Reflections on God … Man … Life
This week marks the one-year anniversary for going to the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College to share about our book, Many Times & Many Places: C. S Lewis & the Value of History. We are grateful for the invitation we received from David and Crystal Downing, who were then the co-directors of the Center. Not only did we have the privilege of sharing with an audience in the Bakke Auditorium, but we also went to the Downings’ home… Read more »
While researching my latest C. S. Lewis book, Many Times & Many Places: C. S. Lewis & the Value of History, I had the opportunity to take advantage of the Wade Center’s collection of books that Lewis himself owned and read. So, in the process of working on the book that was published in 2023, I also realized that the research I was doing for it would make for a good journal article. I’m more than pleased that the Wade… Read more »
I’ve often commented that the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College is nearly a second home for me. Surrounded by all things C. S. Lewis (his writings, his personal library, books and dissertations about him), I have found the Wade to be an invaluable resource for my research and writing. It was at the Wade in 2014 where my research confirmed that a niche in Lewis scholarship could be found for a historian who focuses on American history. Thus,… Read more »
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 »
Is the study of history an endangered species? We read about the sad state of affairs in higher education with respect to history programs. Many universities are either scaling back on the history major, combining it with something else, or removing it from their offerings entirely. The say, of course, that this is due to declining enrollments in history programs. They are correct in that assessment. And that is what is so sad about it all. The university where I… Read more »
One of Lewis’s comments in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, came to mind recently as I thought about the path my own life has taken. Lewis was an intensely rational person, a trait drilled into him by his tutor, William Kirkpatrick. At the same time, he was a person who reveled in imaginative works of literature. At various times in his life, one or the other would come to the forefront. There was a time, though, as a young man… Read more »
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 »