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Clara Sarrocco on a Rabbi's Love for Mere Christianity
"I have met with little of the fabled odium theologicum from convinced members of communions different from my own. Hostility has come more from borderline people. . . . It is at her centre, where her truest children dwell, that each communion is really closest to every other in spirit, if not in doctrine. And this suggests that at the centre of each there is something, or a Someone who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice."
These words were written by C. S. Lewis in his Preface to Mere Christianity. One usually thinks that by "members of communions different from my own," Lewis meant Christian communities, but he doesn't tell us this. His invitation is to members of all communions who are seeking that Someone by different routes.
In Surprised by Joy Lewis tells us how, as a young man, he discovered George MacDonald. He was waiting for a train at Leatherhead station one cold October evening, and "turning to the book stall, I picked out an Everyman in a dirty jacket, Phantastes, a Faerie Romance, [by] George MacDonald." From that time on, Lewis avers, MacDonald "baptized his imagination."
When another unsuspecting traveler on the road to Lewis's "Someone," Rabbi Mayer Schiller, was asked how he came upon C. S. Lewis, he replied:
On Christmas Eve, I was coming home from a New York Rangers hockey game . . . and stopped in the bookstore that was then in the Port Authority bus terminal. While browsing, I picked up Mere Christianity and was captivated by it. I bought it and read it all the way home on the bus.
Separated by almost half a century and thousands of miles, both C. S. Lewis and Rabbi Schiller walked past "watchful dragons."
Schiller's Background
Who is this Rabbi Schiller, who, while holding onto his Jewish faith, yet appreciates one of the most Christian of writers? Mayer Schiller was born in Brooklyn in 1951 and given the name Craig. His family, while ethnically Jewish, did not have a deep religious identity. But by the age of twelve Mayer felt a strong religious calling. He made the decision to accept Orthodox Judaism and eventually became a member of the Hasidic community.
He is married with children and grandchildren and has taught Torah and Talmud at Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan. He also coached the Yeshiva boys' hockey team, leading them to six straight championships in the 1990s. It was a sight to see Coach Schiller gliding across the ice in his traditional Hasidic garb. In an online comment posted on November 6, 2014, one former student wrote: "This Rabbi is a legend. A great teacher as well; I had him in high school."
Rabbi Schiller describes his journey in his book, The Road Back: A Discovery of Judaism Without Embellishments (Feldheim Publishers, 1978, with a Forward by Rabbi Norman Lamm, President of Yeshiva University). In it he urges Jews to return to their ancient religious heritage of Torah Judaism. He has also written numerous articles, participated in many interviews, lectured widely, and was featured in a highly acclaimed PBS documentary, A World Apart. The Jewish press wrote of him: "Among leading Torah Umadda advocates, one personality in particular piques the curiosity of a visitor. For while Rabbi Mayer Schiller's words evince culture and sophistication, his garb belongs to the insulated Chassidic world."
Clara Sarrocco is the longtime secretary of The New York C. S. Lewis Society. She has taught classes on C. S. Lewis at the Institute for Religious Studies at St. Joseph's Seminary and is the president of the Long Island Chapter of University Faculty for Life. Her articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including Touchstone, New Oxford Review, Gilbert, The Chesterton Review, St. Austin's Review, and The International Philosophical Quarterly.
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