Recently, I was reminded of one of C. S. Lewis’s essays that I hadn’t thought about in quite a while; in fact, I couldn’t recall if I had read it. Yet, as a professor of history, I must have perused his “Is History Bunk?” at some time or other. So I checked into it as if it were a new piece of Lewis’s corpus that I hadn’t seen before. The essay is found in the collection called Present Concerns, the… Read more »
One of the aspects of C. S. Lewis’s writings that I’ve come to see more clearly is that he repeats key concepts regardless of the genre, whether via autobiography, apologetics, or fiction. As I’ve been re-reading the Ransom Trilogy, I’m seeing this better than ever. Let me offer one example that shows up in both Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. As Elwin Ransom tries to understand hrossa society on Malacandra, he questions his friend Hyoi about pleasures. In… Read more »
In my new position as a salaried teacher at my church, I’ve been able to do what I love best: develop courses and then offer them to a group of Christians who are characterized by an eagerness to learn more. I recently completed “C. S. Lewis on Life, Death, and Eternity” and am now addressing a class of more than 50 each week on the topic of Early Church History. Throughout my adult life, I’ve always had a deep interest… Read more »
I haven’t written much about politics this year. The reasons are as follows: first, my primary goal is to focus on the teaching I’ve been doing on Scripture, C. S. Lewis, and church history—that, in my view, is of greater importance; second, frankly, I’m rather sick and tired of all the phoniness, egos, and power plays. Politicians have always been prone to those sins, but they seem to be more prominent now than in any time in my life. This… Read more »
A couple weeks ago, I announced my intention to develop a course on C. S. Lewis’s Ransom Trilogy. In preparation for it, I am digesting analyses of the books, but am also going back to them for a more in-depth study of Lewis’s wording, his thoughts, both theological and philosophical, and goals—what he wanted readers to come away with when they finished. It has been a few years since my last reading of Out of the Silent Planet, so I’m… Read more »
Today is the first anniversary of my receiving the news that, after fourteen years, I no longer would be a full-time professor at my university in Florida. The news last April came without warning; there was no advance notice, not even a hint that my position was in jeopardy. It was also too late to find another full-time professorship for the fall semester anywhere else. This surprising news marked the end of thirty-one years teaching history at Christian colleges on… Read more »
While I cannot recall the precise order of my initial reading of C. S. Lewis’s books, I do know that his science fiction offerings must have been near the beginning. First, I have always loved science fiction; second, the realization that a Christian author wrote such things had to have piqued my interest. It’s possible The Screwtape Letters came first, but I had to have read what is commonly called “The Space Trilogy” during that same period. I, along with… Read more »