Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis
Book I
Right and Wrong As A Clue To The Meaning
Of The Universe
Summary of Chapters
4 - What Lies Behind the Law
5 - We Have Cause to be Uneasy
A Computer Program Flow-Chart Approach
By Paulo F. Ribeiro
1
I Peter 3:15
But in your heart set Christ as Lord. Always be
prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks
you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a
clear conscience.
2
Flow-Chart Approach
End of the
Story
Do you believe
in the existence
of a Moral Law?
No
Yes
What Kind:
A Force
(Power)?
End of the
Story
No
Yes
But are you
tricking
me with a
religious talk?
No
Maybe
A God ?
No
A Force/Power is a sort of a
tame and convenient God .
Is there anything
or anyone
behind the Moral
Law?
End of the
Story
Yes
No
We are trying to find
truth and the meaning of
the universe.
Yes
Are you
interested?
Yes
No
End of the
Story
3
How can we find out more about the
thing behind the moral law and
the meaning of the universe?
Looking into the
The Universe He Made
He is
a great artist
But you cannot know
a man by looking at
the house he built.
Looking inside ourselves,
where He wrote the moral
laws
He is
quite merciless.
The universe is
a very dangerous place.
End of the
Story
The Moral Law tells you to do the
straight thing and it does not seem to
care how painful, or dangerous, or
difficult it is to do.
The Moral Law does not give us any
grounds for thinking that God is “good”
in the sense of being soft and nice..
If God is like the Moral Law, then
HE IS NOT SOFT.
No
Do you want
to proceed?
at your own
risk?
End of the
Story
Yes
End of the
Story
4
Is He an Impersonal
Absolute
Goodness ?
No
Is He a Personal
absolute
Goodness ?
If the universe is not governed by an
absolute goodness, then all our efforts
are in the long run hopeless.
Yes
Absolute Goodness is either the great safety
or the great danger - according to the way
you react to it.
God is the only comfort and supreme terror
No exceptions, or
allowances
permitted.
End of the
Story
No
End of the
Story
Yes
Have you broken
the Moral Law?
Do you think you need
Forgiveness?
Yes
Yes
Do you want to
find out more
about God
No
End of the
Story
Christianity tells how the demands of the Moral Law,
which we cannot meet, have been met on our behalf, how
God Himself becomes man to save man from the
disapproval of God.
Beginning of Chapter 1 of the Great Story ...
Which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better
than the one before.
5