“All over the world men and women will meet on December 25th to do what is a very old-fashioned and, if you like, a very Pagan thing—to sing and feast because a God has been born. You are uncertain whether it is more than a myth. Well, if it is, then our last hope is [...]
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’ 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The sobering reality remains that this glorious world of life-after-death is not ours for the taking but only ours for the asking. If we will not ask to be admitted, we cannot enter. It is not ours by right but is offered as a gift. If we won’t accept the gift, we won’t be forced [...]
It is all too easy in the darkened days and daze in which we live to become despondent. It is all too easy to forget the happy ending that is promised to those who keep faith in the God of the happy ever after. We who are not dumb and witless do not always need [...]
With the current wave of decadence in Western society, we are witnessing an “abolition of man” more literal than C.S. Lewis ever could have imagined. The “transgender woman” is a man who has had his manhood literally abolished. Is this the much-hyped “transhumanism” that is being forecast? Are we destined to become a race of [...]
Having celebrated the “mere genius” of C.S. Lewis, the wise man will want to spend more time in his presence and will invite others to do likewise. He is, for those who know him, the best of friends and the wisest of guides. C.S. Lewis was no mere Christian, nor was he a “mere genius”. [...]
In "Till We Have Faces," myth’s ability to convey truth is invaluable because of the human inability to comprehend the divine. Nevertheless, myths can be obscure or confusing because the truths they express transcend human reason. In Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis uses myth to illuminate the struggle to comprehend the divine and the [...]