Category: The Historical Muse

Thoughts on history and the historical profession. Clio is the muse of history–this category title is a play on that concept.

The Clean Sea Breeze of the Centuries

  

Some of C. S. Lewis’s essays found in collections today were not written as “stand-alone” pieces but rather connected to other works. One prime example is “On the Reading of Old Books,” which first appeared as an introduction to—well—an old book. In this case, it was (as noted on the left) St. Athanasius’s The Incarnation of the Word of God, which testifies to that early Christian Father’s fidelity to what we now call the Nicene Creed. Athanasius was exiled from… Read more »

The Decade of New Focus

  

The end of another year looms. This time of year, as we look forward to Christmas and a new year that will probably be quite similar to the current one (that’s both good and bad), I have a tendency to reflect. That’s not a bad idea, of course, given the subtitle of this blog. My reflection will be a pondering on how God has given me a new focus over the past decade. And that new focus centers on this… Read more »

Kindred Spirits in Romania

  

Doors open, and when the Lord is the One who opens the door, we should enter in to what He has for us. That’s how I looked upon the opportunity to go to Romania and participate in the C. S. Lewis and Kindred Spirits Conference this past week. The theme of the conference was “The Re-Enchanted Academic,” and I was pleased to offer a presentation in the very first panel. That’s me—second from the right, in preparation for the presentation…. Read more »

On the Edge of a Precipice

  

Out of all of C. S. Lewis’s superb essays, two stand out to me. As with many others, I am enthralled by his war-time sermon (turned into an essay) “The Weight of Glory.” It is Lewis at his highest peak of wordsmithing. The other one that has always captured my attention is “Learning in War-time,” which, like “The Weight of Glory,” was a war-time sermon that became an essay. The question raised in the sermon/essay is whether, during a time… Read more »

Lewis’s “Great Myth”

  

I have spent countless hours combing through C. S. Lewis’s essays in preparation for a course on those essays that I will teach beginning in January. I’m not complaining about the time I have spent: just the opposite. I can hardly imagine how time can be better spent. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been sharing key thoughts from some of those essays. Here’s another one I want to focus on today. My study of other writers that Lewis… Read more »

Many Times & Many Places

Many Times & Many Places: Now Available

  

Not long ago, I dreamed of writing a book highlighting C. S. Lewis’s views on history. At the time, I thought this would be a solo endeavor. Then I found out that a former student of mine was exploring the idea at the same time. The result was a cooperative venture that is now a reality. Further, the Wade Center—repository of all things Lewis—awarded me the Clyde Kilby Research Grant for 2022 that made another trip to the Center to… Read more »

Where Lewis & Eliot Agree

  

In his early Christian days, C. S. Lewis disagreed rather strongly with the poetry of T. S. Eliot. He was particularly unimpressed and dismayed by Eliot’s The Waste Land. Over time, however, a mutual respect developed when they labored together on the Revised Psalter of the Church of England. I’ve recently been reading an interesting book of excerpts from various writers that Lewis admired, or at least respected. The book is titled From the Library of C. S. Lewis: Selections… Read more »