing that makes possible genuine love, happiness, and joy; that, instead of abandoning us, God still chose to pursue us: He gave us consciences, “good dreams”, prophets, miracles, and His only Son, Jesus Christ;

4. That the most important doctrine of Christianity is this: God became man, suffered and died for us in order to save us from our sins (the doctrine of repentance and atonement);

5. That each one of us are called to follow Christ — not just to believe the tenets of Christianity, but also to live our lives in the same way that He lived His — to sacrifice, suffer, deny our selves, love others, believe/trust in Him, and avail our selves of Baptism and Holy Communion — the “New Life” that Jesus wants us to live. He is the “New Man,” the “New Adam,” and He wants us, in turn, to become new men and women so that we may share in His divine life, and so that His joy may be in us and our joy may be complete.