Mere Christianityintermediate
In Lewis’s terminology, what does Zoe mean?
Answer
Spiritual life that exists in God and is shared through Christ
Explanation
### Why this is right
Lewis uses Zoe for spiritual life, which he describes as existing in God and being shared with human beings through Christ. He contrasts it with Bios, biological life.
### The concept
Bios is the natural life that depends on material support and eventually decays. Zoe is not merely a stronger version of biological life; Lewis presents it as a different kind of life. Christian transformation means participating in this divine life, not simply improving natural behaviour.
### The other options
- **A. Biological life that depends on food and air**: Lewis calls this Bios.
- **C. A temporary emotional experience of religion**: Zoe is a theological claim about spiritual life, not a passing feeling.
- **D. The moral law shared by human societies**: This belongs to Lewis’s argument in Book One, not his definition of Zoe.
### Terms
- **Zoe**: Lewis’s term for spiritual life associated with God.
- **Bios**: Lewis’s term for biological life.
### Remember
Bios is natural biological life; Zoe is the spiritual life Lewis says comes from God.
Related Questions
- In Lewis’s piano analogy, what corresponds to the Moral Law?(intermediate)
- Explain how Lewis responds to the objection that moral rules are merely social conventions.(intermediate)
- Reconstruct Lewis’s inference from the Moral Law to a power behind the universe, and identify one limit he places on that inference.(intermediate)
- In Lewis’s account, what makes free will valuable despite making evil possible?(intermediate)
- Lewis argues that the Moral Law is simply a description of what human beings usually do.(intermediate)
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