Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Charlie W. Starr, King Lesserlight’S Crown, Judith Mcquoid

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Charlie W. Starr, King Lesserlight’s Crown (Wilmore, KY: GlossaHouse, 2023). 103 pages. $9.99. ISBN 9781636630588.

K. Alan Snyder And Jamin Metcalf, Many Times And Many Places: C. S. Lewis And The Value Of History, Matthew Nash

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

K. Alan Snyder and Jamin Metcalf, Many Times and Many Places: C. S. Lewis and the Value of History (Hamden, CT: Winged Lion Press, 2023). 191 pages. $18.99. ISBN: 9781935688525.

Holly Ordway, Tolkien’S Faith: A Spiritual Biography, Crystal Hurd

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Holly Ordway, Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography (Elk Grove Village, IL: Word on Fire Academic, 2023). 480 pages, including Appendices, Glossary, Endnotes, Bibliography, Biblical Index, and General Index. $34.95. ISBN: 9781685789916.

C. S. Lewis: On Writing (And Writers): A Miscellany Of Advice And Opinions, Ed. By David C. Downing., Crystal Hurd

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of C. S. Lewis: On Writing (and Writers): A Miscellany of Advice and Opinions, ed. by David C. Downing. (New York: HarperOne, 2022). 208 pages. $23.99. ISBN: 9780063276444.

Thomas P. Hillman, Pity, Power, And Tolkien’S Ring: To Rule The Fate Of Many, Sørina Higgins

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Thomas P. Hillman, Pity, Power, and Tolkien’s Ring: To Rule the Fate of Many (Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 2023). 306 pages. $40.00. ISBN 9781606354711.

Daniel Gabelman And Amanda B. Vernon, Eds., Unsaying The Commonplace: George Macdonald And The Critique Of Victorian Convention, Carol Propst

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Daniel Gabelman and Amanda B. Vernon, eds., Unsaying the Commonplace: George MacDonald and the Critique of Victorian Convention (Hamden, CT: Winged Lion Press, 2024). 283 pages. $20.00. ISBN 9781935688440.

Matthew Dickerson, Aslan’S Breath: Seeing The Holy Spirit In Narnia, Crystal Kirgiss

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Matthew Dickerson, Aslan’s Breath: Seeing the Holy Spirit in Narnia (Baltimore: Square Halo Books, 2024). 144 pages. $19.99. ISBN 9781941106334.

Paths In The Snow: A Literary Journey Through The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Sarah R. A. Waters

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Jem Bloomfield, Paths in the Snow: A Literary Journey Through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 2023), 288 pages. £16.99. ISBN: 9781915412300.

The Last Romantic: C. S. Lewis, English Literature, And Modern Theology, Louis Markos

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Jeffrey W. Barbeau, The Last Romantic: C. S. Lewis, English Literature, and Modern Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2025). 176 pages. $22.00. ISBN 9781514010518.

Deeper Magic: Theology Of The Body In C. S. Lewis And John Paul Ii, George French

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

C. S. Lewis tells us that science and magic are “twins.” “They were born,” he says “of the same impulse”3 of man to master the natural world. We think of them very differently because science has succeeded where magic has failed, but that should not make us blind to their “strong family likeness.”4 Science and magic are intertwined for much of their history, and it is in the Enlightenment that the two begin to separate. While magic died and science survived, Lewis thinks that modern applied science still retains much of the “family likeness.” Unfortunately, not all of the family …

N.I.C.E. Alchemy: The Quest For Immortality In That Hideous Strength, Joseph Weigel

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

In the third and final chapter of The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis makes what may be one of the most provocative statements in his entire corpus of writings: “The serious magical endeavour and the serious scientific endeavor are twins. . . . They were born of the same impulse.”1 This claim is jarring because science and magic are thought of as opposites. One seeks knowledge through observation, the other deals in spells, rites, and incantations. However, Lewis recognized something deeper that united the two disciplines. The impulse for “magic and applied science alike,” he continued in Abolition, “is …

One Dominant Age: The Technological Singularity In The Abolition Of Man, Christopher Tissell

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

I doubt whether we are sufficiently attentive to the importance of the third part of C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man. Much ink has been spilled analyzing Lewis’s thoughts on the dangers of subjectivism as outlined in the first two parts of the book, but less so on the endpoint to which Lewis thinks subjectivism leads when whole societies succumb to it. Yet Lewis himself, or at least his editor, thought the final part important enough to name the lecture series after it, and dramatize it in a novel afterward. If Lewis saw the train leaving the station over …

The Abolition Of Man, Eighty Years Later: An Engineer’S Perspective, Paul G. Lorenzini

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

I n 2021 Michael Ward published After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man. His purpose was to call attention to the continuing relevance and significance of Lewis’s book, originally published in 1943, now almost a century old. Among his many works, it is one of the least known, yet it was perhaps Lewis’s most highly acclaimed book among secular critics. Ranked seventh by the National Review in its list of 100 best non-fiction books in the 20th century, it is second on a similar list by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.1 While Abolition can be a difficult …

C. S. Lewis’S Most Important Message: The Abolition Of Man As Lewis’S Self-Conscious Struggle For The Value Of Human Persons, Dwain Tissell

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Over the roughly sixty years since C. S. Lewis’s death, many have asked, what was the message he most wanted to convey? A decade before Lewis’s passing, Dr. James Houston asked him that very question. Lewis answered that he was fighting “reductionism.” More specifically, Houston heard C. S. Lewis to be most concerned about reduction of the value of the human person. At the time of this writing, Houston is 101 years of age, and he has kept a low profile all these years about his relationship with C. S. Lewis. From 1947 until 1954, he and Lewis were more …

The Importance Of Recognizing Truth, Goodness, And Beauty: C. S. Lewis’S Antidote To The Poison Of Subjectivism, David H. Mcilroy

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

T aken in isolation, The Abolition of Man is different from most of C. S. Lewis’s other works. It is not a work of fiction or a work of expressly Christian apologetics. It is, however, rightly recognized by Dyer and Watson as “the lynchpin for understanding of all of [Lewis’s] work.”1 The thesis set out in The Abolition of Man is foundational to C. S. Lewis’s worldview. Lewis explored its implications in the third novel in his scientific trilogy, That Hideous Strength, which Lewis expressly described as a story whose moral was “the serious “point” which I have tried to …

Gender And The Abolition Of Man: The Masculine And The Feminine In Lewis’S Natural Law Thought, Joshua P. Herring

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

C. S. Lewis wrote extensively about gender in both nonfiction and fiction works. In nonfiction, he lays out a specific understanding of gender with logical clarity; in fiction, Lewis develops a series of poetic images magnifying the depth of meaning found in being masculine and feminine. In both forms of writing, Lewis celebrates the goodness of God’s gift of gender, and summons his readers to receive the gift with gratitude. Reading Lewis’s works on gender functions as an antidote to gender ideology. Rather than a severing of felt experience and bodily reality, Lewis calls his readers to see the ideas …

The Positive Educational Program Of The Abolition Of Man, Jon Fennell

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Readers of The Abolition of Man, certainly those who have engaged it repeatedly and have thought deeply about what it says, recognize that the book is fundamentally a commentary on the reality—and predictable consequences—of the miseducation of the young. Much has been written on this topic. Not so commonly recognized, nor as frequently understood, is the positive educational program that arises out of Lewis’s largely critical “reflections on education.”2 The Abolition of Man, like its fictional counterpart, That Hideous Strength, elaborates a nightmare scenario. That scenario is the product of what, logically, is a reduction and absurdum. The details of …

The Eschatological Vision Of The Abolition Of Man, Joshua J. Paladino

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man is ultimately an eschatological work, a vision of the end of history, a warning about the fully conditioned society, an insight into the nature of the universal and homogeneous state, and even a prophecy of Hell on Earth. The end-times significance of the Abolition is perhaps overlooked because it lacks an apocalyptic framing. Lewis presented, rather, a “snug” eschatology.1 There is none of the apocalyptic drama that Lewis crafted in The Last Battle. We do not hear the Lion roar, “Now it is time,” before watching Father Time squeeze the sun in his …

The Riddle Of The Sphinx, Owen Barfield, Rory O'Connor

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Owen Barfield, whom C. S. Lewis described archetypally as his “Second Friend” —“the man who disagrees with you about everything . . . not so much the alter ego as the antiself ”1 —expressed his agreement with the argument of The Abolition of Man and his admiration of the book on a number of occasions. For example, describing various means by which one can become aware of the presuppositions of one’s thoughts, Barfield once wrote: One, of which the best example I know is C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, is to take some typical utterance by a contemporary …

In Memoriam: J. Stanley Mattson (1937–2024), Gayne J. Anacker

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

John Stanley (Stan) Mattson will be best remembered for what he accomplished as the Founder and President of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. Those who knew him best would add that what he accomplished flowed from who he was as a person and as a child of God.

Frontmatter (Volume 18 Issue 1), Bruce R Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

General Editor’s Note:

C. S. Lewis delivered a series of lectures in February 1943 for the University of Durham, published the month prior as The Abolition of Man. It remains a robust defense of moral law and objective values against the onslaught of what Lewis soon labeled “The Poison of Subjectivism.” He argued that children who are not schooled in ancient wisdom regarding mercy, justice, beneficence, and duty become not simply self-centered adults but easily manipulated people. A society bent on pursuing such a path becomes a society in peril.

Last year’s issue of Sehnsucht included a call for papers …

Theology Of Creation In The Bulgarian Theology Of The 20th Century, Svetoslav Ribolov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Theology of Creation in 20th-century Bulgaria emerged within the broader debate about the role of religious education in state schools and the tension between the prevailing influence of evolutionary theory and a scientific approach to the Orthodox Church’s traditional spiritual heritage. Before World War 2, the primary social and intellectual motivation behind the Theology of Creation in Bulgaria was rooted in an apologetic struggle against secular ideas, which were embraced by a significant portion of Bulgarian society at the time. In the second half of the 20th century, however, this discourse gradually evolved to incorporate more denominationally oriented theological perspectives, …

Guarding The Faith Or Resisting Dialogue?: Anti-Ecumenical Tendencies In Bulgarian Orthodoxy, Ioannis Kaminis

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper explores the historical, theological, and ideological roots of anti-ecumenical tendencies within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), especially in the post-communist period. It examines whether the BOC's resistance to ecumenical dialogue genuinely reflects a defense of Orthodox tradition or represents a reactionary posture shaped by national, political, and ecclesiastical factors. Tracing the development of anti-ecumenism from the 19th-century schism with the Ecumenical Patriarchate through the communist era to the post-1990s resurgence of neo-traditionalist rhetoric, the study reveals how the convergence of ecclesial nationalism, ideological manipulation under communism, and theological exclusivism has produced a deep mistrust of ecumenical engagement. Influential …

Samuel Štefan Osuský’S Critique Of Church And Society In The Face Of Totalitarianism, Michal Valčo, Katarína Valčová

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper provides a systematic review analysis of the relevant works of Slovak philosopher and theologian Samuel Štefan Osuský (1888-1975), focusing on his critical perspective concerning the responses of the Church (mainly the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Augsburg Confession in Slovakia) and society to the ideological and political dangers of fascism and Nazism in 20th-century Central Europe. Drawing on his major writings, including his prophetic 1937 lecture "Filozofia boľševizmu, fašizmu a hitlerizmu" [The Philosophy of Bolshevism, Fascism, and Hitlerism] and the courageous 1942 "Pastiersky list k židovskej otázke" [Pastoral Letter on the Jewish Question], we explore Osuský’s diagnosis of institutional …

The Challenge Of Implementing Social Justice In A Developing Market Economy: The Case Of Slovakia, Michal Valčo, Kamil Kardis

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Our paper explores the challenges of implementing social justice in Slovakia, a developing market economy with a complex historical background. We provide an overview of Slovakia’s political and socio-economic transformations in the 20th century, focusing on the transition from a state-planned to a market economy (1990–2000). While analyzing contemporary challenges, we explore the role of Michael Novak’s democratic capitalism and Catholic social teaching as moral frameworks for fostering a society with a high level of social justice and cohesion. These approaches, centered on human dignity, solidarity, and ethical entrepreneurship, are contrasted and complemented with Amartya Sen’s capability approach, which offers …

Shryock, Jeremiah. Mary And The Interior Life. Brewster, Ma: Paraclete Press, 2023, Sophia E. Du Val

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

How To Make A Theologian: Theological Education And The Life Of Discipleship, Andrew C. Stout

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

The Conflict Of Orthodox Narratives In Ukrainian Society: Searching For A Methodology To Analyze The Religious Crisis, Hennadii Khrystokin, Vasyl Lozovytskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

As a result of the study, we were able to establish that the crisis of Ukrainian Orthodoxy is a conflict that has a clear linguistic and symbolic dimension. In order to analyze the conflict between Orthodox actors, it is advisable to use a critical-reflective methodology that allows for the analysis of both theological language and the tools that form this language. We have been able to establish that the Orthodox crisis in Ukraine reflects a conflict between the religious narratives and practices of the UOC and the OCU, the root cause of which is an internal crisis between the narratives …

Miscellaneous, Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Announcements:

Call for papers (The Abolition of Man 80 Years On)

The C. S. Lewis Correspondence Project

The Inaugural Undiscovered C.S. Lewis Conference (George Fox University, Newberg, Oregon September 5-8, 2024)

Submission guidelines, style guide, copyright notice, and order form.

Review Of Further Up And Further In, Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Further Up and Further In. Written and performed by Max McLean. Phoenix, AZ: Herberger Theater, 18 March 2023.