Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 20:1 (NA 2015)
Article: Mere Christianity: An Examination Of The Concept In Richard Baxter And C. S. Lewis
Author: Timothy E. Miller

DBSJ 20 (2015) p. 65

Mere Christianity:
An Examination Of The Concept In Richard Baxter And C. S. Lewis

Timothy E. Miller1

Introduction

C. S. Lewis has been hailed as one of the most influential Christians of the twentieth century. A great measure of his success was due to his appeal to large segments of the “Christian” religious community. Duncan Sprague commented on this phenomenon: “I am amazed the extreme positions within Christendom that claim Lewis as [their] champion and defender...liberals and the fundamentalists; the Roman Catholics and the evangelical Protestants...the most conservative Baptists to the most charismatic Pentecostals claiming Lewis as one of their own.”2 This led Walter Hooper, a prominent Lewis scholar, to brand Lewis as an “Everyman’s apologist.”3

A major portion of Lewis’s wide appeal should be attributed to his concept of Mere Christianity. When engaged in apologetics, Lewis believed he ought to avoid controversial issues that divided Christians.4 Instead, only the core of Christian doctrine should be advanced and defended to unbelievers. Consequently, since most of Lewis’s doctrinal comments are contained in apologetic works, it comes as no surprise that many—even strongly opposed movements—could claim him as their own.

Examining the spiritual heritage of Lewis’s works one would be led to believe that Mere Christianity (MC)5 was a huge success. Even today, Lewis’s works are being reprinted for and sold to an ever-increasing public. However, even successes have failures. The point of this paper, then, is to critically examine Lewis’s conception of MC, asking what the content of such a concept may be and whether it is ultimately helpful.

DBSJ 20 (2015) p. 66

In order to fulfill our task, we will examine the historical foundations of Lewis’s concept. Namely, we will trace MC back to its origin in Richard Baxter. Having considered Baxter’s view of MC, we will compare it to Lewis’s conception. Finally, we will seek to show where Lewis and Baxter’s conceptions of MC were different and how a proper understanding of these differences should modify our understanding of the connection between MC and Christian apologetics.

Richard Baxter And Mere Christianity

Though popular opinion may ascribe the expression Mere Christianity to Lewis, the term dates back hundreds of years before Lewis to Richard Baxter, a seventeenth-century Puritan, who coined the phrase....