C.S. Lewis’s essay “What Christians Believe” falls into the genre of social commentary. Lewis discusses religion and human nature, both aspects of society. Lewis describes his own change from atheist to Christian and uses his experience to give depth to his argument. Lewis wrote “What Christians Believe” to help categorize the different religions. He first breaks religion into people who believe in God and those who do not. The next categories are people who believe God is separate entity or those who see God as part of the universe. Lewis continues to categorize religion until only Christianity remains. He wrote this essay to show that Christian beliefs follow a logical pattern. Lewis ultimate purpose, though, is to defend Christianity and help spread its message. His effort is directed at intellectuals and appeals to their method of thinking. Lewis’s central message is that Christian’s beliefs pass the tests of logic and that they are true. Lewis assumes that the reader is familiar with Christian beliefs. He also assumes that readers think that whatever is true must be logical. Lewis’s world views include a definite split between those who believe in a God and those who do not. He sees the world as a place where everything can be explained. Lewis also believes that people seek understanding and try to better themselves. Lewis uses several tools of rhetoric. The main tool is logos, an appeal to logic. His entire essay follows a pattern of finding an issue and then resolving it. He resolves the issues through serious thought and Christian beliefs. Lewis shows the oppositions argument and then presents why it does not follow logic. For evidence, he uses his personal knowledge and experience.
I found the piece, “What Christians Believe” rather interesting. Sometimes I got confused by her vocabulary and other things, but it seemed to make more and more sense the more I read. What I found really interesting was her argument towards Atheist and how they believe that the world has no meaning. Lewis used the argument that if the world has no meaning then that also means that we do not know the difference between dark and light. It made me laugh for sure. I am obviously not as good at telling the story as she is, but I try haha It seems as though you had a rather easy time with this assignment. I really do not enjoy doing these reviews, because I am not very good at them haha I think they are really difficult and, frankly, I do not think I will get a good grade on the rhetorical analysis.
ReplyDeleteI also found this piece of writing interesting but I also enjoyed it. It was hard to stay focused on what he was trying to say but after a few paragraphs of reading I got into what he was trying to say and really liked it. I also liked his comments about atheism, Jerry. I thought it was pretty funny how he said that they believe there is no meaning to life. How could a person live like that?? That would be horrible!! I liked his light and dark analogy. I really liked his third paragraph on page 181 also. I think that we all need to "run" on God and that we can truly find happiness in Him.
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