CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity was adapted from his series of World War II London radio broadcasts. His guidance to Londoners on living as Christians during the evil Nazi menace, and his embracing of an ecumenical spirit, not willing to picture Catholics as the enemy, foreshadowed the decrees of Vatican II two decades after the end of World War II.
We reflect on questions like:
How did the experiences of Christians and Catholics during World War II help shape the Second Vatican Council?
How was this ecumenical attitude influenced by St Augustine’s teaching in his classical work, On Christian Doctrine and also his Confessions?
How did Nazi anti-Semitism and the Holocaust affect Christian attitudes before, during, and after the war?
Why did the decrees of Vatican II embrace democracy?
YouTube video for this reflection: https://youtu.be/udJQzmqst34
PREPARING THE WAY FOR THE DECREES OF VATICAN II
When broadcasting his lectures that would later form the basis of Mere Christianity during World War II, CS Lewis was comforting his British listeners to help them cope with the current crisis, he was not preparing them for the future world after World War II. But us a practical proponent of ecumenism, in a way CS Lewis was paving the way for the decrees of Vatican II, which was convened only a few decades after this great war. In many ways, the decrees of Vatican II are unimaginable without the trauma of World War II, they are responses to the bad experiences of Catholics in particular, and Christians in general, while coping under the various fascist regimes.
How Did the Experiences of World War II Influence the Second Vatican Council?
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/how-did-the-experiences-of-world-war-ii-influence-the-second-vatican-council/
https://youtu.be/QQEd9LDzV1U
We preceded this with a reflection of CS Lewis’ discussion of England’s struggle against the evil Nazi regime, and next we will reflect on the possible influences of the teachings of the Early Church Fathers on Mere Christianity.
Facing the Nazi Menace: CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity and Viktor Frankl’s Memoirs on Auschwitz, Books 1-4
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/facing-the-nazi-menace-cs-lewis-mere-christianity-and-viktor-frankls-mans-search-for-meaning/
https://youtu.be/x-9FeH9Gyng
Was CS Lewis a Closet Catholic? Reflections on Mere Christianity, Books 2-4
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/was-cs-lewis-a-closet-catholic-reflections-on-his-mere-christianity/
https://youtu.be/ksWomcEg8C0
Good Friday, Easter, and Trinity: CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Narnia, & St Augustine’s Confessions, Books 1-4
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/good-friday-easter-and-trinity-cs-lewis-mere-christianity-narnia-st-augustines-confessions/
https://youtu.be/c71ygBqvPoY
CS Lewis did not wave the flag of ecumenicism, attending this conference or that on interfaith dialogues, which were more frequent in the post-war era, but instead prepares the way, saying that what denominational creed you profess is less important than whether you truly believe the core Christian teaching of the two-fold Love of God and neighbor. This was the key change wrought by Vatican II: No longer did the Catholic Church believe that you needed to be Catholic to be saved. Likewise, CS Lewis is against the Protestant notion that Catholics cannot be saved.
For example, CS Lewis answers the question: How do you explain that Christ is both human and divine, bringing salvation to those who believe in Him? “You can express this in all sorts of different ways. You can say that Christ died for our sins. You may say that the Father has forgiven us because Christ has done for us what we ought to have done. You may say that we’re washed in the blood of the Lamb. You may say that Christ has defeated death. They are all true. If any of them do not appeal to you, leave it alone and get on with the formula that does. And, whatever you do, do not start quarreling with other people because they use a different formula than yours.”[1]
The decrees of Vatican II agree, declaring that although the Catholic Church possesses the seeds of faith through the Apostolic Succession, through the bishops throughout history beginning with Peter, the first bishop of Rome, that Catholics have much to learn from their Protestant brothers. Furthermore, Catholics should respect the religious traditions of Protestants, as well as non-Christians.
What Happened at Vatican II, Embracing Democracy and Modernity
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/what-happened-at-vatican-ii-embracing-democracy-and-modernity/
https://youtu.be/vHtYu6UtiuE
CS Lewis agrees: “If you are a Christian, you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through.” “If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth.”
“But of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions: Christianity is right, and they are wrong.” Pope Benedict and the decrees of Vatican II also affirm this, adding that, nevertheless, we should treat all major religious traditions with dignity and respect, seeking dialogue rather than acrimony.
CS Lewis proclaims, “We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him.”[2] In other words, CS Lewis want Jesus to be the one who judges.
These reflections by CS Lewis echo those by St Augustine, who in On Christian Teaching, or On Christian Doctrine, observes that though it would be preferable for a Christian to reach salvation by taking the narrow road, sometimes he can find the faith through a longer route through the fields.
St Augustine teaches us: “Whoever takes another meaning out of Scripture than the writer intended goes astray, but not through any falsehood in Scripture.” But “if his mistaken interpretation tends to build up love, which is the end of the commandments, he goes astray in much the same way as a man who, by mistake, quits the high road, but yet reaches through the fields the same place to which the road leads.” But he reminds us that the high road is preferable.[3]
St Augustine: On Christian Teaching, aka On Christian Doctrine, How To Read Scripture
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/st-augustine-on-christian-teaching-how-to-read-scripture/
https://youtu.be/uQCnAJMPoos
LACK OF MISSIONARY ZEAL AFTER VATICAN II
Many conservative bishops opposed some of the decrees of Vatican II, worrying that there would be a loss of missionary zeal if the Catholic Church no longer stressed that you needed to convert to Catholicism to be saved. They were assured that the ethos of Vatican II would increase missionary zeal rather than decrease it.
However, as the future Pope Benedict confirmed in his Ratzinger Report two decades after the Council, there was indeed a loss of missionary zeal. He did not regret the decrees of Vatican II, as they were essential, in light of the decolonization movement in Africa and Asia, that local church leaders should be initiated into the church hierarchy in these newly formed nations.
Ratzinger Report, by Future Pope Benedict XVI, Preparing for Catholic Catechism
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/ratzinger-report-by-future-pope-benedict-xvi-preparing-for-catholic-catechism/
https://youtu.be/dTpbczGCAto
CS LEWIS OPPOSING ANTI-SEMITISM OF NAZISM
CS Lewis has only a few references to anti-Semitism in Mere Christianity, which played such a central role in the ideology of Nazism. But then CS Lewis is not commenting, directly or indirectly, on the evils of the Nazi regime, he is explaining how Christians can survive the current crisis of bombs dropping on London and the need to fight in yet another World War opposing Germany. Anti-Semitism was not as much of an issue in England as it was France, in part because there were so few Jews in England. England did not directly experience the trauma of the Dreyfus Affair that tore Catholic France in half at the turn of the century.[4]
CS Lewis writes: “Christ Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, ‘Take up your Cross.’ In other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute he says, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden light.’ He means both,” “and both are true.”[5]
In his discussion on Christian Charity, or Love, CS Lewis observed: “The German Nazis, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them. Afterwards, they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them.”[6]
How could ordinary Germans and Christians tolerate the anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany? Many German Confessing Christians who were interviewed shortly after the war pondered this question. One German Confessing Christian could not recall when she first heard of the mass murders:
“We knew some things, but we never knew the entirety. We knew more than others, but we actually learned the extent of the horrors after 1945. No one ever came back from the concentration camps, and when people did return, they had to sign that they wouldn’t talk, and they were much too afraid to talk.”[7]
The war softened the hearts of many Germans. One German remembers shopping during the brutal Allied bombing of Berlin, the “shopkeeper was talking to another customer whom she knew and said, ‘This is the punishment for what we’ve done to the Jews.’ And she dared to say that much, although I was a stranger in her shop.”[8]
How Did Confessing Christians Tolerate Hitler? Excerpts From Post-War Interviews
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/how-did-confessing-christians-tolerate-hitler-excerpts-from-post-war-interviews/
https://youtu.be/ALl4HhEhgyY
WHY DID THE DECREES OF VATICAN II EMBRACE DEMOCRACY?
Why did many Catholics, and the Catholic Church, embrace fascism in the interwar years? Exploring this question will also provide insight into the political climate surrounding CS Lewis and all other Christians before, during, and after the dark days when the allied nations were facing the Nazi tide.
Before we answer this question, we must assure our gentle readers that Nazism is an extreme form of fascism, and that Italian fascism under Mussolini was not originally anti-Semitic. Mussolini was initially a friend and protector of the Catholic Church in Italy, assuring that the Pope was in charge of religious instruction in the state-run schools. And the fascist General Franco in Spain was never anti-Semitic, turning a blind eye to Jews fleeing to Spain.
Although Mussolini was initially a friend of the Catholic Church, he fell fully under the spell of Hitler shortly before he invaded Poland, passing laws persecuting the Jews. Pope Pius XI, who had signed the 1927 Concordat with Mussolini creating Vatican City, fearing for his salvation as he knew his health was failing, became the bitter enemy of Mussolini and Nazism. The lesson was clear: totalitarian regimes could never be trusted, even if they supported the church, as they could turn against the church on a dime.
Mussolini’s Fascist Regime and the Catholic Church
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/mussolinis-fascist-regime-and-the-catholic-church/
https://youtu.be/LvNynEdZFuM
In the interwar years, fascism was seen as the enemy of communism. At the turn of the century, Lenin and the communists in the Russian Revolution martyred more Orthodox believers than all Christians in all other countries in all preceding centuries combined. Likewise, during the Spanish Civil War, the communists murdered priests and nuns by the thousands. The fascist General Franco defended the interests of the Catholic Church, he massacred public school teachers instead.
Spanish Civil War and the Catholic Church
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/spanish-civil-war-and-the-catholic-church/
https://youtu.be/ozEioe6yyY8
Likewise, in Vichy France, the World War I hero General Petain collaborated with the Nazis, sending many Jews to the death camps, while simultaneously championing the Catholic Church. This damaged the credibility of the Catholic Church, after the war most French Catholic bishops were compelled to resign. What helped the reputation of Christians, Protestants and Catholics alike, was that many of them fought in the French underground side-by-side with the communist in the French Resistance.[9]
Vichy France Regime, Blog 1, Pro-Life, Pro-Catholic, and Fascist
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/vichy-france-regime-blog-1-pro-life-pro-catholic-and-fascist/
Vichy France, Blog 2, Collaborating with the Germans in the Early Years, 1940-1942
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/vichy-france-blog-2-collaborating-with-the-germans-in-the-early-years-1940-1942/
Vichy France, Blog 3, The Tide Turns, Resistance and Collaboration
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/vichy-france-blog-3-the-tide-turns-resistance-and-collaboration/
Vichy France, Blog 4, Christianity in Vichy France
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/vichy-france-blog-4-christianity-in-vichy-france/
Vichy France in WWII: Pro-Fascist, Pro-Catholic, Pro-Life, Anti-Semitic
https://youtu.be/yYpNrhpmsYw
The European bishops congregating in Rome for Vatican II remembered that, even after the horrors of the war, even after knowing the extent of the Holocaust, there were still fascist-leaning Cardinals and high-ranking church officials in the Vatican who abused their diplomatic privileges by assisting in the escape of Nazi war criminals to Latin America via the infamous Ratlines.[10]
These experiences and memories of living under the Nazi and fascist regimes before and during World War II made the European bishops distrustful of totalitarian regimes, remembering how Mussolini was a friend of the Catholic Church for many decades, until he went full Nazi shortly before the start of World War II. This is why the Vatican II decrees embraced democracy, distrusting totalitarianism, and also autocracy.
Vatican II Decree on Freedom of Religion, Embracing Democracy, Rejecting Fascism
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/vatican-ii-decree-on-freedom-of-religion-embracing-democracy-rejecting-fascism/
https://youtu.be/i_zGeTW9QMI
Next, CS Lewis ponders both the Cardinal Virtues, and the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, or Love, and other moral issues, including romance and Christian marriage.
Morality and the Cardinal Virtues in CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: Prudence, Temperance, and Justice, Books 1-3
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/mere-morality-and-the-cardinal-virtues-in-cs-lewis-mere-christianity-prudence-temperance-and-justice/
https://youtu.be/Djbzmeb2nc0
CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: Forgiveness, Pride, and Envy. Can Pride Ever Be Good?, Book 3
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/cs-lewis-mere-christianity-forgiveness-pride-and-envy-can-pride-ever-be-good/
https://youtu.be/Pmu6hzU5RaQ
Faith, Hope, Charity, and Love in CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: The Theological Virtues, Book 3
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/faith-hope-charity-and-love-in-cs-lewis-mere-christianity-the-theological-virtues/
https://youtu.be/avesW8whRSQ
CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: Intimacy, Romance, Marriage, and Divorce, Books 2-3
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/cs-lewis-mere-christianity-reflections-on-intimacy-romance-marriage-and-divorce/
https://youtu.be/fZcOip3WGe8
Next, CS Lewis ponders whether Christianity is Hard, or Easy. Previously, we reflected on CS Lewis’ Great Divorce, on Hell and Heaven, and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, written after he survived his time in the Auschwitz work camps of World War II.
CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: Is Living the Christian Life Hard or Easy?, Book 4
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/cs-lewis-mere-christianity-is-christianity-easy-or-hard/
https://youtu.be/jZuWmInLh7s
CS Lewis’ Great Divorce, An Allegory of Hell and Plato’s Cave
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/cs-lewis-great-divorce-an-allegory-of-hell-and-platos-cave/
St Gregory Of Nyssa on Beatitudes, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, and CS Lewis and the Great Divorce
https://youtu.be/wuqwy3GyO_4
Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning, His Life in a Nazi Concentration Camp in WWII
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/viktor-frankl-mans-search-for-meaning-his-life-in-a-nazi-concentration-camp-in-wwii/
https://youtu.be/O-YtC9qGWPI
DISCUSSING THE SOURCES
CS Lewis sought to make the core theological Christian doctrines and teachings comprehensible for ordinary Christians, and he succeeded. Please review our detailed reflection and discussion of Mere Christianity and his other works, and Viktor Frank’s Man’s Search for Meaning, in our initial video of Mere Christianity and the Nazi Menace.
Facing the Nazi Menace: CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity and Viktor Frankl’s Memoirs on Auschwitz, Books 1-4
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/facing-the-nazi-menace-cs-lewis-mere-christianity-and-viktor-frankls-mans-search-for-meaning/
https://youtu.be/x-9FeH9Gyng
[1] CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, included in volume containing Mere Christianity and the Screwtape Letters (HarperSanFrancisco, 2003, 1944), Book 3, Chapter 5, The Obstinate Toy Soldiers, pp. 181-182.
[2] CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 5, The Practical Conclusion, p. 64.
[3] St Augustine, “On Christian Doctrine,” In the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Volume 2, translated by Rev JF Shaw (Boston: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994, first published 1887), Book 1, Chapter 36, Passage 41, p. 533.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair
[5] CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 4, Chapter 8, Is Christianity Hard or Easy?, p. 197, quoting https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+16%3A24&version=RSVCE and https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+11%3A30&version=RSVCE
[6] CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 9, Charity, pp. 131-132.
[7] Victoria Barnett, For the Soul of the People, Protestant Protest Against Hitler (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 148.
[8] Victoria Barnett, For the Soul of the People, p. 170.
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