C S Lewis, Alister McGrath and Karl Rahner

Overview

Lewis's argument from desire, lewis's trilemma and mcGrath's scientific theology.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

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1. 1

   Who was C S Lewis?

   Model answer

   C S Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898, taught English at Oxford and later held the chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge, and died in 1963. Lewis had been an atheist from his teens and came to Christian faith in his early thirties, and he became the best-known lay apologist for Christianity in the English-speaking world through his broadcasts, essays and fiction.

2. 2

   What is Lewis's argument from desire?

   Model answer

   Lewis argues that natural desires correspond to real objects, since hunger implies food and sexual desire implies a partner. Lewis then argues that the persistent longing he calls Joy, which no earthly satisfaction meets, points to an object beyond this world.

3. 3

   Summarise Lewis's moral argument in Mere Christianity.

   Model answer

   Lewis observes that when people quarrel they appeal to a standard of fair behaviour which they expect the other to accept, and that this shows belief in a real law of human nature rather than mere preference. Lewis argues that such a law, which is not a description of how people behave but a demand on them, points to a mind behind the universe that is interested in conduct.

4. 4

   What is Lewis's trilemma, and what is the main objection to it?

   Model answer

   Lewis argues that a man who said the things Jesus said about himself is either a liar, a madman or the Lord, and that the popular option of a great moral teacher is not open. The main objection is that the argument omits the possibility that the sayings are not authentic reports of what Jesus said, which is precisely what much New Testament scholarship examines.

5. 5

   How did Lewis approach the problem of suffering?

   Model answer

   In The Problem of Pain Lewis argues that free will makes moral evil possible, that a stable world necessarily allows harm, and that pain can be God's means of rousing people from complacency. A Grief Observed, written after the death of his wife, records his own experience and is much less confident, which many readers regard as the more honest of the two books.

6. 6

   How has Lewis's impact on religious thinking been assessed?

   Model answer

   Lewis is still the most widely read Christian apologist in English, and his broadcasts, essays and the Narnia stories have introduced generations to Christian ideas in a form they could grasp. Critics reply that professional philosophers and theologians find his arguments thin, and some judge that his imaginative writing rather than his apologetics will prove the more lasting contribution.

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