Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, Laughter, & Lent

By |2024-03-11T21:37:40-05:00March 11th, 2024|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Dwight Longenecker, Jane Austen, Lent, Literature, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

C.S. Lewis' obscure essay, ‘A Note on Jane Austen,’ shows that it is Austen’s humor and humility that captures Lewis’ fancy and that directs us to a Lenten lesson. In his rule Saint Benedict advises that each monk should have a holy book to read during Lent. When searching for a holy book, we are [...]

C.S. Lewis on the Existence of Fairies

By |2024-01-26T19:12:24-06:00January 26th, 2024|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Dwight Longenecker, Senior Contributors|

C.S. Lewis would most certainly have remembered the interest in fairies from the 1920s, and his fascination with other realms, and with fantasy, myth, legends and folklore would guarantee a continued interest in the possible existence of fairies. Cottingley Fairies “If you believe in Fairies… clap your hands.” Or so you are encouraged [...]

Tolkien and Lewis Under the Christmas Tree

By |2023-12-15T17:26:54-06:00December 14th, 2023|Categories: Books, C.S. Lewis, Christian Humanism, Christmas, Gifts for Imaginative Conservatives, J.R.R. Tolkien, Louis Markos, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

With a seemingly (and thankfully) endless supply of books about J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis flowing out from every conceivable press, it is easy to overlook some hidden gems. To assist Imaginative Conservative readers with their Christmas book shopping, I have highlighted below some books about Lewis and/or Tolkien that have been published over the [...]

C.S. Lewis and the Cultivation of the Imagination

By |2023-11-21T22:22:49-06:00November 21st, 2023|Categories: Books, C.S. Lewis, Christian Humanism, Featured, Imagination, Timeless Essays|

C.S. Lewis’ lesson to his friends and fans—and to us—is that the cultivation of the imagination might require more than reading and writing, but it requires no less. Readers likely know C.S. Lewis by the works of his imagination, first encountering him in the snowdrifts of the Narnian woods or on an omnibus bound for [...]

On the Measure and Conservation of Human Things

By |2023-11-16T18:06:19-06:00November 16th, 2023|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Fr. James Schall, Politics, Timeless Essays, Walker Percy|Tags: , |

The man who sets out only to be human somehow becomes less than human. We ignore the highest things at our peril. Human things are finite, incomplete; nonetheless, they are real and worthy. They are worth keeping. For the truth of knowledge is measured by the knowable object. For it is because a thing is [...]

C.S. Lewis on Neutered Drones

By |2023-09-28T05:52:10-05:00September 27th, 2023|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Dwight Longenecker, Senior Contributors, Wokeism|

The liturgical imagery of the priest connects directly to our concepts and language about God. It does so because our concepts and language about God are necessarily personal. We are called to be in a person to person relationship with God—a relationship of intentional love, and as human beings we can only relate personally through [...]

The Romance of Faith & the Challenge to Secularism

By |2023-07-08T19:13:22-05:00July 8th, 2023|Categories: Blaise Pascal, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Faith, G.K. Chesterton, Imagination, Michael De Sapio, Moral Imagination, Philosophy, Senior Contributors|

It’s usually only the rationalists and skeptics who find their way into the great surveys of thought. But religion always rises from the ashes. This is thanks in no small part to the imaginative thinkers who revealed Christianity as what it always was, although not always ideally expressed by us: a thing of mystery, romance, [...]

C.S. Lewis as Student, Apologist, & Story-Teller

By |2023-07-05T17:40:17-05:00July 5th, 2023|Categories: Bradley G. Green, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Liberal Learning, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

C.S. Lewis has written that we are all—with each and every decision—becoming more heavenly or hellish creatures. There is no other option. Which of his decisions are worth emulating? “The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.”[1] “We create men without chests and bid them breathe, we [...]

“Nefarious”: Screwtape Meets Hannibal Lecter

By |2023-06-28T17:41:29-05:00June 28th, 2023|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Film, Joseph Pearce, Senior Contributors|

Reading "The Screwtape Letters" can be a creepy and unsettling experience because C.S. Lewis does not merely take us into the head of the human who is experiencing temptation, but into the malevolent mind of the devil himself. This same psycho-dramatic technique is employed by the directors of the recently released horror film, "Nefarious," in [...]

Faith & Fantasy: Chesterton, Tolkien, Lewis, Rowling & Other Tellers of Tall Tales

By |2023-05-31T16:36:53-05:00May 31st, 2023|Categories: C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Pearce, Literature, Senior Contributors|

Tall tales are still being told. The light still shines. The torch is still being handed from generation to generation. Thanks be to God, the giver of the light, and thanks be to Chesterton, Tolkien, Lewis, and all other legend-makers and torchbearers of tradition. Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme of things not found [...]

Tolkien & Lewis on the Blessed Virgin Mary

By |2023-04-30T20:55:36-05:00April 30th, 2023|Categories: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Pearce, Mother of God, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

I discovered an old letter last week, hidden between the pages of an old book, the content of which has been haunting me ever since. It was addressed to me at an old address in Florida and I seem to have tucked it away for safekeeping. What I read astounded me as it contains revelations [...]

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