Analysis Of C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, discusses love throughout but particularly in chapters six, seven, and nine. Lewis talks about how Christians are to practice love through marriage, through forgiving, and through charity. By discussing how Christians are to practice love in these three sense, he also gives a picture of what love/Christ-like love is in his view. His view is different in many ways from other popular secular and religious depictions of love. His love is different than just being in love, specifically within marriage. His love is not based on being fond or liking someone, but it is “wishing his [or her] good.” His love is not based on a feeling, but based on a “state of the will.” Lewis’s depiction of love is a love that sticks around even when times are tough or people are not easy to love. It is a love that knows no end and emulates God’s love for us. Marriage, forgiving, and charity are great ways in which Christians can practice love. Lewis discusses how love can be practiced within marriage. Lewis informs the audience that love “is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in …show more content…
He claims that love is truly wanting good for them; there is not a necessity to like someone when you love them. Many find that if they forgive someone they have to like them and are unable to punish them. In Lewis’s depiction, when you love someone and they wrong you, you do not have to like them and you can punish them out of love. He makes the distinction, that many blur, between love and like. Lewis love is one that does not require fondness. Charity is often, in secular and other religious circles, believed to be just “giving to the poor.” To Lewis, charity is “love, in the Christian sense.” To be charitable towards others, not just the poor, is to love them as your neighbor and love them as God loves