The Lewis trilemma is the apologetic defence of the divinity of Jesus, popularised by CS Lewis (the writer of Chronicles of Narnia and the Screwtape Letters) in his 1952 book Mere Christianity.
Based on Jesus's description of himself in the New Testament, Lewis argues the following:
1) Jesus is God
This is because this is who Jesus claims he is.
2) Jesus is evil
This is because he claims to be God and gathers followers .
OR
3) Jesus is mad.
This is because he was mistaken to be God.
What Lewis was criticising was the view that Jesus was a simple moral teacher. In his words,
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.
What are the rebuttals?
Christian New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright (1999) felt that Lewis oversimplified how first century Jews might have understood Jesus's words. For instance in offering the forgiveness of sins, Jesus was telling the Jews that they did not need to pay for such a service at a temple, rather than showing he was God.
Christian philosopher William Lane Craig (1994) also points out that it is possible to be deluded and yet give great moral teaching. In other words, Lewis trilemma fails to take in other possibilities.
Conclusion
While the Lewis trilemma is not perfect, it is a great primer to kick off a discussion on why we see Jesus as more than a moral teacher.
References
Craig, W.L.C. (1994). Reasonable Faith
Wright, N.T. (1999). The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering who Jesus was and is.
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