Mere Christianity Literary Elements

Non fiction

The book analyzes the Christian faith and how humans need religion to be happy and to have a true meaning in life. Because of the board subject discussed, it is impossible to determine a setting for the actions described in the book.

Since the book is composed of multiple radio talks transcribed and then collected into a single book, the narrator is Lewis and he presents his own point of view in a subjective and limited manner.

Neutral

The protagonist is Jesus and God and the antagonists are the people who tried to deny God’s power and who tried to live a life separated from God.

The major conflict is presented as being an ideological one and is the result of mankind’s decision to ignore God and to try and solve on their own the problems that should have been solved by God or another higher being.

There is not point that can be considered the climax of the book since Lewis presents various historical events that took place in the past and because he presents his own personal ideas.

The first book in which Lewis discussed the idea of Natural Law foreshadowed the fact that he chose to discuss religion in the later chapters.

When Lewis talks about Jesus and his role, he claims that Jesus did not came on earth to forgive man’s sins. He claims this argument to be an understatement and tries to argue that Jesus came on earth to give humanity the opportunity to have a fresh start.

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Lewis talks about religion and God in favorable terms and he presents to the reader his version of Divinity. According to him, the Divinity who created our planet is a kind and beautiful God since he created such a beautiful planet. Also, the morality humans have is proof that God must also be good since he also created humans to be God.

Lewis talks about the time when he was an atheist and he mentioned the fact that the things in which atheists believe are paradoxical. Atheists believe that there is no God and that this is proven by the suffering that happens in the world. However, Lewis argues that in order to have a sense about what is just and what is right, we need to have a sense of justice that does not appear on its own.

In the first book, in chapter 4, Lewis draws a parallel between the moral laws and the physical laws that apply in the universe. Lewis made a clear distinction between the two and made its reader understand that while the physical laws are always applicable even by those who do not understand them, the moral laws can sometimes be broken and ignored by humans and society in general. The reason why Lewis drew this parallels is because he wanted to make the reader understand the difference between the two and the reason why sometimes, humans ignore the Natural Laws and behave in erratic ways.

In the book, Lewis talks frequently about the Human Law and how every person on this planet obeys it. The Human Law is a term used in this context and it has a board meaning, usually referring to moral decisions we take as humans but that can’t be explained rationally or scientifically.

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