One of my goals in 2011 is to read a book each week. It’s an ambitious goal, for sure, but you know what they say: aim for the moon and you might hit a streetlight. I figure if I don’t get one done every week, at least I’ll still read quite a number of good books during the year. My first one was The Case for Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I picked this one as my first for a very specific reason: it was Wednesday of the first week in January and it only had 56 pages.
The point here is not to give a lengthy review, but rather some impressions and a few quotes that I found interesting. I’ve always liked C.S. Lewis because he was a Christian who actually used his brain and also because I think we’re required to. I mean, have you ever heard a guy’s name dropped by Christians as much as Lewis’? Well, maybe we say Jesus’ name more, but we do like to drop the C.S. Lewis bombs occasionally because it makes us sound smart. If you’re one of those Lewis bombers who hasn’t ever actually read his stuff, you may want to start with this book. You’ll feel even better the next time you mention what a great writer he was because you will have actually – wait for it – read his writings.
Some of my fave bombs from this book:
Reality, in fact, is always something you couldn’t have guessed. That’s one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It’s a religion you couldn’t have guessed.
Enemy-occupied territory – that’s what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.
I’m trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really silly thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That’s the one thing we mustn’t say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He’d either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he’s a poached egg – or else he’d be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But don’t let us come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He hasn’t left that open to us. He didn’t intend to.
