Monthly Archives: August 2016

The Invisible Fellowship of Readers, with Annie Dillard

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

At a recent conference, we were sitting around on Sunday morning in the afterglow of the great weekend. Someone asked what we might do to attract more university students and young scholars to the next conference–not because we were lacking in … Continue reading →

Posted in Memorable Quotes, Reflections | Tagged An American Childhood, Annie Dillard, books, literature, Reading | 11 Comments

Chris Armstrong’s Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

Chris R. Armstrong, Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians: Finding Authentic Faith in a Forgotten Age with C. S. Lewis (2016) You might say that old is the new new. As culture commits itself further to its pathological aversion to stillness, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged books, C.S. Lewis, literature, medieval, The Discarded Image, theology, Theology of Culture | 13 Comments

Why C.S. Lewis Says My Reading Program is Wrong, or What Cheese has to do with Reading

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

This year on A Pilgrim in Narnia we have been doing some thinking about programs for reading great books: Why I Read C.S. Lewis Chronologically How You Can Read C.S. Lewis Chronologically The Canon of Fantasy Literature Harold Bloom’s “The Western … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged C.S. Lewis, canon, Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, fantasy, Harold Bloom, Reading, research, Science Fiction, The Western Canon, University | 32 Comments

The Narnian Pilgrim in the UK

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

Dear Fellow Pilgrims, I chose the image of pilgrimage when I began this blog 5 years ago last week (here was my first blog, on Letter Writing in a Digital Age). I come from a Christian tradition that has tended … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged Anniversary Blog, Blogging, C.S. Lewis, Chester, King Arthur, London, Oxford, pigrimage, travel, Wales | 6 Comments

An Essential Reading List from C.S. Lewis: An Experiment on An Experiment in Criticism

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

On A Pilgrim in Narnia we have been playing with lists of the key books to read–what we might call a “canon.” We’ve thought about the key books of Western literature (here and here), thought about the problems of this discussion, … Continue reading →