C.S Lewis

Genre: Persuasive Essay

Purpose: To address critics of Christianity and affirm its legitimacy as a truthful belief system through open-minded logic.

Central Message: Christianity is not for close-minded individuals and, like many things of this world, is complex and full of essential truths when one thinks about it rationally.

World View and Assumptions: C.S Lewis addresses a universal audience of all religious beliefs in his piece, but mainly addresses critics and atheists. Lewis writes his pieced like he is talking to the most hyper rational group imaginable who will not fall for clichés we normally use in our church (just have faith, use the spirit) to convince ourselves that Jesus is the Christ. Lewis takes for granted he is talking to a mature audience and explains Christianity in terms that display the actual complexity of the religion, insomuch that an educated person might even be lost in his progression. He also shows that a majority of people has some sort of belief system as Atheism is blasted in the article.

Use of Tools and Evidence: Since the article is primarily based in logos, C.S Lewis immediately establishes his open-mindedness and legitimacy as a writer by declaring that he once was an atheist. In order to further validate his ethos to the hard line unbelievers, he does not say he was “born again” or fall into the religious fervor of pathos, as such talk would alienate his skeptics. He uses the logical approach that atheists claim to be the basis of their beliefs, and shows that atheism is in fact, much less complex and is the simplest belief system known to mankind. Although his approach is primarily in logos, C.S Lewis uses pathos by his simple word choices. In order to avoid further complicating the already complex notions of Christianity, he uses simple words like “good” “evil” and other words that establishes his writing in a way that the audience can either accept or not accept, there is no middle ground in his pathos or logos. Ultimately, I believe this piece shows how important the Spirit is for legitimizing truths. If the Spirit were not present in our lives then imagine trying to explain to your children why they should believe in Christ in this logical manner.