My Latest Read: Mere Christianity

I started reading a new book today. I can't believe I have been a Christian this long and haven't read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis yet. I know it is required reading in a lot of Seminaries, but I just haven't quite gotten to it yet. Today I made it thorugh the preface. I am bogged down in good stuff already. C.S. Lewis amazes me with his insight and illustrations.

Two of my favorite quotes from the preface come from the last two paragraphs. Lewis talks about Christianity being a series of hallways and rooms. He wrote,

I hope no reader will suppose that 'mere' Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions- as if a man could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else. It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in... (p. xv)

And then Lewis adds in the final paragraph,

When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house. (p. xvi)

Wow, what insight and what a great illustration.