Mere Theology (part 1)

I’m reading Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C.S. Lewis by Will Vaus. My buddy James gave it to me in hopes that (in his words) Lewis’ theology would root me in orthodoxy and bloom into doxology. The book is a very helpful resource to quickly learn what Lewis believed about Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, heaven, hell, creation, the Fall, the forgiveness of sins, marriage and divorce, war and peace, the church and sacraments, masculinity and femininity, and so much more. I would recommend it to you. Lewis is one of the greatest Christian thinkers to ever have lived!

Here are some excerpts from the first 11 chapters. Some are direct quotes from Lewis; others are Vaus’ reiteration of Lewis’ though.


Every Christian is a theologian...theology is like a map. If you want to get further in the Christian life, you must use that map. (15)

Christianity is the story of how the rightful King of this world has landed here in disguise…and is calling on us to take part in his plan of sabotage against the Dark Power. (30)

We must not use the Bible as a kind of encyclopedia out of which texts can be plucked for use as weapons. (39)

What Christians mean when they say “God is love” is that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else. (45)

People go to hell because they choose to go there. The doors of hell are locked on the inside. (50)

The assistance of God does not remove the reality of our decisions; when we are more in God, then we are most freely ourselves. (60)

Creation is taking place at every moment, not just at one point millions of years ago. God is outside of time. God did not create the universe long ago; rather, he creates the universe every minute. Humanity is in the process of being created. (68-69)

In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity….But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him. God became a human being so that people might become children of God. (82)

The Eternal Being, who knows everything and created everything, became not only a man but, before that, a baby, and before that a fetus. If we want to get the real idea of it, then we need to think how we would like to become slugs or crabs! (82-83)

All our trying must lead up to the essential moment at which we turn to God and say, “You must do this, because I can’t.” (105)

People are not saved because they do works of love but that they do works of love because they are saved. God’s work, God’s love, God’s grace come first. We receive that grace and that love through faith, and out of that faith we do good because we love him who first loved us. (108)

Since the Fall there is no neutral ground in the universe. We live in the midst of a war-torn battlefield. Every inch is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan. (111)

Central to Satan’s war strategy is temptation, a general pull toward self-centeredness. God designed the human machine to run on himself. Satan tempts us to run the human machine on the wrong juice. (111)

To God’s way of thinking, being in over our heads is the best place for us because only then will we learn to rely on him more fully. (112)

The devil loves curing one fault by giving us a greater one. (113)

We must act mercilessly toward little indulgences and not allow even these to trip us up. (116)


Thank you Lewis. Thank you Vaus.