This week marks the one-year anniversary for going to the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College to share about our book, Many Times & Many Places: C. S Lewis & the Value of History. We are grateful for the invitation we received from David and Crystal Downing, who were then the co-directors of the Center. Not only did we have the privilege of sharing with an audience in the Bakke Auditorium, but we also went to the Downings’ home to record a podcast about the book. That podcast is inserted here.
If you haven’t yet heard it, I think I can say with some measure of confidence that it was an entertaining 43 minutes with sprinkles of humor throughout. I hope you might take this opportunity now to give it a listen.
Have you ever thought much about the linkage between Lewis and history? We try to provide the overview, beginning with examining Lewis’s credentials—can we legitimately call him a historian?
From there, we analyze how Lewis divided history, focusing, in particular, on his iconoclastic view (in his era, at least) of the Renaissance. We also look at the issue of historicism and how Lewis warns against trying to force history into a box with respect to saying such things as “being on the right side of history.”
What about historical imagination? As an author of imaginative literature, Lewis sees the value of imagination, of course. How does that apply to history? Then we look carefully at his fiction to see how that historical imagination finds its place.
If all, or any, of that fascinates you, here’s where you can get the book on Amazon.
Writing and teaching about Lewis for the past decade has given me a new vision for my calling from God. This book is a major part of that vision, so I offer it with gratitude to the Lord for the open door He has given.