Tag: values

Abolition of Man & That Hideous Strength: The Connection

I have been working consistently—and joyfully, I might add—on my course on C. S. Lewis’s Ransom Trilogy. As I prepared to tackle the longest, most intricate, and, in my view, the best book of the series, That Hideous Strength, I had to be sure that those taking the course have a grounding in the philosophy Lewis was exposing in the novel. Thus, an overview of The Abolition of Man was essential before delving into the final book. As Lewis himself… Read more »

“We Make Men without Chests”

One book I always include in my C. S. Lewis course is his Abolition of Man. It’s a weighty book, and I sometimes wonder if my students will be able to grasp its message. Yet I also believe it is worth requiring it because the message is so relevant, even more so today than when the book was published during WWII. The overall theme is the replacement of the natural law God has implanted within his creation with whatever new… Read more »

Lewis, Politics, & a Dire Warning

In my study of C. S. Lewis while preparing my new book about his influence on Americans, I was constantly confronted with the opposite of what I had been told about him with regard to his views on politics and government. Lewis didn’t like the subject, I was told. Yet he mentioned it rather frequently in his letters to Americans. Then, as I re-read a lot of his essays, I again was surprised by how often he commented on the… Read more »

Snyderian Truism #10

When I talk about the dangers of government-controlled education, I share one of the truisms I use in my American history survey courses. It goes like this: Value-neutral education is a myth; everyone teaches from a distinctive worldview. When certain groups wanted to change education in the nineteenth century, one of the goals was to take education away from the influence of the churches. They said it was wrong to have what they called “sectarian” education. Instead, they promoted a… Read more »