C.S. Lewis’ “Weight of Glory”: Longing in the Poets, Composers, & Theologians

By |2022-07-02T13:31:50-05:00July 2nd, 2022|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Music, Poetry, Religion, Theology|

People are often ashamed or confused about the idea of wrestling with eternal longing because it means first acknowledging a very specific kind of emptiness, one that can’t be filled by cake or any other earthly pleasure. C.S. Lewis gives his listeners heart by echoing St. Augustine, who said “God gives where he finds empty [...]

C.S. Lewis’ Seven Categories of Science Fiction

By |2022-05-11T16:00:37-05:00May 11th, 2022|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, Literature, Senior Contributors|

Deeply rooted in the humane traditions of Western civilization, science fiction, poetry, and mythology allow us to explore that most fascinating of subjects: the human person. Rather famously, J.R.R. Tolkien once asked Lewis, rhetorically, “What class of men would you expect to be most preoccupied with, and most hostile to, the idea of escape?” The [...]

Michael Ward’s “After Humanity”: A Model of Scholarship

By |2022-04-18T12:29:43-05:00April 18th, 2022|Categories: Books, C.S. Lewis, Senior Contributors|

So, how to make C.S. Lewis even greater? Enter Father Michael Ward’s invaluable "After Humanity." After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis's "The Abolition of Man" by Michael Ward (241 pages, Word on Fire Academic, 2021) As 2021 drew to a close, I had the opportunity over at Catholic World Report to praise Father Michael [...]

The Inklings: Remembering and Preserving

By |2022-02-14T08:22:30-06:00February 14th, 2022|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Senior Contributors|

In a Platonic sense, the Inklings might very well have brought about an "anamnesis," a remembering of what had been lost, but they might also very well have been simply preservers of timeless wisdom for many ages to come, so far into the future that they seem unimaginable. A number of things can be stated [...]

Who Were the Inklings?

By |2022-02-09T16:01:38-06:00February 3rd, 2022|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Senior Contributors|

Would it be possible, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis wondered in the 1930s, to write fiction that might combine: a love of history; a desire to debate the defenders of the modern world and point out the many foibles of modern living; and a way to promote one’s philosophical and religious beliefs without being overly [...]

Through the Wardrobe: An Invitation to the World of Imaginative Apologetics

By |2022-05-26T15:50:39-05:00October 9th, 2021|Categories: Apologetics, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Imagination, Moral Imagination|

The apologist should appeal not only to one’s reason and intellect but also to one’s imagination, wooing the unbeliever—or a believer who has only granted intellectual consent rather than full-heart surrender—to Christ. In answer to the question “[w]hy did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about [...]

Likely Stories: A Bedrock of Classical Education

By |2021-08-14T13:40:52-05:00July 21st, 2021|Categories: Books, C.S. Lewis, Classical Education, Classical Learning, Philosophy, Plato, St. John's College|

In our contemporary world of ubiquitous mirage, the skills of discernment are not only important, they are of vital benefit. "Likely stories" are a bedrock of classical education, and classical educators should endeavor to have students read them not because they believe students must be virtuous in order to go to battle against societal disintegration [...]

“After Humanity”: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’ “The Abolition of Man”

By |2022-04-18T12:21:16-05:00July 20th, 2021|Categories: Books, C.S. Lewis, Christianity|

In his new book, Michael Ward demonstrates the validity of his reputation as a preeminent guide to Lewis, with a nimble combination of deep scholarship, bright prose, and a deep respect for Lewis that never falls into undue adulation or unquestioning blindness. After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis's "The Abolition of Man" by Michael [...]

C.S. Lewis as Mere Christian

By |2021-05-31T11:27:17-05:00June 1st, 2021|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, Christian Humanism, Christianity, Senior Contributors|

C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity” is a model work in the muddled and subjective world of ideologies, state-led terrorisms, gulags, holocausts, and killing fields. Sprinkled with timeless wisdom and profound insights, it is about fundamental aspects of Christianity and seeks to go beyond denominational differences without creating yet another new denomination. After C.S. Lewis converted to [...]

Walking With Chesterton and Lewis

By |2021-06-01T17:52:29-05:00May 29th, 2021|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Christian Humanism, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Pearce, Senior Contributors, Truth|

Why is it that those who like both G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis almost invariably prefer one to the other? This question is best answered with a sweeping generalization: There are two types of people in the world—hikers and walkers. Readers who are hikers prefer Lewis; readers who are walkers prefer Chesterton. There are two [...]

C.S. Lewis on Romanticism

By |2021-05-27T16:58:32-05:00May 27th, 2021|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, Christian Humanism, Culture, Literature, Philosophy, Senior Contributors|

Though deeply conflicted about Romanticism, C.S. Lewis believed that the Romantics at least asked the right questions and found the right answers. But he also held that they failed to grasp the greater picture of things, which only Christianity truly understands. Somewhat famously, as described in Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis believed that he had [...]

10 C.S. Lewis Books Every Imaginative Conservative Should Read

By |2021-04-19T16:19:36-05:00April 19th, 2021|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, Christian Humanism, Imaginative Conservative Books, Senior Contributors|

Few would dispute the claim that C.S. Lewis was the last century’s greatest Christian apologist, rivaled only by G.K. Chesterton and Pope John Paul II. While all three wrote voluminously, Lewis’s books had the broadest appeal. Even atheists read Lewis’s Christian books, if only for the art of them. Surely, we can do better than [...]

Is “Christian Humanism” Gone Forever?

By |2021-02-11T13:00:07-06:00February 11th, 2021|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, Christian Humanism, Senior Contributors, T.S. Eliot|

In his book “The Year of Our Lord 1943,” writing on Christian humanism, Alan Jacobs considers the fears and desires of five major but seemingly disparate figures in 1943 as they envision a post-war world after an allied victory: W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, Jacques Maritain, and Simone Weil. The Year of Our Lord [...]

A Friend and Faithful Servant of C.S. Lewis: Memories of Walter Hooper

By |2021-04-22T09:46:33-05:00December 14th, 2020|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Catholicism, Christian Humanism, Joseph Pearce, Senior Contributors|

Having passed away recently, Lewis scholar Walter Hooper will be missed, but we can well believe that he is now once more with C.S. Lewis, whom he had served most faithfully for so many years, in a place in which it is never winter but always Christmas. With the passing of Walter Hooper on December [...]

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