Indeed if this were not so, it would be an intolerable injustice to impose permanent monogamy even on Christians. That it is dissonant with men's present sex-psychology does not disprove this, as you see: "I think it is the instinct that has gone wrong," you say. Ou observe that you are really committed (with the Christian Church as a whole) to the view that Christian marriage-monogamous, permanent, rigidly "faithful"-is in fact the truth about sexual behavior for all humanity: this is the only road of total health (including sex in its proper place) for all men and women. I have been reading your booklet 'Christian Behavior." I have never felt happy about your view of Christian "policy" with regard to divorce. After Tolkien died, the letter was found folded up inside his copy of Lewis' "Christian Behavior,"which would be republished as part of Mere Christianity. Tolkien drafted a response to Lewis sometime in 1943 but never sent it. This argument provoked a strong response from Lewis' friend and fellow Inkling, J.R.R.
The distinction ought to be quite sharp, so that a man knows which couples are married in a Christian sense and which are not. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the church with rules enforced by her on her own members. My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognize that the majority of the British people are not Christian and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives. At least I know I should be very angry if the Mohammedans tried to prevent the rest of us from drinking wine. A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for every one. The Christian conception of marriage is one: the other is quite the different question-how far Christians, if they are voters or Members of Parliament, ought to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in the divorce laws.
Lewis' Mere Christianity:īefore leaving the question of divorce, I should like to distinguish two things which are very often confused. You won't find a more apt example of an excerpt that is contradictory to an author's broader writings than this bit from C.S.
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