Reflections on God … Man … Life
I’m an introvert. God made me with that type of personality. I think I’m on solid ground in making a distinction between personality and character. Personality is something that comes hard-wired; character is what you do with the personality you have been given. As an introvert, I’m uneasy pushing my way into a conversation, I tend to sit in the back of rooms, and I don’t really want to draw attention to myself. Many introverts who are drawn to academia… Read more »
When my university gave me a sabbatical year for research and writing in 2014-2015, I had some of the best plans laid out that a man could devise. In tandem with a religion professor, we were going to write a book on spiritual advisors to presidents. Eagerly, I lined up trips to presidential libraries, starting with Reagan and Nixon in California, then in an order I don’t recall exactly, ultimately visiting libraries for Eisenhower, Johnson, Clinton, and the first George… Read more »
I just returned from Winter Garden, Florida, after being part of the “Mere Christians” conference for the third year in a row. Speaking for many, I’m sure, the draw of C.S. Lewis conferences, regardless of the sponsors of the event or the theme, is the opportunity to meet face to face with others who have the same abiding interest—and dare I say, fascination—in one of God’s premier writers of the past century. The fellowship of kindred minds and spirits is… Read more »
Two years ago this month, this book took its place alongside the multitude of books about C.S. Lewis. Each author hopes to find a niche for his topic; my co-author, Jamin Metcalf, and I believed we had settled on an aspect of Lewis’s life and writings that few others had emphasized: the fact that Lewis not only was a masterful apologist for the Christian faith, a wonderfully imaginative writer of fiction, and a superb analyst in his primary field of… Read more »
July and August are my months “off” from teaching, but they aren’t months off for preparation. Although I’m constantly preparing year-round, the absence of teaching during this time allows a greater concentration on what I’ll be doing over the next year. Much of it has to do with C. S. Lewis and Dorothy L. Sayers. Last month, I received a pleasant surprise when I was contacted by the Wade Center about an article that I had sent in a couple… Read more »
I’m currently teaching my university course on C. S. Lewis. We have traversed the Lewis universe by reading Surprised by Joy, Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, and his superb sermon/essay, “Learning in War-time.” We are now deeply embroiled in the third installment of his Ransom Trilogy, That Hideous Strength. Coming attractions: The Last Battle, A Grief Observed, and Lewis’s greatest—in my estimation—sermon/essay of all, “The Weight of Glory.” I wish I could have given them even more;… Read more »
Rev. T. R. Milford, rector of Oxford’s University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, wanted an authority to speak on the importance of continued education in a national crisis. That crisis was the Second World War, which Britain entered in September 1939 after the Nazi invasion of Poland. Why was this topic on the rector’s mind? Some would undoubtedly question—and perhaps some already were questioning—why a university such as Oxford should continue to prioritize academics at a time when all… Read more »