Mere Christianity - Overview

In 1941, during WWII, in the midst of the London Blitz, the BBC asked C.S. Lewis, an Oxford don, to deliver a set set of broadcasts.  He agreed.  His talks riveted Britain, and the BBC expanded them.  His talks later formed the basis for the 1952 book, Mere Christianity, which combined three books already published based upon those talks.  The first book was published in Britain in 1942, simply called, Broadcast Talks. It contained his first 10 talks.  A year later it was published in the United States under the title, The Case for Christianity.  In Mere Christianity, the first five broadcast talks became Book I. Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe.  The second five talks became, Book 2. What Christians Believe.

The second book based on the BBC talks was published in Britain in 1943, called Christian Behavior.  It included eight more talks Lewis delivered in 1942, and expanded into 12 chapters in the book.  In Mere Christianity, those 12 chapters became Book 3. Christians Behavior.

Lewis delivered the third set of seven talk in 1944 - and the BBC first published them in its weekly magazine, The Listner.   It was then published in 1944 as 11 chapters in a book called Beyond Personality.  In Mere Christianity, it became Book 4. Beyond Personality: or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity.

In 2006, Christianity Today, considered evangelicalism's flagship by the Washington Post, placed Mere Christianity third on its list of most influential books among evangelicals since 1945.  While many books tend to decline in sales over time, Mere Christianity increased in sales over time.  Many non-Christians tend to read it.

I am currently leading a group of men in studying this book.  I plan to post a separate blog post summarizing one chapter of this book, and provide a link to each summary of each chapter in this post.  I hope this helps you if you decide to read the book (or already have read the book).  If you have not read it, and plan not to, I hope this will help you in understand the book.

The links below will lead you to each post on each chapter (at least as far as I have gotten).  Below that, I will provided a link to some other books where I posted a chapter by chapter summary. (The link will lead to the Overview post, which contains links to the chapter postings.)

Preface
Bk.1 Ch. 1 - The Law of Human Nature 
Bk 1 Ch 2 - Some Objections
Bk 1 Ch 3 - The Reality of the Law
Bk 1 Ch 4 - What Lies Behind the Law
Bk 1 Ch 5 - We Have Cause to be Uneasy

Bk 2 Ch 1 - The Rival Conceptions of God
Bk 2 Ch 2 - The Invasion
Bk 3 Ch 3 - The Shocking Alternative
Bk 3 Ch 4 - The Perfect Penitent

That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

The Confessions by St. Augustine

That Hideous Strength - Character List

This lists many (not all) of the characters which appear in That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis.

• Mark (Gainsby) Studdock - A Fellow in Sociology for 5 years at Bracton College.  He talks with Sub-Warden Curry and discovers, to his delight, he is now part of the inner circle.  He married his wife Jane six months ago, and they are drifting apart.  Lord Feverstone recruits Mark to join the NICE, where Mark delights in reaching another inner circle before discovering how horrendous it is.  He has to pretend to go along before he can finally leave it.
• Jane (Tudor) Studdock - Jane Tudor married Mark 6 months ago, and left the job she enjoyed.  Since then, she works on her doctoral thesis, but makes no progress.  Before marriage, they had endless talks, but since marriage, she feels alone in solitary confinement.  She has nightmares of a man beheaded by having his head twisted off.  A picture in a newspaper reminds her of this dream.  Out shopping, she runs into Mrs. Dimble, who invites her home to lunch with her husband, Dr. Dimble.  She eventually joins a fellowship at St. Anne's where she plays a key role in overturning the evil forces assembled at the NICE.  She continues to have strange and scary dreams, which eventually turn out to be true since she has a gift for seeing the future in her dreams.
• Dr. Cecil Dimble - used to be Jane's tutor at Northumberland College.  Knows a lot about Arthurian scholarship and pre-Norman Britain.  He notices Jane does not look well, and she tells the Dimble's about her dream.  They send her to see Grace Ironwood at St. Anne's, where Dr. Dimble plays a central role in the fellowship there, especially after the Dimbles move in full time after losing their home to the expansion of the NICE.
• Margaret "Mother" Dimble - Married to Dr. Dimble, she takes on a motherly role to all his current and former students, like Jane, as well as to everyone in the fellowship at St. Anne's.
• Grace Ironwood - A psychologist.  Jane tells her her dreams, and worries if anything is wrong with her.  Grace, who is kind, but tough, tells Jane nothing is wrong with her - instead, Jane is a visionary who sees things in her dreams ahead of time, a gift she inherited from a Tudor ancestor who wrote about it in his autobiographical book.  She urges Jane to use her gift in service for the fellowship at St. Anne's, and warns others will want to use her gift for subversive purposes.
• Sub-Warden Curry - Curry serves as the effective head of Bracton College, who thinks the NICE "marks the beginning of a new era - the really scientific era."  Curry wants Mark to support the sale of of Bragdon Woods to the NICE.  At dinner, he introduces Mark to Lord Feverstone.
• James Busby - the Bursar at Bracton College.  Busby is also enthusiastic about the NICE.
• Lord Feverstone - His real name is Dick Divine, who has appeared in the prior stories of the Space Trilogy as a villain. At the dinner, Mark discovers Feverstone as the person responsible for getting his position at Bracton College over another prospect, Denniston.  Once Curry and Busby, the Bursar, leave, Mark discovers Feverstone holds them in disdain, but finds them useful in running Bracton College for the benefit of the NICE.  He believes Mark would fit in well at the NICE and invites him to meet the leaders there, which Mark accepts with some reservation.
• John Withers - the Deputy Director of the NICE, who masters double-talk.  He says a lot without saying anything, or says something while meaning something else.  Mark can never seem to get a a straight answer out of him.
• Bill Hingest - also known as "Bill the Blizzard."  A prominent chemist at Bracton, he left to work at the NICE, but now informs Mark he plans to leave it immediately, and advises Mark to do the same.  Bill winds up dead later that evening.  Later, Mark is falsely accused of murdering Bill.
• Professor Filastro - advises Mark to stay with the NICE and not worry about a job title - the work of the NICE is too important to pass up.  Later, Filastro reveals he would like to do away with the messiness of organic life.  He only wants to preserve the mind and clean metal.  He likes to talk about the cleanness of the moon.  He believes the real purpose of the NICE is the conquest of organic life.  He tells Mark the real head of the NICE is Francois Alcasan.
• Francois Alcasam - An Arabian radiologist who poisoned his wife.  He was beheaded for this crime.  However, before his execution, Jane sees him in a dream being beheaded by twisting his head off.  Somehow, Filastro has obtained his head, attached it to a machine with many tubes and dials, and believes he is keeping it alive, and it speaks.  To see it, select visitors must strip to their underclothes, wash, put on white clothes, gloves, and a surgical mask, and go through an air lock.  Jane saw in a dream, three of them, including her husband Mark, approach him, speak with him in French (which she did not understand).  
• "Fairy" Hardcastle - head of the internal police of the NICE.  She also later advises Mark how to get along at the NICE, by not bothering Withers (the Deputy Director) about his position. Later she gives Mark an assignment which gains him passage into an inner circle.  Still later, she attempts to arrest Mark's wife, Jane, and does torture her in the process, though Jane manages to get away and goes back to St. Anne's.
• Reverend Straik (also known as the "Mad Parson).  He believes the NICE program must be carried out with violence - as the means of bringing about the Kingdom of God through science.  He believes himself a prophet (who actually reveals the nature of the NICE).
• Professor Frost - A member of the inner circle at the NICE, who has nez-pierce glasses and a pointed beard.  He works closely with the Deputy Director, Withers, in managing the NICE.
• Mr. Denniston - an old friend of Mark (who now lives at St. Anne's).
• Camilla Denniston - wife of Mr. Denniston.  They reveal they live at St. Anne's in a society run by a Mr. Fisher-King, who recently received an injury to his foot which won't heal (which ties into Arthurian legends - Mr. Denniston also refers to him as the Pendragon - another Arthurian reference.  They urge Jane to join the society at St. Anne's and use her gift for good before the forces of evil force her to use on their side.  (Which goes against Jane's independence - so she resists.)
• Pendragon (Fisher-King - Dr. Ransom) - A title held by Arthur's uncle, which passed to Arthur's father,Uther, and then which passed to Arthur.  In Welsh it roughly means the dragon-head - the leader.  This title has passed from person to person down through the years, and now applies to the Director (Dr. Ransom) at St. Anne's.  When Jane met him, "her world was unmade."  Though he appeared as a 20 year old golden boy, his beard and strength made it clear he was much older.  One of his foot bore a bandaged wound, so that pain came and went on his face.  His voice seemed like sunlight and gold.  The Director wants Jane to join the fellowship, but she hesitates while Mark belongs to the NICE.  Dr. Ransom was a philologist before he began his adventures in outer space.
• Mr. Bultitude - a bear who peacefully lives in St. Anne's.
• Mr. McPhee - Part of the fellowship at St. Anne's who insists on empirical evidence to support any belief.  (The resident skeptic.)
• Logres - a name for ancient England, which recalls a more romantic and earthy past.
• Merlin - from Arthurian days, yet we find that though Merlin has a pagan past - he is much more aligned with Christianity than we knew.  He has been asleep for many years and has now awakened.  Both sides seek him and his assistance, though he finds his way to the Pendragon to whom he offers his assistance and loyalty.
• Macrobes - Frost reveals they are the true source of direction for the NICE.  He says they exist above animal life, including humans.  Apparently, through their influence, Frost believes most of the human population is dead weight, and only about ten percent need survive.
• The tramp - a street person whom the NICE mistake for Merlin.