C.S Lewis - Mere Christianity

Det är svårt att undgå ett genomgående inslag i många kristna böcker, nämligen citering av C. S Lewis bok "Mere Christianity". Detta väckte så småningom mitt intresse för denna 50år gamla bok. Jag undrade: hur det kommer det sig att många refererar till den? Några klick på Adlibris senare, var boken i en underbar inslagen förpackning på väg hem till mig.

Efter att ha utfört den traditionella sniffande av en ny bok, tog det inte många rader innan jag förstod varför "Mere Christianity" är så populär bland katolska författare. C. S Lewis lyckas beskriva och sammanfatta den kristna tron genom att måla upp enkla och lätt förståeliga bilder. Boken är egentligen en sammansättning av en serie radiotal som Lewis gav i BBC’s radioprogram under Andra Världskriget. Tyvärr finns inte boken tillgänglig på svenska men här presenteras ett utdrag ur boken på engelska, där Lewis pratar om Guds existens:

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it? A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet. Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too- for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist- in other words, that the the whole of reality was senseless- I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality- namely my idea of justice- was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning.

Categories: Böcker