19th Apr 2009
If you’re not following CSLEWISNEWS on Twitter (subscribe now), today’s entry:
A. N. Wilson’s return to faith after 20 yrs. in the atheist wilderness after writing his bio of CSLewis: http://tinyurl.com/wilson-CSL
11th Apr 2009
Introduction
Humans mark time, spend it, waste it, miss it, cherish it, and rebel against it. Living in time, and dominated by it, we rarely take the long view beyond our immediate concerns and actions. When we do, we call it nostalgia, reminiscence, anticipation, intention.
But If we were to confront our basic orientation to time, we would find that we tend toward the past or toward the future (but rarely, and oddly so, do we simply stand in the present). We orient ourselves to time and in time by the metanarratives—mythologies and religious stories that tell of origins and endings, and of living in between.
For J.R.R. Tolkien and his friend C.S. Lewis, the “true myths” of Christianity shaped and guided their thoughts, lives, and creative works, in ways their audiences enjoy nearly half a century later. For at the center of Christianity is the eucatastrophe of the Gospel message: Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, which radiates backwards and forwards throughout human history.
Imagine Tolkien and Lewis, as friends and as authors, standing side by side discussing this central point of their faith; overhearing their conversations we would note, especially in their fantasies, a distinctive orientation to time: Tolkien looks backward, and Lewis looks forward. For the implications of this, let’s consider, first, what is time that we should be mindful of it?
10th Apr 2009
The documentary based upon Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia debuts in Britain on BBC1, Thursday 16th April 2009 at 10.35 pm. Here is the trailer:
I will be speaking on “Lewis in Love, On Love,” on a panel chaired by USC Professor, Dr. Dallas Willard, entitled, “The Meaning of Sex” at the University of Southern California, Thurs., April 23, 5:30 PM in Mudd Hall 106.
Admission is free and the event is sponsored by USC’s Graduate Christian Fellowship.
DIRECTIONS:
You can park in either Parking Structure A or Parking Structure X for $8.
Entrance to Parking Structure A: 36th place and Vermont
Entrance to Parking Structure X: Figueroa and 35th
Walking directions from Structure to Mudd Hall
Structure A
1. Exit the structure and turn left (North) on McClintock Ave
2. Turn right on Childs Way
3. Turn right on Trousdale Parkway
4. Mudd Hall will be on your right past Bloom Walk
Structure X
1. Exit structure and turn left (West) on McCarthy way
2. Turn left on Trousdale Parkway
3. Mudd Hall is on your right past Bloom Walk
Please feel free to visit this interactive map to look at the paths: http://web-app.usc.edu/maps/
31st Mar 2009
Many of you are aware of the various Web 2.0 tools out there that support social networking as well as “up-to-the-minute” news aggregation. Facebook, My Space, and, now, Twitter, have made their way into our daily cyberlives.
What’s “Twitter”? Sort of like mini-blogging; you get 140 characters to say your piece, provocative, newsworthy, or noteworthy as the case may be.
What can you say in 140 characters? A lot, I think, and so I’ve created a Twitter account for “C. S. Lewis News” that can be “followed” (that’s the terminology) by subscribing here:
http://www.twitter.com/cslewisnews
It’s helpful to have a Twitter account of your own to “follow,” and you can set that up Here: http://www.twitter.com.
Nevertheless, you could just check the cslewisnews link directly as above.
What can you do with 140 characters?
- Announce a Lewis/Inklings-themed conference or new publication
- Offer a wise saying from CSL and his company of friends
- Critique or recommend a recent article about CSL
- Point to a longer essay or presentation on CSL and the Inklings that takes more than 140 characters
- Offer a CSL-inspired opinion on some timely topic
- Report alien takeovers in major cities
See you on Twitter! And back here, of course!
28th Jan 2009
Ask any ten avid readers of C. S. Lewis to describe his vocation and I suspect 9 out of 10 will use one of the following terms: Christian apologist, fantasy/sf writer, children’s author, literary critic, Oxford don—a handful, maybe even “poet.”
Few, I reckon, would think to refer to Jack, as he invited friends to call him, as “counselor.”
And yet “counselor,” I would aver, for those who know Lewis’s biography and just about any portion of his rather voluminous correspondence, is a keenly apt designation. And it is one that I would suggest deserves to be ranked as high as any item on the above list in describing the role Jack played in the lives of the people he touched.
Want some proof?
A recent book of judiciously selected letters by C. S. Lewis, Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis (HarperCollins, 2008), amply illustrates Lewis’s compassion and theological agility in addressing the myriad spiritual needs and eternal concerns of his many correspondents.
This superbly edited volume by the venerable Narnian encyclopedist, Paul Ford, reflects page after page how profoundly Lewis shared his brilliant Christian mind through a counseling ministry conducted entirely through correspondence, his recipients, most of whom, he never met in person.
© 2008-2009 Pseudobook Productions
