Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Distortion Of Religious History In The Concept Of "Russian World", Oleksandr Lukyanenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article continues the series of research illustrating the formation of the idea of the “Russian world” in the religious discourse of Orthodox Russia. The main attention is paid to the ideological stamps used by the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill while preaching and giving public speeches. The study summarizes the idea of the monolithic “Holy Rus” with Moscow as a core-city developed to support Vladimir Putin’s annexationist geopolitical policy. The paper cites examples of falsification of historical facts in religious and political spheres applied with the intention to form a strong propaganda background in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war. …

Review: Oliver Jens Schmitt, Biserica De Stat Sau Biserică În Stat? O Istorie A Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, Editura Humanitas, București, 2023, Csaba Szabó

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Oliver Jens Schmitt, Biserica de stat sau biserică în stat? O istorie a Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, Editura Humanitas, București, 2023. 457pp.

ISBN: 978-973-50-7919-2

Wcc's Statements On The War In Ukraine, Julia Matikainen

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article analyzes the Business Plenary Session 6 and the statement on the war in Ukraine related to the 11th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Karlsruhe, Germany, in August / September 2022. The theme of the assembly was "The Love of Christ Moves the World to Reconciliation and Unity." In the video and statement, the WCC takes a stance on the war in Ukraine. In my own article, I have examined the video and statement considering the course material and historical perspectives. I have sought to identify possible strengths and weaknesses in the video and …

Review Of Inklings Of Heaven: C. S. Lewis And Eschatology, P. H. Brazier

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Sean Connolly, Inklings of Heaven: C. S. Lewis and Eschatology (Leominster, Herefordshire: Gracewing, 2007). 324 pages. $35.00. ISBN: 9780852446591.

Review Of The Fellowship: The Literary Lives Of The Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, Joel D. Heck

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015). 644 pages. $17.00. ISBN 9780374536251.

Review Of Beren And Luthien, Jonthan B. Himes

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of J. R. R. Tolkien, Beren and Luthien, ed. by Christopher Tolkien (New York: HarperCollins, 2017). 288 pages. $30.00. ISBN 9781328791825.

Review Of The Golden Key: A Victorian Fairy Tale, Tiffany Brooke Martin

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of George MacDonald, The Golden Key: A Victorian Fairy Tale, illustrated by Ruth Sanderson (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016). 136 pages, including “Afterward” and “Illustrator’s Note.” $16.00. ISBN 9780802854568.

Review Of C. S. Lewis And The Art Of Writing: What The Essayist, Poet, Novelist, Literary Critic, Apologist, Memoirist, Theologian Teaches Us About The Life And Craft Of Writing, Kevin Belmonte

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Corey Latta, C. S. Lewis and the Art of Writing: What the Essayist, Poet, Novelist, Literary Critic, Apologist, Memoirist, Theologian Teaches Us about the Life and Craft of Writing (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2016). ix + 239 pages. $24.00. ISBN 9781498225342.

Review Of Jack Lewis And His American Cousin, Nat Hawthorne: A Study Of Instructive Affinities, John Stanifer

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of D. G. Kehl, Jack Lewis and His American Cousin, Nat Hawthorne: A Study of Instructive Affinities (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2013). ix + 247 pages. $29.00. ISBN 9781610978361.

Review Of A Well Of Wonder: Essays On C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, And The Inklings, Corey Latta

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Clyde S. Kilby, A Well of Wonder: Essays on C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Inklings, ed. by Loren Wilkinson and Keith Call (Brewster, Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2016). vii + 348 pages, including “A Tribute to Clyde S. Kilby.” $28.99. ISBN 9781612618623.

Review Of High Towers And Strong Places: A Political History Of Middle- Earth, Dominic J. Nardi

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Timothy R. Furnish, High Towers and Strong Places: A Political History of Middle- earth (Toronto: Oloris Publishing, 2016). 166 pages. $35.00. ISBN 9781940992518.

Review Of C. S. Lewis On Politics And The Natural Law, Crystal Hurd

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Justin Buckley Dyer and Micah J. Watson, C. S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law (New York, NY: Cambridge, 2016). ix+160 pages. $26.99. ISBN 9781107518971.

Review Of The Oxford Inklings: Lewis, Tolkien And Their Circle, Matthew Carey Jordan

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Colin Duriez, The Oxford Inklings: Lewis, Tolkien and Their Circle (Oxford: Lion Hudson Books, 2015). 296 pages, including full-color photograph inserts, “An Inklings Gallery,” and “A Select Inklings Chronology.” $16.95. ISBN 9780745956343.

Polar Vortex, Travis Scholl

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

No abstract provided.

A More Medieval Vision Of God, Louis Markos

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Chris R. Armstrong, Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians: Finding Authentic Faith in a Forgotten Age with C. S. Lewis (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos, 2016). 272 pages. $19.99. ISBN 9781587433788.

A Plea For Reasonable Discourse About Lewis’S Views On Evolution, Charles A. Huttar

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Jerry Bergman, C. S. Lewis: Anti-Darwinist: A Careful Examination of the Develop- ment of His Views on Darwinism (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2016). xxiii + 136 pages. $21.00. ISBN 9781532607738.

C. S. Lewis On Atheism, Joel D. Heck

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Lewis had a lot to say about atheists and atheism, mentioning the topic at least seventy-eight times in at least thirty books and essays. Having been an atheist himself, he understood Christianity from—as he put it—the outside. He held many of the same positions that atheists did in the 1910s and 1920s and for many of the same reasons that still influence people today. Although he did not compose any sort of systematic description, definition, or formal reaction to atheism, we can glean a great deal from his writings. Perhaps most important of all, Lewis knew quite a few atheists …

Mere Christianity And The Moral Argument For The Existence Of God, Christopher A. Shrock

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

C. S. Lewis’s moral argument for the existence of God from Mere Christianity has been called the “most widely-convincing apologetic argument of the twentieth century.” It is concise and commonsensical. But Lewis’s argument has come under heavy fire in past decades, most notably from John Beversluis and Erik Wielenberg. This article offers an alternative reading on which the moral argument from the opening chapters of Mere Christianity is not only valid but also original and defensible. Unlike other moral arguments, Lewis deals in neither metaethics nor moral pragmatics. So he avoids prickly objections related to Divine Command Theory and accusations …

“Evil Enchantment” Versus Platonic Vision: Dante, Lewis, And The Weight Of Glory, Jason Baxter

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

C. S. Lewis was convinced that, in the modern world, goodness often strikes us as bland and diluted, a kind of spiritual neutral. What we need, especially in the modern world, he thought, is a positive vision of the good, a vision of beauties that “pierce like swords or burn like cold iron,” as he once said of Tolkien’s work. We need a positive picture and we need to have positive desire, as opposed to thinking of goodness primarily in negative terms, as “not being bad.” Lewis thought we need to have a sense of the gravity and heaviness and, …

Paradise Retained: C. S. Lewis On The Nature Of Knowledge, Reality, And Morality In Perelandra, Richard L. W. Clarke

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

The world-view which informs Perelandra (1943) in particular and the so-called “space trilogy” more generally, of which it is the second volume, is deeply infused with that blend of Christianity and Platonism that is the hallmark of the thought of C. S. Lewis and which I explore at some length in the companion essay to this piece in this volume, “The Neoplatonic Christianity of C. S. Lewis.” Perelandra is, I would argue, a literary rendition of some of the most important philosophical arguments in defense of Christianity mounted by Lewis in Mere Christianity and elsewhere.

The Neo-Platonic Christianity Of C. S. Lewis, Richard L. W. Clarke

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

I shall attempt to show how Lewis’s fusion of Platonism with Christianity gives rise to his belief, metaphysically speaking, that the physical universe is not all there is but, rather, “transposes” (as he terms it) a greater non-physical or spiritual reality and is, as such, part of a divinely-ordained, orderly, and purposeful scheme of things. I shall also argue that for Lewis, epistemologically speaking, knowledge of this grand design and the place of humans therein is conveyed not through the human senses, at least as these are conventionally conceived, but, rather, through our higher reason, which is capable of objective …

Review Of C. S. Lewis’ Top Ten Influential Books And Authors (Volumes 1 & 2), Lyle W. Dorsett

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Will Vaus, C. S. Lewis’ Top Ten Influential Books and Authors, Volume 1 (Hamden, 2014). 165 pages. $14.99. ISBN: 9781935688082, and of Will Vaus, C. S. Lewis’ Top Ten Influential Books and Authors, Volume 2 (Hamden, 2015). 253 pages. $14.99. ISBN: 9781935688099.

Review Of Joy: Poet, Seeker, And The Woman Who Captivated C.S. Lewis, And Of Yet One More Spring: A Critical Study Of Joy Davidman, Kat Coffin

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Abigail Santamaria, Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C.S. Lewis (New York, 2015), ix + 414 pages, $28.00. ISBN: 9780151013715, and of Don King, Yet One More Spring: A Critical Study of Joy Davidman (Grand Rapids, 2015), ix + 254 pages, $17.99. ISBN: 9780802869364.

Review Of Joy And Poetic Imagination: Understanding C. S. Lewis’S “Great War” With Owen Barfield And Its Significance For Lewis’S Conversion And Writings, Jennifer Raimundo

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Stephen Thorson, Joy and Poetic Imagination: Understanding C. S. Lewis’s “Great War” with Owen Barfield and its Significance for Lewis’s Conversion and Writings (Hamden, 2015). xii + 294 pages. $18.50. ISBN: 9781935668107.

Review Of Gaining A Face: The Romanticism Of C. S. Lewis, Sarah King

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of James Prothero and Donald T. Williams, Gaining a Face: The Romanticism of C. S. Lewis (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2013). x+ 92 pages. $59.99. ISBN: 9781443852357.

Review Of C. S. Lewis’S Mere Christianity: A Biography, Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of George M. Marsden, C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity: A Biography, Lives of Great Religious Books Series (Princeton, 2016). 262 pages. $24.95. ISBN: 9780691153735.

Review Of Restoring Beauty: The Good, The True, And The Beautiful In The Writings Of C. S. Lewis, David Russell Mosley

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Louis Markos, Restoring Beauty: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the Writings of C. S. Lewis (Downers Grove, 2010). 215 pages. $20.00. ISBN: 9780830857456.

Review Of Charles Williams: The Third Inkling, Suzanne Bray

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Grevel Lindop, Charles Williams: The Third Inkling (Oxford, 2015). vii + 493 pages. $34.95. ISBN: 9780199284153.

Review Of T. S. Eliot And The Christian Tradition, Stephen Barber

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Benjamin G. Lockerd, ed., T. S. Eliot and the Christian Tradition (Lanham, Maryland, 2014). viii + 358 pages. $49.99. ISBN: 9781611477139.

Review Of Image And Imagination. Essays And Reviews, Charles W. Connell

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of C. S. Lewis, Image and Imagination. Essays and Reviews, ed. by Walter Hooper (Cambridge, 2013). xv + 379 pages. $19.99. ISBN: 9781107639270.