History Commons^™

Romance And The Pocket Pistol: The Armed Poet In The Man Who Was Thursday, Jessica D. Dooley

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

“But the more [Syme] felt this glittering desolation in the moonlit land, the more his own chivalric folly glowed in the night like a great fire. Even the common things he carried with him – the food and the brandy and the loaded pistol – took on exactly that concrete and material poetry which a child feels when he takes a gun upon a journey or a bun with him to bed. The swordstick and the brandy-flask, though in themselves only the tools of morbid conspirators, became the expressions of this own more healthy romance.”

Chesterton’s poet-protagonists bear arms as …

Grief Observed: Pain And Suffering In The Writings Of C.S. Lewis And Frederick Buechner, Victoria S. Allen

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

No abstract provided.

Devils In My Heart: Chesterton's View Of Human Nature Through Father Brown, Mark Eckel

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

“I had murdered them all myself.” Father Brown perhaps comes closest to true, biblical mystery. While a crime may have been solved, the good padre still wondered after the human penchant toward sin. Sherlock Holmes fans are used to deductive reasoning; a scientific analysis, assessing problems from the outside, in. Father Brown became the murderer because he was a murderer. Chesterton’s sleuth, a Catholic priest, saw people as they were, from the inside out. The mystery of our own nature continues: “The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out.”

In this paper I …

C.S. Lewis, Platonism, And Aslan's Country: Symbols Of Heaven In The Chronicles Of Narnia, H. Dennis Fisher

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

C.S. Lewis held the conviction that all humans have meaningful images embedded in their minds that are often expressed in myths and legends. The richness of the Narnia Chronicles is often traceable to mythic patterns and philosophic thought employed by Lewis.

In The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis envisions heaven through the symbolic presentation of “Aslan’s Country.” Every other world is linked to it as a peninsula is connected to a mighty continent. It can be reached only through magic or more often “the door of noble death.” Its boundaries expand according to the exploration quests of its inhabitants. Hence, …

Creation And Sub-Creation In Leaf By Niggle, J. Samuel Hammond, Marie K. Hammond

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

In his essay On Fairy Stories and his poem Mythopoeia, J.R.R. Tolkien describes the concept of sub-creation. The story Leaf by Niggle, published as a companion and complement to the essay, illustrates this concept and shows how it relates to Creation. In particular, the story presents Tolkien’s ideas about art, employment, and responsibility toward neighbors. It paints a perceptive portrait of the author himself. Moreover, it offers inspiration for artists, writers, scholars, and all who engage in constructive labor, and gives guidance to those who (like the author) feel the pressure of too much work. Perhaps most importantly, this …

Mental Pictures: Shapes And Colors In The Thought Of G.K. Chesterton, William L. Isley Jr.

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Although Chesterton is not what would normally be considered a systematic thinker, his writings exhibit a marked consistency of thought by means of a series of recurrent images. In order to understand how Chesterton thinks, therefore, it is best to follow these series of images. An examination of the contrasting images he uses to critique as modes of madness both Impressionism in The Man Who Was Thursday and Rationalism in The Flying Inn will demonstrate the validity of this approach to Chesterton. A brief conclusion will argue that epistemological sanity for Chesterton entails three crucial elements: externality, commonality and Christian …

Guidelines For Spiritual Reading From C.S. Lewis, Richard James

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

To several of his correspondents who asked of him, “What can I read to strengthen my faith?”, C.S. Lewis would provide a spiritual reading list of authors and their books which had helped him grow in his own Christian life. The primary purpose of this paper is to discuss these spiritual reading lists which included devotional books, apologetics, books of poetry, essays, sermons, commentaries, plays, allegories, spiritual autobiography and even novels. For evaluation the individual lists themselves and their provenance will be discussed including a timeline of authors on the lists and information about the recipients. In closing, suggestions will …

Painting In Prose: Ardent Pre-Raphaelitism In George Macdonald's Landscapes, Cynthia Demarcus Manson

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Although not a visual artist, George MacDonald can be recognized for composing prose landscapes in his literary works that are Pre-Raphaelite in principle and style. MacDonald created word paintings that reference specific Pre-Raphaelite artworks; his landscapes show the shared influence of John Ruskin’s art theory, and he employs compositional techniques that correspond to the symbolic realism in early Pre-Raphaelite canvases. An awareness of MacDonald’s Pre-Raphaelitism adds to the appreciation of both his fiction and non-fiction.

Dream Cities And Cardboard Worlds: Sayers' Moral Vision In Murder Must Advertise, Frances Fowler-Collins

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Murder Must Advertise represents a turning point in Dorothy L. Sayers’s development as a writer and Christian thinker. Previously, she had depicted sinful individuals, but here she expands her moral vision to encompass social sin on a grand scale, focusing on advertising. The novel’s major structural device is the comparison of two groups: an advertising agency and a drug trafficking ring. Although these groups differ superficially, Sayers suggests they are fundamentally similar, as each is a “dream city” based on an illusion. They resemble each other in three ways. In both, a small group of people operates behind the scenes …

Mere Mathematics: The Role Of Mathematics In The Apologetic Works Of C.S. Lewis, Matt D. Lunsford

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the 20^th century and arguably the most influential Christian author of that period. In spite of his own personal lack of success in the area of mathematics, C.S. Lewis exhibited a lofty appreciation of the discipline as demonstrated by numerous references to mathematics and to mathematical objects, and by his recurrent use of mathematical terminology in his apologetic writings. This paper will explore two broad categories of the role of mathematics in these works: 1) the relationship between mathematics and certain laws, and 2) the use of geometry …

Learning In The Shadowlands: The Educational Vision Of C.S. Lewis, Brian Hudson

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

C.S. Lewis is considered by many as one of the great thinkers and apologists of the twentieth century. His writings have touched and encouraged millions of individuals over the last seven decades. Lewis’s writings cover a wide range of topics but at his core he was a teacher. Even in his children’s literature, readers can clearly perceive that Lewis was always concerned with human growth and flourishing. He was concerned with how people learn and what inspires them to pursue a clear knowledge of God in the world they live. Today’s culture is marked with a loss of true education. …

Sucking Life: The Principle Of Hell In C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters, Kimberly Moore-Jumonville

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Screwtape’s training of Wormwood in the art of deception exposes the tempters’ desire to consume “the other” completely into the self. This insatiable appetite to devour is revealed to be the ruling principle of Hell, where one must eat or be eaten. As competitors, Screwtape and Wormwood can never comprehend the reality of Heaven, which exists by the opposite principle. If the rule of Hell is to consume the other, the rule of Heaven is to serve and celebrate the other. In The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis succeeds in depicting the choice to succumb to appetite or submit to a …

Human Enhancement And The Abolition Of Man, Stephen A. Phillips

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Over 60 years ago C.S. Lewis wrote a book about the importance of values in education. In The Abolition of Man Lewis began by exploring the importance of values in education, but by the end Lewis addressed how the relentless pursuit of the conquest of nature divorced from traditional values could result in the conquest of mankind by nature and the destruction of what it means to be human. However, what he imagined might happen by the hundredth century A.D. is beginning to be possible in the twenty-first. Preliminary successes in gene therapy suggest that germ line gene therapy capable …

The End For Which We Are Formed: Spiritual Formation Through C.S. Lewis, Robert Moore-Jumonville

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

For years readers have practiced spiritual formation through C.S. Lewis, without using that term. This paper first will lay out Lewis’s definition of spiritual formation. We have no choice whether or not we are being formed spiritually. The soul of each of us is shaped through the sum of our creaturely choosing: choices which are transforming us moment by moment into either a more heavenly or more hellish being. Always pastoral in his concern, Lewis offers a compelling spiritual theology of human nature. As spiritual mentor, he wins us over by willingly siding with us in our trenches of battle. …

Race With The Devil: A Journey From The Hell Of Hate To The Well Of Mercy, Joseph Pearce

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

No abstract provided.

Warren And Jack - Brothers And Friends, Constance Rice

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

My paper is about Warren Lewis, C.S. Lewis’s older brother, and the impact Warren had on his brother’s life and writing and his important contribution to The Inklings. Warren Lewis is often overlooked by scholars or is spoken of only in regards to his struggle with alcoholism. As a brother and friend, he plays an integral part in C.S. Lewis’s life.

Through The Lens Of The Four Loves: The Concept Of Love In The Great Divorce, Paulette Sauders

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Even though C.S. Lewis wrote his non-fiction book, The Four Loves, later than his fiction, I content that he had been using the concepts of love that he finally wrote about in that book to shape his characters in all of his fiction. I will be examining his fictional The Great Divorce to discover which characters personify the kinds of love and their perversions discussed in The Four Loves as a way to better understand the novel as well as Lewis’s perceptions of love.

Hidden Images Of Christ In The Fiction Of C.S. Lewis, Peter J. Schakel

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

No abstract provided.

Tale As Old As Time: A Study Of The Cupid And Psyche Myth, With Particular Reference To C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces, John Stanifer

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

In 1956, C.S. Lewis saw the publication of his final novel, Till We Have Faces. Considered by Lewis himself to be among his best work, the novel’s plot is essentially a reworking of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, a myth first recorded in Apuleius’s Metamorphoses. In this presentation, I will trace the various adaptations of the Cupid and Psyche myth and its echoes in works as various as the poetry of John Milton, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels, and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. What do all these stories have in common? Come listen and find out.

Aesthetics Vs. Anesthesia: C.S. Lewis On The Purpose Of Art, Charlie W. Starr

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Contemporary Christian culture does not know what art is for. C.S. Lewis did. First of all, he understood that Christians should not try to change culture by turning art into propaganda. The first purpose of art is not to be didactic but to be beautiful and provide pleasure and play. It may have secondary purposes – to inspire, to draw us to God – but art cannot achieve these purposes without achieving the first. Secondly, Lewis knew that we should not simply analyze art for its philosophical underpinnings. Though Lewis recognized the need for worldview analysis, this approach devalues play …

Old Macdonald Had A Farm: An Exploration Of Animal Literature And Its Subtext Through The Theology Of George Macdonald, Laura Stanifer

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Tales all the way from Grimms’ The Frog Princess to C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia all tell us that there is more subtext to animals in literature than we realize. They can represent the meaning of family, as in the werewolves in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, or the character of our soul, as in the Harry Potter series. I will touch on each of these elements while centering on George MacDonald’s view of animals as representing one of God’s miracles, amazingly similar to humans in their feeble nature and yet just as capable of being redeemed in the end. Matthew …

Owen Barfield: Un-Regressed Pilgrim, Edwin Woodruff Tait

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

This paper will use C.S. Lewis’s The Pilgrim’s Regress to compare Lewis’s understanding of the spiritual life with that of Own Barfield. I will argue that the eponymous “regress” reflects Lewis’s belief (post-conversion) that the imagination did indeed point to truth, but that this truth could not be reached by the imagination directly but only by a humble submission to the eternal truth of historic, orthodox Christianity. Barfield, on the other hand, continued to believe that one could (using the terms of the Regress) sail directly to the Island in the West without returning to the “Landlord’s Castle.”

Dombey And Grandson: Parallels Between At The Back Of The North Wind And Dombey And Son, Robert Trexler

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

During the time I spent exploring the illustrations for At The Back of the North Wind, I discovered a strong influence between MacDonald’s plot and theme for his book and the earlier Charles Dickens book Dombey & Son. Once it is pointed out it seems incontrovertibly true.

The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Exhibition - Using C.S. Lewis To Promote Science And The Movies, Woody Wendling

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition is a touring exhibit of scenes, props, and costumes from the first two Narnia movies. The Exhibition has appeared in science museums throughout the United States. It is natural to link Narnia and science, as C.S. Lewis also write science fiction (the Ransom space trilogy) and critiqued scientism. The Exhibition begins with Lewis artifacts on loan from the Marion E. Wade Center. The awe-inspiring experience of entering Narnia through the wardrobe is surely the highlight in The Exhibition. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (LWW) section features the wardrobe and the witch, …

God Is Impartial: Frankenstein And Macdonald, Miho Yamaguchi

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

In George MacDonald’s David Elginbrod, a criminal named Funkelstein exercises his influence on a young woman and makes her an accessory to his crime. I thought that the name sounded somewhat similar to “Frankenstein” so I examined Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to see if there was any connection. Consequently, I discovered that some episodes and arguments in the story were taken up by MacDonald and reflected in David Elginbrod and also in his Wingfold trilogy. It appears that MacDonald, having read Frankenstein, tried to answer the cries of despair uttered by Frankenstein’s monster – the cries that seem to …

Charles Williams And The Quest For The Holy Grail, Susan Wendling

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Charles Williams (1886-1945) devoted his life to “the Matter of Britain,” seen in a private scrapbook, his novels and Arthurian poetry, and his prose analysis, The Figure of Arthur. Exploring two myths, King Arthur and the Grail Quest, Williams creatively combined them. Reasons are given why Williams was so intrigued with the Grail legends: the failure of earlier sources to develop the “never quite fulfilled hints of profound meaning”; the desire as a poet to discover images to convey his themes of romantic theology as well as the probing of the nature of co-inherence with its “doctrines” of Exchange and …

An Introduction To His Plays, Woody Wendling

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

So You've Always Wanted to Read Charles Williams: An Introduction to His Prose, Plays, and Poetry

This panel will give readers a few keys to unlock the complex and fascinating writings of Lewis’s friend and fellow Inkling Charles Williams. We will suggest some starting points: War in Heaven as an introduction to his novels; the three plays Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury, The House by the Stable, and Grab and Grace, as well as the novel Descent into Hell, in which the poet/playwright Stanhope is a major character, as a good beginning for his plays; and the poem “Bors …

So Old And So New: Memory And Expectation In The Fantastic Works Of C.S. Lewis And J.R.R. Tolkien, Megan J. Robinson

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

For both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, the realms and stories of Faërie and the fantastic, in addition to being entertaining were revelatory: insights about the very nature of Reality come through the images and narratives of these secondary worlds, in which the perception of time often plays a major role. Examining such issues as time and ultimate reality in Lewis’s and Tolkien’s works must take into account each author’s devout and profound Christian faith, oriented around the eucatastrophe of the Gospel message radiating backwards and forwards throughout human history. This faith thus shaped how they understood the past, present, …

"Heaven And Hell Under Every Bush!": The Novel War In Heaven As An Introduction To His Prose, Susan Wendling

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

So You've Always Wanted to Read Charles Williams: An Introduction to His Prose, Plays, and Poetry

This panel will give readers a few keys to unlock the complex and fascinating writings of Lewis’s friend and fellow Inkling Charles Williams. We will suggest some starting points: War in Heaven as an introduction to his novels; the three plays Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury, The House by the Stable, and Grab and Grace, as well as the novel Descent into Hell, in which the poet/playwright Stanhope is a major character, as a good beginning for his plays; and the poem “Bors …

A Time To Choose: Finitude, Freedom, And Eternity In Dante's Commedia And Lewis's Great Divorce, Matthew Swift

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Many scholars rightly note the use of Dantean imagery and ideas in The Great Divorce, but they do not focus primarily on the relationship between Lewis’s and Dante’s presentations of some central themes. Dante, like Lewis, is deeply concerned with human nature and decisions, especially as they relate to eternity. I propose that Lewis’s The Great Divorce presents views on the intertwining issues of finitude, freedom, and eternity, views which closely reflect those presented by Dante in his Commedia. An examination of each author’s full treatment of these three themes is beyond the scope of this paper, but …