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 [...]
Rather than being condemned as a manipulative populist feeding the people’s paranoia, Tucker Carlson should be commended for asking us to reconsider the first principles of conservatism, and for addressing the same ideas that G.K Chesterton also believed to be a threat to society: materialism, imperialism, feminism, and progressivism. Responding to Mitt Romney’s op-ed in [...]
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 [...]
The logic of individualism may now almost be played out in the West. In the society which we see all around us, people are brought up to think of themselves as free floating social particles, individuals whose only fulfillment lies in choice. The only alternative now to accepting the dissolution of the self is to [...]
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 [...]
Let’s look at themes of resurrection in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," one of the greatest and most popular children’s stories ever written. Almost exactly a year ago, during last year’s Easter Octave, I wrote an essay focusing on themes of resurrection to be found in classic literature. Beginning with Tolkien’s invention of [...]
In the “David,” we see what Christian humanism can accomplish, and in contemplating the gigantic little boy we can remember that God always uses the little things of the world to confound the mighty. Last week I was in Florence, and while jostling with other sightseers to get a glimpse of Michelangelo’s David, I recalled [...]
"The Lord of the Rings" is not an allegorical story, nor should it be treated as such, but that does not mean that the story cannot be used to contemplate and plumb the depths of humanity and its relation to the divine. That J.R.R. Tolkien had a great dislike for his works being called “allegories” [...]
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”. [...]
Creation is an act of the Trinity, and existence is a participation in the Trinity—a participation in the Trinitarian act of giving, receiving, and being given. Each creature called into existence by God receives its own life as a gift. My topic is a theological appreciation of the notion of “gift”, and how this throws [...]
C.S. Lewis believed that every nation possesses what he called a “haunting,” a “Logres,” which baptizes it with a unique inner life. What, or where, is America’s Logres? Who is the mythological hero that could guide the American identity the way Arthur guided Britain and inspired generations of English poets and artists? During my undergraduate [...]
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 [...]
In many respects, Hilaire Belloc can be seen as Chesterton’s other brother, with whom he neither argued nor quarreled. Such fraternal friendships are forged in faith and find their fulfilment in heaven. We can be sure, therefore, that, irrespective of their sins and weaknesses, they are now not merely brothers in arms but brothers in [...]