Book IV: Chapter 1 Making and Begetting Summary and Analysis

The difference between making and begetting is begetting is being born of the same kind, whereas making is the creation of something after the birth. Thus, a bird begets an egg in a nest that turns into a chick. The chick matures and creates its own nest, and so it goes throughout sexual reproduction in the natural world.

Lewis compares this to how God begat Jesus Christ before creating the universe. Notably absent from this simile is how some creatures in nature do not beget by sexual reproduction. They split into two identical beings or produce little clones of themselves which mature into identical beings. However, Christian theology asserts that God begat Jesus Christ before creating the universe, and subsequently, humankind.

The first part of the chapter deals with how theology...