The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis
Week 3: "Why I Am Not a Pacifist"
Read Essay 3: "Why I Am Not a Pacifist" in The Weight of Glory. Key Scripture: Romans 13:1-4; Matthew 5:39.
Previewing Week 3 of The Weight of Glory
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 10-week guide when you’re ready.
Lewis delivered this address to a pacifist society during World War II, respectfully but thoroughly dismantling the case for Christian pacifism. Whether or not you share his conclusion, his method — carefully distinguishing intuition, argument, and authority — is a model of how Christians ought to reason through difficult ethical questions.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Lewis begins by outlining his method for settling moral questions: he weighs intuitions, arguments, and the authority of "the moral tradition of humanity." Do you find this a trustworthy framework? What might it leave out?
2.Lewis grants that the intuition "do not kill" is strong and widespread. But he argues that another intuition — "it is right to protect the innocent" — is equally strong, and that pacifism, in practice, abandons the second for the first. How does this two-intuition tension affect your thinking about war and violence?
3.Lewis engages the Sermon on the Mount carefully, arguing that "turn the other cheek" was not intended as a political or military program but as instruction about personal resentment and retaliation. Do you agree with this interpretation? What are the risks of reading it Lewis's way?