Tag Archives: Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis on the Trinity

Posted on by under C.S. Lewis, Christ, Jesus, Trinity

With the continuance of The Great Trinity Debate over at Parchment & Pen, and with my interaction with the first three of six total rounds (post 1, post 2, post 3), I pulled C.S. Lewis’ great work, Mere Christianity, off the shelf. I wanted to re-read some of his thoughts on the Trinity, as I remembered them being quite insightful.

What he shares is not so ‘theological’, though it is because he is thinking about God, which is what theology is about. But we still might term his thoughts more philosophical, and some even practical.

Nonetheless, here are some of Lewis’s thoughts on the Trinity:

You know that in space you can move in three ways – to left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a compromise between them. They are called the three Dimensions. Now notice this. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two, you could draw a figure: say, a square. And a square is made up of four straight lines. Now a step further. If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body: say, a cube – a thing like a dice or a lump of sugar. And a cube is made up of six squares.

Do you see the point? A world of one dimension would be a straight line. In a two-dimensional world, you still get straight lines, but many lines make one figure. In a three-dimensional world, you still get figures but many figures make one solid body. In other words, as you advance to more real and more complicated levels, you do not leave behind you the things you found on the simpler levels: you still have them, but combined in new ways – in ways you could not imagine if you knew only the simpler levels.

Now the Christian account of God involves just the same principle. The human level is a simple and rather empty level. On the human level one person is one being, and any two persons are two separate beings – just as, in two dimensions (say on a flat sheet of paper) one square is one figure, and any two squares are two separate figures. On the Divine level you still find personalities; but up there you find them combined in new ways which we, who do not live on that level, cannot imagine. In God’s dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube. Of course we cannot fully conceive a Being like that: just as, if we were so made that we perceived only two dimensions in space we could never properly imagine a cube. But we can get a sort of faint notion of it. And when we do, we are then, for the first time in our lives, getting some positive idea, however faint, of something super-personal – something more than a person. It is something we could never have guessed, and yet, once we have been told, one almost feels one ought to have been able to guess it because it fits in so well with all the things we know already. (Harper Collins version, p161-162)

Now, by no means do I think this is THE proof for a Trinitarian belief. But what I do believe is that it addresses the frequent argument from a non-Trinitarian that belief in a Trinity is too complicated and unreasonable, meaning, it doesn’t make any sense.

I don’t expect this to ‘convert’ any non-Trinitarian. But for those of us who believe in a three-personed, Triune God, we see from Lewis’s words that this is not an unreasonable understanding of the biblical data. As Lewis said above, ‘In God’s dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube.’ And he, then, goes on to exclaim, ‘It is something we could never have guessed, and yet, once we have been told, one almost feels one ought to have been able to guess it because it fits in so well with all the things we know already.’

We worship, follow and give our lives to the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Hearing Other Sides

Posted on by under devotional

This blog was triggered by something I read this morning in the preface of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. Here it is below:

I hope that 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. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think, preferable. It is true that some people may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you get into your room you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for light: and, of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and panelling. In plain lanuage, the question should never be: ‘Do I like that kind of service?’ but ‘Are these doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?’

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. (Mere Christianity)

I could have looked at any one of the numerous statements within these two paragraphs, for there are many. But I will only take a moment to look at one particular thought of Lewis’ that struck me while reading.

We all know that within Christianity there are a plethora of varied beliefs, viewpoints, denominations, etc. And such differences have tended to leave a bad taste in the mouths of non-believers.

But I love the metaphor that Lewis uses in this passage above, and one statement in particular, ‘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.’ Presumably, he is speaking of being kind and gracious to those who are a part of a different church tradition than we are, or maybe they have not even been able to decide such.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I do believe in standing for truth. I do believe that we are to guard against accepting any and every thing that might be taught in a self-proclaimed ‘Christian church’. This is why I spend time writing articles on this blog (click here to see the purpose of The Prodigal Thought). We need discernment, we need to weigh things against Scripture. But in all of this, I also am aware that I don’t know it all. And I would presume that all 6.8 billion people on the earth are in the same camp as me.

My heart is to truly see us move towards the great proclamation of Paul in Ephesians 4:13:

‘This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.’ (NLT)

But, right now, we are not there yet. I believe Christ, as the Head, is moving His body that way. But until then, I want to listen. I want to participate in what Eugene Peterson describes as ‘conversational humility’.

I love the truth. I love learning and getting to know the Word (the living Word and the written Word). Yet, I know that, in my finite understanding, I do not have it all figured out. And I never will!

So, I am hoping to learn the lesson C.S. Lewis, and many others since, have challenged us with – ‘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.’ And so, let us lend not only our ear in conversation of spiritual matters, but our heart as well. For in doing so, we will truly please the One who is drawing us unto Himself, even if we don’t have it all theologically figured out.