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 Very Historically Grounded C.S. Lewis

  

In my quest to write a book about C. S. Lewis’s views on history, I’ve laid out potential chapters for the proposed book. The very first chapter, I believe, needs to establish Lewis’s credentials as someone whose views on history should be taken seriously. Some, I know, would say that since he primarily taught English literature that this might be a hill too steep to climb. Yet, as a historian myself, I know quite well that history and literature are… Read more »

The Challenge of Rethinking

  

When I was 25, I pretty much knew everything. If you didn’t think so, all you had to do was ask me. Theology, for instance, was all figured out. No need to revisit that. Yet, in the years that followed, I came to the realization that I had a lot to learn. Let me offer a few examples of the rethinking I have had to do. As a young and budding historian, beginning my studies toward a doctorate, I came… Read more »

Pagans vs. Modern Man

  

I’m currently working on a video series for my church (which will eventually go worldwide via YouTube) on world religions. As I survey the various belief systems—and end with the Christian faith, of course—I hope the audience will excuse me for quoting C. S. Lewis continually throughout the series. He just has so many relevant comments that I find it hard to omit some of them. For instance, the first religious system I examine is paganism. Lewis’s views on that… Read more »

Unchanging, Yet Changed

  

What does the title of this blog post mean? It sounds kind of contradictory, doesn’t it? Yet it expresses what is happening in my thinking and reflections on God, man, the church, our society, and the political ramifications that flow from our beliefs about all of those. If you have been a regular reader of my blog over the years, you probably already know some of the thought processes I’ve been experiencing, especially in the last six or seven years…. Read more »

Gratitude

  

This week I received the happy news that the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College has awarded me the Clyde S. Kilby Research Grant for 2022. As explained on the Wade’s website, “In 1982, the Clyde S. Kilby Research Grant was established by Wheaton College’s class of 1939 in honor of their former professor and faculty class sponsor. This endowed award is presented annually by the Board of the Marion E. Wade Center to a scholar engaged in a… Read more »

The Christian Lens

  

C. S. Lewis’s path to Christian faith was helped along mightily by certain authors. In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, he tells of his discovery of G. K. Chesterton’s writings and says specifically, “I read Chesterton’s Everlasting Man and for the first time saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense. You will remember that I already thought Chesterton the most sensible man alive ‘apart from his Christianity.’ Now,… Read more »

The Deeper Problem Remains: Man or God?

  

As I ponder the current crisis in Ukraine, instigated by a Russian despot, I think back to what I wrote in a book I published in 2015. The aim of The Witness and the President was to analyze the lives and beliefs of Ronald Reagan and Whittaker Chambers and try to figure out which man was more correct about the future of freedom. Reagan was the supreme optimist. That doesn’t mean he didn’t see threats clearly, but he had faith… Read more »