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”. [...]
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 addition to his appearances before the British armed services and on the BBC, C.S. Lewis also gave a number of lay sermons during World War II. One of his most famous (among several that achieved real success) was one preached in December 1939 entitled “Learning in Wartime.” One witness, Erik Routley, remembered seeing the [...]
On November 29, 1954, C.S. Lewis offered his inaugural address at Cambridge, one of his finest writings or speeches in his professional career, “De Descriptione Temporum.”[1] In the speech, probably somewhat jarring to his listeners, Lewis claimed that one could divide the history of Europe into three periods: the pre-Christian; the Christian; and the post-Christian. [...]
Most of the Inklings had already gone through one world war, and when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, they knew that their children—especially J.R.R. Tolkien’s sons—would have to go through a second one. It was all quite depressing. In September 1939, war descended upon Europe as the National Socialists of Germany and the international [...]
C.S. Lewis described the medieval "cosmos" as “tingling with anthropomorphic life, dancing, a festival not a machine." The modern “universe,” he believed, is devoid of significance, and so we have to give a meaning to our own lives, by willpower if necessary. The old cosmos might not be a very useful map for space travelers, [...]
Scribe of the Kingdom, Keeper of the Door As well as being St. Cecilia's day, 22nd November is also the day C.S. Lewis died in 1963. I remember the great celebration of his life, work and witness we had throughout 2013 and especially the honour and pleasure I had in lecturing on him at St. [...]
If the twenty-first century is to produce more great men and more great books, it will have to restore a true education; and a true education is an education as if truth mattered. The title of this essay, “Education as if Truth Mattered,” is taken from the subtitle of Christopher Derrick’s book, Escape from Scepticism: [...]
It is only by freeing ourselves from our possessiveness of others that we can avoid being possessed by the false “loves” that keep us from True Love. In his adult fiction, as in his children’s fiction and his non-fiction, C.S. Lewis teaches this priceless lesson, the learning of which is necessary if adults want to [...]