Category Archives: Classics

Another Christmas . . .

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.  Because you are his sons, God sent … Continue reading

Posted in Classics | Leave a comment

Lewis’s “Leap in the Dark”

C. S. Lewis was brought up in the Church of England but left any childhood faith behind as soon as his independent circumstances and the demands of compulsory church attendance allowed, and in response to what he felt his intellectual … Continue reading

Posted in Classics, Worldviews | Leave a comment

Pain & Sorrow: Human Suffering and “The Good God”

In The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis brings all of his philosophical and critical skill to bear in responding to this classic contra Deum claim:  “If God were good, He would wish to make his creatures perfectly happy, and … Continue reading

Posted in Classics, Worldviews | Leave a comment

The Weight of Story: Marvels and “What Really Matters”

In his essay, “On Stories,” C. S. Lewis employs the marvelous word “Redskinnery” to describe “what really mattered to him” when he read stories set in the western American frontier.  “Take away the feathers, the high cheek-bones, the whiskered trousers, … Continue reading

Posted in Classics, Comics, Worldviews | Leave a comment

The End of Man: Lewis on Humanity Sacrificed

In the Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis examines the problems with “modern” education by taking to task the authors of “a book on English intended for  . . . the upper forms of schools.’”  Lewis’s concerns run far deeper … Continue reading

Posted in Classics, Worldviews | Leave a comment

Sons and Daughters: the Children of Narnia

The four Pevensie children at the center of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe are referred to in Narnia as “Sons of Adam” and “Daughters of Eve.”  No doubt C. S. Lewis intends for readers to see in these … Continue reading

Posted in Classics, Worldviews | Leave a comment

Images of Joy in Lewis’s “Surprised” and “Pilgrim’s Regress”

The idea of “Joy” is among C. S. Lewis’s most famous and familiar contributions to Christian literature.  Its influence on “the shape of his early life” is the central theme of Surprised by Joy (SJ), and its attainment is the … Continue reading

Posted in Classics, Worldviews | Leave a comment

Mere Reality: Reflections on C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters

C. S. Lewis was working simultaneously on the material that appeared in these two works–perhaps his best known writings outside of the Narnia books.  Mere Christianity was a compilation of a series of radio talks Lewis gave on BBC Radio … Continue reading

Posted in Classics, Worldviews | Leave a comment

The Metaphorical Gospel

I have, on numerous occasions, stood before a class of high school seniors and asserted, “Reading the Lord of the Rings changed my life.  It gave me my first glimpse of the Gospel and started me down the path on … Continue reading

Posted in Classics, Worldviews | Leave a comment

Tolkien & the Reality of Fantasy (part 2)

To help us more clearly understand Tolkien’s use of Myth as the basis for “reality in fantasy,” let’s turn to his fellow Inkling, C. S. Lewis, and his “myth retold,” Till We Have Faces.  Lewis considered this work a favorite … Continue reading

Posted in Classics | Leave a comment