The Christian Life
Christian Behaviour. A further series of Broadcast Talks by C. S. Lewis. (Geoffrey Bles : The Centenary Press. 2S. 6d.)
WHEN, in one of the Talks included in this book, Mr. Lewis remarks, " I am telling you what Christianity is, I didn't invent it," he points, without knowing it, to the cause of the impression which his addresses and writings have made. Books of varying merit disclose what their writers think about Christianity and how they think it should be presented. Mr. Lewis is always going behind all that ; the whole of his exposition and apologetic starts from his recognition of the facts of Christian doctrine and ethics in their definite, objective character. It is that which he is continually
making his readers face ; in doing so, in his clarification and inter- pretation of the issues, he often shows remarkable insight ; his capacity for getting to the heart of some moral situation in the individual life is particularly arresting ; but these gifts, great and valuable as they are, do not make us concentrate our attention on Mr. Lewis, but on Christianity, not on what we might like Christianity to say, but on what it does say. As to that, some Christians will here and there differ from Mr. Lewis ; for instance, that " Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for others " would not be universally accepted. Dr. Gore thought that the extinction of the irredeemably evil was not ruled out as a belief Christians might hold. And admirable as a Christian will find Mr. Lewis's pages on Sexual Morality and Christian Marriage, one must allow that some great Christian teachers have gone much further than he has made plain in their aversion from the sexual pleasure of marriage. But, in general, Mr. Lewis is a quite safe guide, giving his readers thoroughly reliable knowledge of the country which some of them may think of entering. With the Talks on matters of sex I would bracket those on Forgiveness and on the Great Sin, that is pride. Of the latter, in particular, I would say that I cannot imagine a better and more illuminating treatment in five pages. J. K. MOZLEY.
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