Author Archives: Dr Snyder

America Discovers Lewis at the Wade Center

  

Last night I spoke at the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College. Topic: my book, America Discovers C. S. Lewis: His Profound Impact. The Wheaton campus was quite active last night, what with a Michael W. Smith concert and approximately six other events. Parking was at a premium, I was told, which made some of my audience a little late in arriving. Overall, though, there were about forty very interested people who wanted to know more about one of… Read more »

John Eliot Prepared Indian Converts

  

Here’s a post I received from the Christian History Institute that I think is worth passing on. JOHN ELIOT arrived in Massachusetts from England in 1631. He would become one of the colony’s most famous immigrants. Educated at the University of Cambridge, he was ordained to the ministry before coming to America. In the New World, he temporarily filled a vacant pulpit in Boston before moving on to Roxbury in 1632. That same year he wed Hannah Mumford. They would… Read more »

Holding to the Faith

  

I have a rather large tome called The Timeless Writings of C. S. Lewis, which consists of The Pilgrim’s Regress and two of his essay collections: Christian Reflections and God in the Dock. Prior to my sabbatical back in 2014-15, I had read, over time, all of those essays. I’m the kind of person who marks up his books, putting stars next to key passages and underlining the most significant sentences, in the hope that I can go back when… Read more »

Platitudes vs. Reality in Home & Family

  

I love delving into C. S. Lewis’s many essays—mostly unknown even to those who appreciate his books—and finding pearls. This morning I came across one in God in the Dock that I had read long ago (I know that only because it is marked up) and had forgotten. It’s called “The Sermon and the Lunch.” Lewis relates what appears to be a true story about listening to a certain vicar give a sermon on the home, a talk filled with… Read more »

A Righteous Anger

  

I spend a lot of time in this blog critiquing current events: our government and its policies; the unbalanced media coverage; the antichristian aspects of our culture; the way Christians sometimes go along with ungodly practices. It’s easy to get angry when you focus on such things. I can say, though, that most of the time it’s not anger that motivates me, but anguish over the path we have taken as a society—a sadness that we are throwing away the… Read more »

John Adams, Facts, & Brett Kavanaugh: A Primer

  

It was March 1770 when a crowd of Boston colonists began angrily harassing a British sentry. Soon other soldiers came to his aid. In the confusion, amidst the clamor, the throwing of snowballs, ice, and stones, and even being threatened with clubs, the soldiers misunderstood a command from the officer in charge and began firing into the crowd. Five colonists lay dead and six more were wounded. It became known as the Boston Massacre. Emotions ran high. Would the soldiers… Read more »

The Greater Context of a Quintessential Lewis Quote

  

Nearly everyone conversant with the writings of C. S. Lewis has heard this famous quote: I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. It’s such a striking comment that it has found a permanent place on Lewis’s commemorative stone in Westminster’s Poets Corner. That wonderful insight is the very last sentence of Lewis’s essay called “Is Theology Poetry?” found in the collection… Read more »