Lewis on Visiting America

  

Why write a book on C. S. Lewis’s connections with America when he never set foot on American soil? Well, connections are made in many ways, and this book stresses the impact Lewis made on individual Americans. During his lifetime, he received countless invitations to visit but he always had reasons for why he couldn’t do it. Although Lewis declined all invitations to visit America due to his personal circumstances, that did not mean he wasn’t attracted to some of… Read more »

An Evangelical Scarlet Letter?

  

Increasingly, there is pressure on those of us who have always identified with the Republican party but who cannot bring ourselves to support Donald Trump to lay aside our objections and come together for the sake of unity. And to stop the ultimate horror: Hillary Clinton. Many who were quite verbal in their detestation of Trump early on (such as former Texas governor Rick Perry) have done a complete 180, now saying he’s just marvelous. Perry, who had said Trump… Read more »

A Convention of States?

  

Last Saturday was the official Constitution Day, celebrating September 17th as the 229th anniversary of the day when the Constitutional Convention signed off on the document that was then sent to the states for ratification. Has it stood the test of time? Well, we still have the same basic structure of government that it established. Yet there have been so many departures from the text that the whole concept of rule of law is now at risk. This has led… Read more »

Lewis’s Nuggets of Gold

  

Reading through C. S. Lewis’s letters to Americans during my sabbatical was a genuine pleasure. There are so many nuggets of gold in those letters that I couldn’t include them all in my new book, America Discovers C. S. Lewis. On the topic of suffering, for instance, here are a couple of gems. Writing to regular correspondent Mary Van Deusen on this topic, Lewis opines, That suffering is not always sent as a punishment is clearly established for believers by… Read more »

Discerning Good & Evil

  

The Book of Hebrews has always been one of my favorites. I’ve been reading it again on my path through the whole Bible. Two passages in chapter four stand out to me, the first reminding me that in a world filled with selfishness, duplicity, and enmity toward God and His ways, He is still the One who sees everything and takes it all into account: For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword,… Read more »

How About a Display of Gratitude Instead?

  

What does this flag mean? Why do we salute it? Is it appropriate to do so or should we hold it in contempt because not everything that has happened under this banner has been perfect? A Christian knows that citizenship in any nation is a temporary condition. We are, as the Scripture famously affirms, strangers and pilgrims on this earth. Yet we are also told to pray for whatever nation we live in and do all we can to help… Read more »

When Clyde Kilby Met C. S. Lewis

  

Clyde Kilby was the man responsible for bringing the C. S. Lewis Papers to the Wade Center at Wheaton College, where not only Lewis’s papers now reside, but also those of Tolkien and five other British luminaries with ties to Lewis. Kilby and Lewis met face-to-face only once, back in 1953, but the impression from that visit stayed with Kilby the rest of his life. When Kilby returned from England, he wrote about his experience. Upon knocking [at Lewis’s Oxford… Read more »