Mary Anne Phemister

The word fan somehow doesn't seem right for someone who starts reading C.S. Lewis and then somehow never stops. Follower? No. Devotee? Wrong. Admirer? Closer, but still not perfect, since Lewis was never about drawing attention to himself, but rather to Jesus Christ. So how about mere Christian? I like it.

In "Mere Christians," edited by Mary Anne Phemister and Andrew Lazo, 55 individuals tell how they how they got hooked on the writing of C.S. Lewis. The book, published in 2009, could have included thousands more, myself included.

What I found most interesting, for some reason, was the number of entryways into Lewis. Not surprisingly, "Mere Christianity" is mentioned most often as the book that people read first. Others tell about the influence of the Narnia books. "The Screwtape Letters," the science fiction novels and works like "Surprised by Joy," "The Problem of Pain" and "Miracles." Yet there are others who cite Lewis's literary works, such as "A Preface to 'Paradise Lost,'" and "Studies in Words," and essay collections like "God in the Dock" and "The Weight of Glory." Lewis wrote so much and with so much variety, including poetry, with virtually everything still in print, that one can discover him through any one of many doors. And if you read one thing, you tend to seek out others.

I entered through the "Mere Christianity" door while in college, struck immediately by the strength of his intellect, his logic and his metaphors. Soon I was reading (and collecting) everything by or about Lewis I could get my hands on.

Some of the "mere Christians" included in the book are people you may have heard of, including Charles Colson of Watergate fame, geneticist Francis Collins, pollster George Gallup Jr. and writers like Liz Curtis Higgs, Anne Rice, Philip Yancey, Elton Trueblood and Clyde Kilby. Also included are Joy Davidman, the American poet who became so impressed with Lewis's books that she went to England to meet him and eventually married him, and Merrie Gresham, who married one of Davidman's son and Lewis's stepsons and only later became a mere Christian herself. It happened because she listened to a tape of "Mere Christianity."… (mehr)

I almost passed on this book because I did not like its title. "Mere Christians" is, of course, a take on one of Lewis' most famous works, "Mere Christianity."

This is a collection of short pieces by 55 people whose lives were influenced by Lewis.

My own life was profoundly changed by my encounter with Lewis, and I have been reading him for over 40 years. But I have never, in all that time, met anyone else whose experience was similar to mine.

This book makes up for that deficit. What struck me most about it is the great variety of people who have read and loved Lewis, and, more importantly, have been directed by him to the One about whom he writes.

All 56 of us love some of the same things about CSL, yet each of us has a personal story, orchestrated by God, in which Lewis played a significant role.

One of the most interesting things about the book was its revelation of the great number of people who were bowled over by “Mere Christianity.” My experience was the opposite. Lewis drew me in with “Perelandra,” and the Space Trilogy. He then enthralled me with Narnia, and delighted me with Screwtape.. Only later did I come to his apologetics, and later still to his medieval studies.

I have always found it amazing and significant that he wrote in three diverse areas, and yet everything he produced was infused with the same Light. The quality of his oeuvre is uniformly of the highest order, and part of his appeal is that everything he wrote is in his inimitable voice, no matter its subject.

This book shows the breadth of his work and of its appeal to a diverse and far-flung audience. Yet we all do share one characteristic - we have ended up, having tasted of Mr. Lewis, wanting to know his God, and having been found by Him, look forward with delight to meeting CSL and saying to him, “You are a great part of the reason I am here.”… (mehr)