History Commons^™

Leslie Baynes, Between Interpretation And Imagination: C. S. Lewis And The Bible, Donald T. Williams

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Leslie Baynes, Between Interpretation and Imagination: C. S. Lewis and the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2025). viii + 343 pages. $38.99. ISBN 9780802874009.

Aaron Bair, A Joyful Outpost: Exploring The Household Economy Of The Beavers From The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Annie Crawford

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Aaron Bair, A Joyful Outpost: Exploring the Household Economy of the Beavers from The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe (Independently published, 2023). 125 pages. $12.99. ISBN 9798869938367.

David Baggett, Gary R. Habermas And Jerry L. Walls, Eds., C. S. Lewis As Philosopher: Truth, Goodness And Beauty, 3rd Ed., Norbert Feinendegen

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of David Baggett, Gary R. Habermas and Jerry L. Walls, eds. C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness and Beauty, 3rd ed. (Houston, TX: High Bridge Books, 2024). 543 pages. $25.99. ISBN 9781962802116.

As I Was Saying, As I Have Said,, Scott Cairns

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

severest pain will drop you to the floor; and its descent may draw you farther yet, where it reveals a neat, new aperture your pain just now has opened in your head.

Stage Iv Intercession Prayer To Mary, Mother Of God, Elisa A. Garza

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

May your example inspire me as I long for a fearless future.

On The Importance Of Sacred Art, Elisa A. Garza

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

The stately Madonna of Romano’s painting seems out of character for Our Lady but no more unusual than a calm lamb resting under her firm hand, or colonnade that suggests she sits in the Vatican garden.

Beatitudes For This World, Elisa A. Garza

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Blessed are those who unfairly labor; they shall allocate the fruits.

The Corinthian Twins: The Mystery Behind Naming King Lune’S Sons, Jono Darville

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Michael Ward’s landmark discovery, as outlined in Planet Narnia, unlocked the hidden structure of C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. Ward persuasively demonstrated that Lewis used the seven planets of medieval cosmology as an organizing principle for the Narnia series. With his discovery firmly in place, Ward has encouraged others to investigate the Narniad for new planetary connections and influences. To that end, in this article, I argue that C.S. Lewis named Cor and Corin after the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians in The Horse and His Boy, as these names are a perfect fit …

Sin, Grace, And Conversion In C. S. Lewis’S The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Christopher Varga

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Was C. S. Lewis Pelagian? While his apologetic works make skillful use of the concept of free will, some worry that he takes the emphasis on free will too far, allowing no room for God's gracious intervention in works such as The Great Divorce and The Problem of Pain. This essay seeks to challenge a Pelagian characterization of Lewis. It argues that there is in Lewis’s theology a dialectic in which the burden for damnation rests solely with the sinner’s own free choice, and yet where God is solely to praise for actively rescuing the saved, resembling a single …

What Does Nature Mean In The Abolition Of Man? Or, The Participatory Ontology Behind The Sublime Waterfall, Chris R. Armstrong

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

If Lewis’s Abolition of Man is simply an argument for objective moral value, or what we have called “the natural law,” then why begin with waterfalls that demand of us certain kinds of aesthetic judgment,[1] and end by saying that technocrats who take Nature in their own hands to control others with it have stepped outside of something larger than moral law, viz. the Tao, the Real itself, and thereby lost their very humanity?[2]

What, that is, is Nature in the Abolition? Certainly, it is not nature as construed in philosophical naturalism after Jane Austen, after the advent …

Teaching The Abolition Of Man, Joel Heck, Robert Koons, Josiah Peterson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

The authors also hope that this article will help readers better understand The Abolition of Man and raise the level of interest in teaching this important book in schools, churches, and in many other venues and that many will find here helpful practical ideas for such teaching.

Discovering C. S. Lewis’S Argument From Awe Against Philosophical Naturalism, Piotr Bylica

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Although Clive Staples Lewis’s (1898–1963) works on the intersection of philosophy and religion were aimed at a broader readership and are indeed well-known among the general public, they are also valued among professional philosophers and theologians alike, especially those focusing on the relations between theism, atheism, and naturalism. His three most popular arguments against naturalism are the Argument from Reason, the Moral Argument, and the Argument from Desire. In that context, the present article aims to show that Lewis actually made use of a fourth type of argument against philosophical naturalism that has so far escaped identification. Since this argument …

C. S. Lewis And The Argument From Reason, Elijah Mcclanahan

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

This essay surveys and demonstrates that the "argument from reason" is a dominant methodological theme in the apologetics of C. S. Lewis.

C. S. Lewis And Artificial Intelligence: An Ai Ethics Problem, Justin E. Edgerly

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

This paper demonstrates that the quest for safe and ethical AI is undermined by much of the philosophy, implicit and explicit, in AI literature and undergirding AI research and development. C. S. Lewis’s writings provide a prescient and penetrating critique of this philosophy and point toward a “regenerate science” that addresses the present need for wisdom in AI development. This paper contributes to the field of AI ethics by presenting several Lewisian concerns about the nature, application, and undergirding philosophy of current and future AI technologies, as well as a Lewisian perspective on the requirements for safe and ethical AI.

Divergent Paths: The Spiritual Friendship Of C. S. Lewis And Dom Bede Griffiths, Martha Abele Mac Iver

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

This essay argues that despite their parallel conversion journeys at Oxford and their lifelong friendship, C. S. Lewis and Dom Bede Griffiths ultimately came to different understandings about the relationship between humans and God and what it means to commune with God in what we commonly call prayer. Despite the frequent mention of prayer in their letters, their views of the way in which God was present within them and what communion with God entailed diverged in significant ways as Griffiths sought to integrate Christian and Hindu conceptions of God. Their own spiritual friendship may have survived this rift, but …

C. S. Lewis’S Lost French Doctorate, Anne-Frédérique Mochel-Caballero

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Before the American Narnia films, C. S. Lewis was virtually unknown in France. Even today, his fame is nowhere near the level it has reached in the English-speaking world, be it in academia, among Christians, or in popular culture. The number of French doctoral theses or books on Lewis is extremely small. As for the French translations of his books, many of them are now out of print. However, this was not always the case. Lewis has never been as well-known in France as in Britain or America, but during his lifetime he achieved a certain fame in secular universities, …

Re-Dating An Inklings Photograph, Harry Lee Poe

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Perhaps the most delightful and helpful introductory biography of C. S. Lewis is Walter Hooper’s Through Joy and Beyond: A Pictorial Biography. Published in 1982, it was the first book I reviewed for an academic journal as a freshly minted PhD graduate. The lavish presence of photographs takes the reader into the world of Lewis from his earliest childhood until his death in 1963. Hooper probably knew more about Lewis and his works than any other person, but even Hooper had to make educated guesses from time to time, which very rarely proved wrong.

Dating The Undated Poems In Don King’S Collected Poems Of C. S. Lewis: A Critical Edition, Charlie W. Starr

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Don W. King made a monumental contribution to Lewis studies when he released his Collected Poems of C. S. Lewis: A Critical Edition. Prior to this volume, Lewis’s poetry was scattered among at least four books and much remained unpublished. King gathered all of Lewis’s poetry, apart from a few poetic fragments, into a single volume. Since the book’s publication in 2015, a handful of additional Lewis poems have been discovered. Nevertheless, the fact that the vast majority of Lewis’s poetry now exists in a single volume remains a huge step forward in Lewis scholarship and our ability to appreciate …

“Frankenstein’S Nursery Rhymes” And Other Unpublished Poems By Joy Davidman, Don W. King

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

In 2015 I edited and published A Naked Tree: Joy Davidman’s Love Sonnets to C. S. Lewis and Other Poems. I avoided referring to this volume as the collected poems of Davidman since I decided to withhold publication of twenty-nine poems, primarily because I wanted the attention of readers to focus upon Davidman’s forty-five sonnets to Lewis as well as the poems comprising Letter to a Comrade, the only collection of her verse published during her lifetime. However, I now think it is time to bring these unpublished poems to print. With a few exceptions, I have arranged the poems …

Frontmatter (Volume 19 Issue 1), Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

No abstract provided.

Infinite Line, Infinite Knowledge: The 'Spera' And Organized Chaos In Lambert's Encyclopedia, The 'Liber Floridus', Ava Romano

Theses and Dissertations

The Liber Floridus is a medieval encyclopedia renowned for its program of circular diagrams, or sperae. Inside this manuscript of 190 chapters, these diagrams frame and embody written knowledge, revealing a connection between encyclopedism and life in the Benedictine monastery by creating a coherent visual organization of chapters.

Laila: A Doll Memoir Of 1947 Partition Of India And Pakistan, Maleeha Malik, Maleeha Fatima Malik

Children's Literature (MFA) Theses

This abstract examines a creative and critical work centered on the 1947 Partition of India, which displaced approximately fourteen million people and caused one million deaths. The narrative introduces Laila, an anthropomorphized doll who functions as both witness and archive, embodying the memories and traumas of multiple child survivors. Through Laila’s journey across India, Pakistan, and the diaspora, the text explores themes of identity, belonging, loss, and intergenerational memory.

Blending personal family history with historical analysis, the author situates Laila within lived experiences of migration, silence, and religious marginalization, particularly as part of the Ahmadi Muslim community. The narrative foregrounds …

Entry Nr. 487 Kossola, Aaron Spencer Fogleman, Robert Hanserd

500 African Voices

No abstract provided.

Entry Nr. 134 Isaac Anderson, Aaron Spencer Fogleman, Robert Hanserd

500 African Voices

No abstract provided.

The Rise And Fall Of The Small Bronze Tripod Used For Pouring Heated Libations (A Pre-Confucian Libation Rite), Elizabeth Childs-Johnson

Art Faculty Publications

The rite of pouring out heated alcohol in honor of spirits begins during the Late Neolithic but matures as a formal institution known in writing and in cast bronze during the earliest phases of the historic Bronze Age, namely the Erlitou (ca. 1900-1600 BC) and Shang periods (ca. 1600-1046 BC). As will be analyzed, the libation rite known as ... [示 + 爵 = ...] (jue/guan) in Shang oracle bone divinations involved the use of the tripod jue爵 (bronze vessel). Although the rite [...] continues to appear in written inscriptions through most of the Western Zhou era, by the 9th-8th …

The Religious Landscape Of Ukraine During The War: Consolidation Potential And Destructive Imitations, Vadym Dyiak

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the transformation of religion’s functional role in the context of the russian-Ukrainian war. The author analyzes how the extreme circumstances of armed conflict catalyze the polarization of Ukraine’s religious landscape, clearly distinguishing between authentic religiosity and its ideological imitations. The main focus is on conceptualizing the differences between churches that serve as a resource for spiritual consolidation and social therapy (the OCU, the UGCC) and religious institutions that are used as instruments of hybrid aggression. To describe the latter phenomenon, the author introduces and adapts Oswald Spengler’s concept of “historical pseudomorphosis.” It is argued that the activities …

The Canonical-Legal Status Of Autocephaly And Autonomy In The Context Of Pan-Orthodox Dialogue, Ivan Yovchev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Historical procedures for granting autonomy and autocephaly are not strictly standardized in canonical law and often rely on local traditions, agreements, and specific historical-political circumstances. This leads to a diversity of practices – from unilateral tomoses (decrees) of autocephaly issued by the mother church to decisions supported by a broader pan-Orthodox consensus. At the pan-Orthodox level, the question of how new autocephalous and autonomous churches are proclaimed has been under discussion since the Pan-Orthodox preparatory commissions of the 20th–21st centuries. Preparatory documents envisage the need for a pan-Orthodox agreement, with autocephaly to be granted through a tomos signed by the …

Religious Transformation Of Crimea Amid Geopolitical Changes: From Pluralism To Totalitarian Control (2000–2026), Volodymyr Zuikov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article analyzes the radical transformation of the religious landscape of the Crimean Peninsula in the context of geopolitical changes and “hybrid warfare.” I conduct a comparative analysis of two chronological periods: the stage of Ukrainian sovereignty from 2000 to 2013, which was characterized by a high level of religious pluralism and interconfessional peace, and the period of Russian occupation from 2014 to 2024/2026, which was marked by a transition to a rigid hierarchical system of control. The scholarly novelty of the study lies in its detailed reconstruction of the mechanisms of the “hybrid absorption” of Protestant communities, including Baptists, …

The Symbolic Language Of Militarized Orthodoxy In Patriarchal Sermons, Architecture, And Pseudo-Historical Memory, Oleksandr Lukyanenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to a comprehensive cultural and religious analysis of the processes of militarization of religious worldview in modern Russia using the example of public speeches of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, as well as the symbolic space of the Main Temple of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Particular attention is paid to the study of the mechanisms of sacralization of war through the integration of historical memory, Orthodox rhetoric and the state ideology of the “Russian world”. The study analyzes the peculiarities of the interpretation of World War II as the sacred foundation of modern Russian …

Pentecostals In The Ukrainian Ssr During Collectivization And The Holodomor Of 1930–1933: Socio-Adaptive Survival Practices, Oleksandr Korotaiev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the social adaptation and survival practices of Pentecostal communities in the Ukrainian SSR under the conditions of forced collectivization, dekulakization, and the Holodomor of 1930–1933. Drawing on criminal-investigative case files of the GPU, top-secret Soviet security service documents, party and state decrees, and testimonies of contemporaries, the study reconstructs individual, family, and communal strategies employed by believers in response to systematic state violence. Particular attention is devoted to Pentecostal communities in the Odesa okrug, especially the village of Holma in the Balta district, where Soviet repressive policies manifested themselves through a combination of economic pressure, religious persecution, …