In the last chapter I compared Christ’s work of making New Men to the process of turning a horse into a winged creature. I used that extreme example in order to emphasise the point that it is not mere improvement but Transformation. The nearest parallel to it in the world of nature is to be [...]
Archive for the ‘C.S. Lewis on Mere Christianity (BookIV)’ Category
Chapter 33: THE NEW MEN
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CHAPTER 32: NICE PEOPLE OR NEW MEN
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He meant what He said. Those who put themselves in His hands will become perfect, as He is perfect-perfect in love, wisdom, joy, beauty, and immortality. The change will not be completed in this life, for death is an important part of the treatment. How far the change will have gone before death in any [...]
CHAPTER 31: COUNTING THE COST
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I find a good many people have been bothered by what I said in the previous chapter about Our Lord’s words, `Be ye perfect.’ Some people seem to think this means ‘Unless you are perfect, I will not help you’; and as we cannot be perfect, then, if He meant that, our position is hopeless. [...]
CHAPTER 30: IS CHRISTIANITY HARD OR EASY?
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In the previous chapter we were considering the Christian idea of ‘putting on Christ,’ or first ‘dressing up’ as a son of God in order that you may finally become a real son. What I want to make clear is that this is not one among many jobs a Christian has to do; and it [...]
Chapter 29: LET’S PRETEND
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May I once again start by putting two pictures, or two stories rather, into your minds? One is the story you have all read called Beauty and the Beast. The girl, you remember, had to marry a monster for some reason. And she did. She kissed it as if it were a man. And then, [...]
CHAPTER 28: TWO NOTES
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In order to avoid misunderstanding I here add notes on two points arising out of the last chapter.
(1) One sensible critic wrote asking me why, if God wanted sons instead of ‘toy soldiers,’ He did not beget many sons at the outset instead of first making toy soldiers and then bringing them to life by [...]
Chapter 27: THE OBSTINATE TOY SOLDIERS
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The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God. We do not know – anyway, I do not know how things would have worked if the human race had never rebelled against God and joined the enemy. Perhaps every man would have been ‘in Christ,’ would have shared the [...]
CHAPTER 26: GOOD INFECTION
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I begin this chapter by asking you to get a certain picture clear in your minds. Imagine two books lying on a table one on top of the other. Obviously the bottom book is keeping the other one up-supporting it. It is because of the underneath book that the top one is resting, say, two [...]
CHAPTER 25: TIME AND BEYOND TIME
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It is a very silly idea that in reading a book you must never ’skip’. All sensible people skip freely when they come to a chapter which they find is going to be no use to them. In this chapter I am going to talk about something which may be helpful to some readers, but [...]
CHAPTER 24: THE THREE-PERSONAL GOD
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The last chapter was about the difference between begetting and making. A man begets a child, but he only makes a statue. God begets Christ but He only makes men. But by saying that, I have illustrated only one point about God, namely, that what God the Father begets is God, something of the same [...]
CHAPTER 23: MAKING AND BEGETTING
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Everyone has warned me not to tell you what I am going to tell you in this last book. They all say `the ordinary reader does not want Theology; give him plain practical religion’. I have rejected their advice. I do not think the ordinary reader is such a fool. Theology means ‘the science of [...]
