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Full-Text Articles in Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Miscellaneous, Bruce R. Johnson
Miscellaneous, Bruce R. Johnson
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
No abstract provided.
The Tragicomedy Of C. S. Lewis The Bald: Reflections On An Unpublished Play, Jahdiel Perez
The Tragicomedy Of C. S. Lewis The Bald: Reflections On An Unpublished Play, Jahdiel Perez
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
"Within the pages of a Vice-President’s Register (1920–1984), held in the Old Library archives of his Oxford College, Lewis handwrote, in mock Shakespearean English, 'The Tragicomicall Briefe Reigne of Lewis the Bald.' As far as we know, this is the only complete play in his corpus. Mostly unpublished until the recent release of C. S. Lewis’s Oxford (2024) by Simon Horobin, this piece has yet to receive the scholarly attention it deserves. In what follows, I seek to address this gap through a close analysis of portions of the text and its broader implications for Lewis’s approach to writing."
A Moving Image Of Eternity: Exploring C. S. Lewis's Philosophy Of Time, Brian C. Roden
A Moving Image Of Eternity: Exploring C. S. Lewis's Philosophy Of Time, Brian C. Roden
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
"The “Time Graph,” as it will be labeled in this essay, is obscurely nestled in C. S. Lewis’s personal manuscripts held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. Comprised of mathematical sketches and cryptic commentary, the document has apparently escaped formal study regarding why Lewis produced it or how it might relate to his published works. More broadly, does it have any bearing on a coherent philosophy of time that Lewis may have held? The aim of this essay is to demonstrate that the Time Graph is very likely an early draft of the mechanics of time travel …
Tracing Sehnsucht: Longing For The "Hidden Country", Charlie Reeder
Tracing Sehnsucht: Longing For The "Hidden Country", Charlie Reeder
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
"This thesis will argue that Lewis employs a consistent set of literary themes and biblical echoes to articulate longing throughout his career, and that his early non-Christian, and often anti-Christian, poetry, such as Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics (1919) and Dymer (1926), plays a formative role in shaping his later depictions of Sehnsucht. Although his theological commitments and vocabulary evolve significantly after his conversion, an engagement with a predominantly Judeo-Christian literary inheritance is apparent from the outset. A central focus here will be Lewis’s use of place. In his early poetry, recurring biblical resonances, conceptual images, and spatial …
The Mythos Of Gender In Till We Have Faces, Annie Crawford
The Mythos Of Gender In Till We Have Faces, Annie Crawford
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
"In Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis draws from the mythic imagery of Cupid and Psyche to offer a potent meditation on the symbolism of gender. Through the recurring imagery of mountain, temple, and womb, Lewis reinterprets classical archetypes within a Christian imagination to reveal gender not as a social construct or biological accident but as a spiritual polarity woven into the fabric of creation. In this symbolic cosmos, mas- culinity and femininity signify the dynamic interplay of divine initiative and creaturely receptivity—the eternal rhythm of giving and receiving that structures both nature and grace. Read in this light, …
C. S. Lewis, The Expert Communicator, Steven A. Beebe
C. S. Lewis, The Expert Communicator, Steven A. Beebe
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
"What evidence supports the claim that Lewis is an expert communicator? He remains a popular author, one of the most read authors of all time. He was a professional communicator; he earned his living communicating: teaching, writing, and speaking. And, as this essay has documented, he was a professor of communication. He made insightful observations about the role, nature, and function of communication throughout the corpus of his work. Although his planned book with J. R. R. Tolkien, “Language and Human Nature,” was never published, his initial ideas found in the draft of the partial opening chapter, coupled with a …
Screwtape In Wartime, Joe Ricke
Screwtape In Wartime, Joe Ricke
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
"This essay looks closely at the connections between Lewis’s wartime message to his listeners in his now famous, but then unlikely, sermon, “Learning in Wartime,” on 22 October 1939 and his wartime novel, The Screwtape Letters. It will range widely from biography to history to literary influences and to close reading of the texts to help reflect on its place not only in Lewis’s oeuvre but in his life and the lives of all those who, then and now, attend to the distinction between what Lewis (and, surprisingly, Screwtape) makes between the local wars of time and space and the …
Signifying Nothing? Narnia, Inanity, And A. L. Rowse, Michael Ward
Signifying Nothing? Narnia, Inanity, And A. L. Rowse, Michael Ward
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
"This essay explores the origins of the word Narnia, the name that Lewis gave to the fictional kingdom in which his seven Chronicles of Narnia are mostly set. How did he come by it? What, if anything, does the word mean?...I will be pursuing two lines of enquiry and two sets of intriguing connections that strike me as potentially illuminating. What follows is more of a theory for consideration than a hard-and-fast conclusion for acceptance. But though I write with a degree of tentativeness, I hope, nonetheless, to shed some light upon Lewis’s statements about his naming
of Narnia and …
"Expressing The Great Myths": Hugo Dyson And Shakespeare In C. S. Lewis's Conversion Narrative, Sarah R. A. Waters
"Expressing The Great Myths": Hugo Dyson And Shakespeare In C. S. Lewis's Conversion Narrative, Sarah R. A. Waters
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
"The conversations that took place on the night of 19 September 1931 in Addison’s Walk might, as David Downing has put it, “be considered the defining moment in Jack’s life.” And Lewis’s letters to Greeves are recognized to be a key source in this narrative, with Alister McGrath noting, for instance that these letters “explain the events of the night and their significance for his reflections on religious faith.” Often ignored in accounts of these conversations, however, is the importance of Dyson in the story, and often ignored in these letters are Lewis’s reflections on his current reading matter, including …
"Lewis Dodged": T. S. Eliot's Silence, C. S. Lewis's Critique (1931 - 1947), Hannah F. Roux
"Lewis Dodged": T. S. Eliot's Silence, C. S. Lewis's Critique (1931 - 1947), Hannah F. Roux
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
"Most agree that Lewis’s critique of Eliot’s work is important to his literary scholarship—whether they think that critique changes or not. There is no academic book of Lewis’s from the 1930s and 1940s in which he does not at some point engage with Eliot by name. The opposite question—whether Lewis’s work was important to Eliot—is comparatively neglected. This paper investigates this neglected question."
What Did Tolkien Really Think About Narnia?, Holly Ordway
What Did Tolkien Really Think About Narnia?, Holly Ordway
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
"We are presented with two questions: “what did Tolkien really think about Narnia?” and “how did the idea that Tolkien hated Narnia become accepted as common knowledge?” In this essay, I will address both questions and conclude by suggesting why they matter for Inklings scholarship. At the outset, I will merely observe that since Tolkien and Lewis are two of the greatest fantasy writers of the twentieth century, it is worth knowing what one of them thought of the other’s work. …I have drawn my primary evidence from Tolkien’s published Letters (in the Revised and Expanded Edition), unpublished letters, and …
Frontmatter (Volume 19 Issue 2), Bruce R. Johnson
Frontmatter (Volume 19 Issue 2), Bruce R. Johnson
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
No abstract provided.
Miscellaneous, Bruce R. Johnson
Miscellaneous, Bruce R. Johnson
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
No abstract provided.
C. S. Lewis And The Myth That Became Fact, Tessa Carman
C. S. Lewis And The Myth That Became Fact, Tessa Carman
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
An exhibition review of C. S. Lewis and the Myth That Became Fact, Washington, D.C.: Museum of the Bible, 7 March 2025–14 February 2026.
The Major And The Missionary, G. Connor Salter
The Major And The Missionary, G. Connor Salter
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
A review of The Major and the Missionary, based on the book by Diana Pavlac Glyer, The Major and the Missionary: The Letters of Warren Hamilton Lewis and Blanche Biggs, Starring Mark Lewis and Kailey Bell. Produced by The Marion E. Wade Center and Wheaton College Arena Theater. Wheaton, IL: Armerding Center for Music and the Arts, 3 October 2024.
David A. Werther, C. S. Lewis And The Problem Of God, Austin M. Freeman
David A. Werther, C. S. Lewis And The Problem Of God, Austin M. Freeman
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
A review of David A. Werther, C. S. Lewis and the Problem of God, Cambridge Elements: The Problems of God (Cambridge University Press, 2024). 67 pages. $22.00. ISBN 9781009283243.
Markus K. Paul, C. S. Lewis On Literature: An Introduction To His Literary Criticism, Literary History, Literary Theory, Christiana Hale
Markus K. Paul, C. S. Lewis On Literature: An Introduction To His Literary Criticism, Literary History, Literary Theory, Christiana Hale
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
A review of Marcus K. Paul, C. S. Lewis on Literature: An Introduction to His Literary Criticism, Literary History, Literary Theory (Hamden, CT: Winged Lion Press, 2024). 204 pages. $20.00. ISBN 9781935688556.
Louis Markos, Passing The Torch: An Apology For Classical Christian Education, Joshua Herring
Louis Markos, Passing The Torch: An Apology For Classical Christian Education, Joshua Herring
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
A review of Louis Markos, Passing the Torch: An Apology for Classical Christian Education (Lisle, IL: IVP, 2025). 240 pages. $30.00. ISBN 9781514011300.
Simon Horobin, C. S. Lewis’S Oxford, William Gentrup
Simon Horobin, C. S. Lewis’S Oxford, William Gentrup
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
A review of Simon Horobin, C. S. Lewis’s Oxford (Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing, 2024). 196 pages. $39.12. ISBN 9781851245642.
John Hendrix, The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship Of C. S. Lewis And J. R. R. Tolkien, John Stanifer
John Hendrix, The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship Of C. S. Lewis And J. R. R. Tolkien, John Stanifer
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
A review of John Hendrix, The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien (New York: Abrams Fanfare, 2024). 218 pages, including index. $24.99. ISBN 9781419746345.
Norbert Feinendegen - C. S. Lewis: Űberrascht Von Gott: Wie Der Groβe Christliche Denker Zum Glauben Fand, Monika B. Hilder
Norbert Feinendegen - C. S. Lewis: Űberrascht Von Gott: Wie Der Groβe Christliche Denker Zum Glauben Fand, Monika B. Hilder
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
A review of Norbert Feinendegen, C. S. Lewis: Űberrascht von Gott: Wie der groβe christliche Denker zum Glauben fand (Basel: Fontis-Verlag, 2023). 304 pages. $25.00. ISBN 9783038482567.
Leslie Baynes, Between Interpretation And Imagination: C. S. Lewis And The Bible, Donald T. Williams
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 …