"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." - Jerome

Friday, September 19, 2008

Mere Christianity: Only the Hallway



“I hope no reader will suppose the ‘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 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…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.”

- C.S. Lewis - Preface to Mere Christianity.

5 comments:

Jared Nelson said...

I need to hear this as much as anyone else.

Aaron said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aaron said...

Thanks. I love you man. Sorry if I have not been kind. Just want to know there can still be mutual respect. All I wanted was to get someone to agree to this sentiment. Also kind of like this quote from the editor in Christian History's issue on the Anabaptist. I am also convinced that PCA is one of the very best rooms to be in.

I know that getting you guys to agree with this might be too much to ask. But that is ok. The Reformed still totally rock in my book. As Calvin said of Luther “He can call me the devil from hell and I will still revere him”. So I think of my Reformed brethren.

Even though I am not an Anabaptist I liked this:
Christian History Issue #5
Our hope for this publication is that it will deepen appreciation for your own specific heritage when the subject matter deals directly with your particular tradition and that it will broaden awareness of and respect for the heritage of others when the subject matter represents a background different from your
own. Surely the grace and truth of the Lord has not been deposited exclusively or monopolistically
within any single denomination or tradition. We have much to learn from each other.
May this issue serve that end in causing Anabaptists to appreciate anew their unique story and in
causing those of us not of that lineage to discover new dimensions of faith and commitment from their
experience. Perhaps more than any other movement, Anabaptists have been unfairly maligned over the
years by other Christian groups. Typically they have been identified with the madness of Müntzer and Münster as if that tragic man and episode defined the movement instead of being unfortunate aberrations that Anabaptists themselves universally disowned and condemned.

The history of Anabaptism contains two sharply contrasting themes. It is splashed with the blood and
ashes of martyrs willing to give up their good name, family, home and their lives for what they
believed. And it is colored also with industrious families whose peaceful life earned them the not
entirely complimentary epithet—“the quiet in the land”

M. Jay Bennett said...

Very wise words from a very wise man.

A said...

I love this passage so much.