Monthly Archives: April 2018

Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age as a Background to Study of C.S. Lewis

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

Charles Taylor has been called the leading philosopher of today. If narrowed to the questions of religion, the self, and human experience, the claim has some grounding. For students in theology, religious studies, modern intellectual history, or the philosophy of … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Reviews, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged A Secular Age, C.S. Lewis, Charles Taylor, Dom Bede Griffiths, Elizabeth Anscombe, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Mary Augusta Ward, Matthew Arnold, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Oxford, philosophy, religion, Robert Elsmere, theology, Theology of Culture | 15 Comments

The Inklings and Arthur Series Index

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

This series that celebrated the release of The Inklings and King Arthur: J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield on the Matter of Britain has been one of the best blog series that I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | 11 Comments

Why do Evangelicals Really Reject the Environmental Movement? #earthday

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

On Earth Day 2015, I posted about my “water woes,” and how the struggles I have with poverty and environment are really spiritual problems. I argued that Christians are to resist the curses of Genesis 3, that we are to … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged Al Gore, Alister McGrath, Christianity, creation care, creationism, environment, evangelicalism, evolution, Francis Collins, Kirk Cameron, media, Rachel Carson, Skepticism, social justice, Theology of Culture | 76 Comments

H. P. Lovecraft, C. S. Lewis, and Me.

Posted on April 20, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

Originally posted on The Oddest Inkling:
Here is a guest post by Stephen Hayes, a regular reader of this blog. It is a highly personal, spiritually-autobiographical story about his individual experience. If any of you readers would like to offer a…

Posted in Reflections | 7 Comments

“The Grail: Cup, Stone – Santo Caliz? – and the Inklings?” by David Llewellyn Dodds

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

As I add one last little paper to our ‘baker’s dozen’ of contributions, I look back on them, and the comments by many and varied further hands, with gratitude and delight. It seems appropriate that I return to a central … Continue reading →

Posted in Guest Blogs, Inklings and Arthur | Tagged Arthuriana, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Chrétien de Troyes, Inklings and Arthur, Many Dimensions, Perceval, Roy Campbell, Rudolf Steiner, Santo Caliz, The Return of Arthur, War in Heaven | 26 Comments

Resources on David Lyndsay’s Cult Classic “A Voyage to Arcturus”

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a scathing review of David Lindsay’s trippy SF morality tale, A Voyage to Arcturus (1920). C.S. Lewis loved this book–and so does genius actor Paul Giamatti, according to the rather peculiar, subtly hypnotic, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Memorable Quotes, News & Links | Tagged A Voyage to Arcturus, C.S. Lewis, David Lindsay, Harold Bloom, J.R.R. Tolkien, Paul Giamatti, Philip Pullman, The Western Canon, Vakula | 8 Comments

Little Rooms of Imagination with Madeleine L’Engle and C.S. Lewis (Friday Feature)

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

I tell my students often enough to read the fore-matter in their textbooks. “That’s where the good stuff is,” I argue. “That’s where the author shares his or her vision for writing.” Now, I suspect that students rarely heed my … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday, Memorable Quotes, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged A Swiftly Tilting Planet, A Wrinkle in Time, books, C.S. Lewis, children's literature, fairy tales, fantasy, imagination, lion the witch and the wardrobe, literature, Madeleine L'Engle, wardrobe, writing | 11 Comments

“C.S. Lewis’ Arthuriad: Survey and Speculation” by Brenton Dickieson

Posted on April 11, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

Whatever else they had in common and apart, one of the features of the central Inklings–J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams–is that they each have left their Arthuriad incomplete. In the case of Tolkien and Lewis, they abandoned early narrative … Continue reading →

Posted in Inklings and Arthur, Lewis Biography, Lewis' Essays | Tagged Arthuriana, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Inklings and Arthur, Inklings and King Arthur, J.R.R. Tolkien, mythology, Narnia, The Quest of Bleheris | 42 Comments

Madeleine L’Engle’s Remarkable Accomplishment in The Wrinkle in Time

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

By all accounts, the young Madeleine L’Engle did everything wrong. First, she was a woman writing in a man’s genre in the 1950s and 1960s—and writing soft SF under a feminine name without the ambiguity of initials to hide behind. … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reflections, Reviews, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged A Wrinkle in Time, fantasy, film, film adaptation, Madeleine L'Engle, Oprah Winfrey, Science Fiction, SF | 30 Comments

“Tiny Fairies: J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Errantry” and Martyn Skinner’s Sir Elfadore and Mabyna” by Dale Nelson

Posted on April 4, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

Many will remember Sørina Higgins’ playfully entitled paper, ‘King Arthur was an Elf!’, which she has described as “the seed” of The Inklings and King Arthur. But how have various Arthurian writers down the ages envisaged elves – and other … Continue reading →