Mere Christianity 6
Study Guide Questions for Book 2, Ch. 1
If you are looking for the beginning of the study for C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!
Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)
Truth, Justice, Meaning
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
What is “one thing” Christians “do not have to believe” according to Lewis?
What is something that atheists “do have to believe?”
What does being a Christian mean we must do when our religion “differs from other religions?”
What is the first “big division” among human beings concerning God?
What is the second “big division” among human beings concerning God?
What is Pantheism according to Lewis?
How is “the Christian idea” different from Pantheism?
What is the “very big question” raised by the claim of God’s goodness?
What argument had Lewis formerly raised “against God?”
“In the very act of trying to prove God did not exist” what did Lewis discover?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
Why might it be okay, as Christians, to admit that there is some truth in other religions?
Why is it helpful to make divisions and distinctions, as Lewis has done in this chapter, about what different people believe?
Why would the pantheist’s claim “that the universe almost is God” seem to make necessary the further claim that God is beyond good and evil?
Why would the Christian view of God, as the maker of all things besides himself, make the categories of good and evil more necessary?
Why is there a felt tension, or supposed difficulty, between the idea that there is a good and that there is evil, suffering, and injustice in the world?
What was Lewis’ point about the straight line versus a crooked line?
What did Lewis mean by saying “If the whole universe has no meaning: we should never have found out that it has no meaning?”
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Lewis’ former argument against God as an atheist was that the world was too unjust for a good God to exist. What is justice? First, give a clear definition for the concept of justice and then, second, share an example that illustrates the principle of justice.
Thinking further about the concept of justice, how do the different views about God affect the questions of justice? If there is no God, how does this affect the matter of justice? If God is synonymous with creation (he is the universe) how does this affect the question of justice? If God is real, distinct from, and the maker of all the universe, how does this affect the question of justice?
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read Psalm 9. How does this passage of Scripture interact with the notion of Justice?
Read Matthew 25:31-46. How does the concept of a final judgment before God affect the question of justice here on earth right now?