Mere Christianity

Dear readers,
This blog is simply a forum for me to express and to share my feelings about things I am reading in the scriptures and other great books. I hope they are a benefit to you and will perhaps cause you to read the books I refer to. I apologize for the length of this one—it was difficult to edit.

I have recently been reading C.S. Lewis’s Book Mere Christianity and have been intrigued by some of the concepts that he introduces. C.S. Lewis was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, literary critic, lay theologian and Christian apologetic. He was born in 1898 and died in 1963 at the age of 64. I am willing to bet that he is quoted in General Conference more than any other non Latter-Day-Saint.

In this book he begins by introducing the thesis that humans are born with built in morals. He illustrates this idea by referring to two people quarreling when one says “How’d you like it if anyone did the same to you?” – “That’s my seat, I was there first” – “Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine” People say things like this every day; children and adults; educated as well as uneducated.

Lewis continues “Now what interests me about all these remarks is that the man who makes them is not merely saying that the other man’s behavior does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some standard of behavior which he expects the other man to know about.” Rarely does the offender admit that he has violated the unspoken standard. Nearly always he tries to make out that what he has been doing is still within keeping of the standard. He pretends there is some special reason that he took the seat, or didn’t give up a piece of his orange. There is always some extenuating circumstance. “It looks, in fact, very much as if both parties had in mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent behavior… about which they really agreed.” He continues “ quarrelling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do that unless you and he some sort of agreement as to what right and wrong are.”

As Latter-Day-Saints we commonly refer to this “built in” morality as the light of Christ or the Spirit of Christ. In Moroni 7:16 we read “For behold. The Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God. Continuing on in Moroni 7:18-19 we read: And now, my brethren, seeing that ye know the light by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same judgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged. Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ.

So what are the moral standards that everyone knows or is born with? C. S. Lewis claims there are seven of them; Four that everyone should adhere to, and another three that are for Christians specifically. They are: Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Fortitude, Chastity, Forgiveness, Humility. Since the three Christian virtues he discusses are well known among LDS, here I will deal only with the first four.

Prudence is defined as “discretion in practical affairs; Wise in handling practical matters; exercising good judgment or common sense; Careful in regard to one's own interests; provident; Careful about one's conduct; circumspect. C.S. Lewis reminds us that Christ stated that we are to become as a little child. In 3 Ne. 9:22 we read “Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved. “ Lewis continues, “Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary, He told us not only to be ‘as harmless as doves’ but also ‘as wise as serpents.’ He wants a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head”.

Temperance is the trait of avoiding excesses, or moderation and self-restraint, as in behavior or expression. It might be defined as the act of giving up something individually for the benefit of the greater whole. Lewis says “ But the whole point is that he is abstaining, for a good reason, from something he does not condemn… One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting everyone else to give it up.” I have been guilty of this in my own life and find this something that we should look at in our own lives; to keep us from judging others.

Lewis writes “Justice means much more than the sort of thing that goes on in law courts. It is the name for everything we should now call ‘fairness’; it includes honesty, give and take, truthfulness, keeping promises, and all that side of life”. As Latter-Day-Saints, we recognize that Justice and Mercy are two of the attributes of God and the beauty of the Atonement.

Strength of mind that enables one to endure adversity with courage is what is meant by Fortitude. Lewis writes “Fortitude includes both kinds of courage—the kind that faces danger as well as the kind that ‘sticks it’ under pain. ‘Guts’ is perhaps the nearest modern English. You will notice, of course, that you cannot practice any of the other virtues very long without bringing this one into play.”

I will end this blog post with a final quote from Mere Christianity that draws a great conclusion that I certainly agree with. “We might think that the ‘virtues’ were necessary only for this present life—that in the other world we could stop being just because there is nothing to quarrel about and stop being brave because there is no danger. Now it is quite true that there will probably be no occasion for being the sort of people that we can become only as a result of doing such acts here. The point is not that God will refuse you admission to His eternal world if you have not got certain qualities of character: the point is that if people have not got at least the beginning of those qualities inside them, then no possible external conditions could make a ‘Heaven’ for them—that is, could make them happy with the deep, strong, unshakable kind of happiness God intends for us.”