William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2018
First published in the United States by HarperOne in 2018
Christian Reflections. Copyright © 1967 by C.S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Published by Eerdmans
God in the dock. Copyright © 1967 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Published by Eerdmans. How to be a Christian. Copyright © 2018 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Source ISBN: 9780008307158
Ebook Edition © August 2018 ISBN: 9780008307165 Version: 2018-07-19
Contents
On Being Concerned about More Than the Salvation of Souls
On the Dangers of Pointing Out Faults in Others
On Living Today While Expecting the Second Coming Tomorrow
On Forgiveness as a Necessary Practice
On Denying Oneself While Loving Oneself
On Doubts and the Gift of Faith
On the Appeal and Challenges of Home Life
On How We Spread the Christ-Life Within
On What It Means to Say, “To Live Is Christ”
On the Christian Art of Attaining Glory
On Not Feeling Threatened When Christianity Remains Unchanged While Science and Knowledge Progresses
On the Importance of Practicing Charity
On What It Means to Be Part of the Body of Christ
On Practical Matters on Being a Christian Today
CHRISTIANS SPEND A lot of time talking about beliefs and doctrines; so much so that one might think that mastering the faith is understanding a set of ideas. But that is not the case. The real substance of the faith dwells in the world of action. Christian faith becomes real when it is lived out. For example, being a Christian entails learning how to be slow to judge others and to check first the log in our own eye; how to quit focusing merely on our fears and worries in order to see how we can treat others as we would wish to be treated; how to reign in our anxieties about tomorrow and dampen our anger before it becomes a sin; how, when we are aggrieved, we forgive others.
Yes, doctrines are extremely important. Christians need to grapple with beliefs before we understand that we are empowered by Jesus to live in a new way. But understanding these ideas is a doorway, one that requires us to start walking in order for the ideas to have any meaning. Even the apostle Paul, the grandfather of most Christian theology, reminds us that faith, even if perfect, ends up a mere clanging bell if it is without love. And love can only be expressed by actions.
I say all this because (1) this is what I learned from C. S. Lewis and (2), ironically, Lewis is best known as the foremost defender of Christian ideas in the twentieth century. In other words, one might assume that Lewis might be a main cause for the notion that Christianity is essentially a body of ideas, given the success of his apologetical works, but that would be missing the nature of his ideas.
When I meet with scholars and theologians, almost all of them confess that Lewis played a significant role on their path toward their vocation. Yet, despite his popularity, when it comes to whose work scholars study, we hear the names of Barth, Hauerwas, Bonhoeffer, Wright, Pagels, Armstrong, Ehrman, and others, but seldom Lewis. I attend the annual joint conventions of the American Academy of Religion and