The Problem of Pain

Lewis argues that humans need improvement and provides several reasons why that is the case. The first reason, he says, is our incomplete understanding of what it means to be good, which we equate with being kind: “The real trouble is that ‘kindness’ is a quality fatally easy to attribute to ourselves on quite inadequate grounds. Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment” (32). Being good, Lewis argues, is not as easy as being kind when there is no reason not to be kind.

The second reason humans need God’s help to improve ourselves is because contemporary psychoanalysis (that is, in the 1920s and 1930s) has led people to believe that shame, rather than being a necessary corrective to our behavior, is a bad thing. Lewis disagrees with this notion, writing that shame is the only true and right feeling of humanity. We are so in need of correction, he argues, that we should feel shame, as it helps alert us to our flaws and misdeeds. Lewis backs up his point by saying that Jesus, who died for the sins of man, didn’t question that men were inherently bad. Understanding that “old sense of sin” as inevitable and in need of cleansing is the only way to be a true Christian: “Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of His to be true, though we are part of the world He came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom His words are addressed” (32).

For Lewis, acceptance that we are terribly flawed creatures is essential both to being Christian and receiving the Gospel. However, there are several things that make it hard for us to realize our true, flawed nature. One of these is the fact that we compare ourselves to others, and in doing so, we hide the very worst of our natures. Another is the fact that we can too easily blame a corrupt society—rather than our own selves—as the source of any of our feelings of guilt. A third is the fact that we believe time mitigates our sins, and thus we can avoid facing up to our own evil if we wait long enough, and a fourth is that we take refuge in numbers, believing that our own flaws are simply part and parcel of a flawed humankind.

A fifth reason we are blinded to our flaws is that we believe our current society is better than past, barbaric societies, and a sixth reason is that we tell ourselves it is enough to be kind, even if at the same time we are slothful or cowardly, for instance. The seventh factor blinding us to our true nature is our refusal to acknowledge that we fail to uphold the moral law handed down to us by God, and lastly, we fail to see that badness is not a legacy we have inherited from our ancestors (who, in turn, would have had to inherit it from the Creator). For all of these reasons, we are unable to accept the truth about ourselves, which inhibits our ability to receive the teachings of Christ.

Lewis sums up this chapter by emphasizing the evil nature of man and stating that good, holy Christians are hyperaware of their own moral failings, flaws, and sins.