Monthly Archives: February 2019

And The Greatest of These…: A Review of C.S. Lewis’ Four Loves

Posted on February 28, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

This year I introduced an occasional feature I call “Throwback Thursday.” This is where I find a blog post from the past–raiding either my own vault or someone else’s–and throw it back out into the digital world. This might be … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Throwback Thursdays | Tagged 1 Corinthians 13, affection, agape, bacon, C.S. Lewis, culture, Deathly Hallows, eros, Eustace Scrubbs, friendship, Harry Potter, love, Mrs. Fidget, philia, Slughorn, storge, The Four Loves, Voyage of the Dawn Treader | 13 Comments

Terry Lindvall’s Heavy Treatment of a Light Topic: A Review of Surprised by Laughter

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Surprised by Laughter Revised & Updated: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis by Terry Lindvall My rating: 4 of 5 stars The word “levity” has two main definitions that we walk around with: a kind of frivolity and something that … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged C.S. Lewis, comedy, g k chesterton, George MacDonald, humor, joy, literary criticism, Sehnsucht, Surprised by Laughter, Terry Lindvall, The Light Princess | 46 Comments

An Update on the 700,000th Hit, or Everybody Needs a Little Time Away

Posted on February 21, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Dear Readers, With 876 Posts, 6,929 Followers, 15,179 Comments–3,821 of them mine–A Pilgrim in Narnia just passed 700,000 viewers a couple of weeks ago. The stats are pretty good for a blog that hits at a fairly high intellectual level–and … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links | Tagged blog, Blogging, C.S. Lewis, Inklings, literature, PhD, PhD Research, theology, world-building | 29 Comments

Narnia’s Lost Poet and C.S. Lewis’ Lost Biographer: A Further Note on A.N. Wilson

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Last Monday I produced a review that was a bit tetchy (despite my own apparently hypocritical protestation that I don’t write bad book reviews). Therein I used a big sophisticated word that I clearly didn’t know (“coy”), and tried to highlight some … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links, Reviews | Tagged A.N. Wilson, Alister McGrath, BBC, David Holbrook, John Beversluis, Kathryn Lindskoog, Narnia, Narnia's Lost Poet, Samuel Joeckel, The Man Behind Narnia, Walter Hooper | 66 Comments

TOLKIEN, the Teaser Trailer: A New Biopic by Fox Searchlight (Friday Feature)

Posted on February 15, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

There has been buzz about this for a few months now, and really years of wondering and wandering on Hollywood-quality biopic of Tolkien. Fox Searchlight has picked up the idea and has finally announced a release date of May 10th. … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday, News & Links | Tagged J.R.R. Tolkien, TCBS, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, WWI | 22 Comments

The Mystery of Love and C.S. Lewis’ Morning Song

Posted on February 14, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

C.S. Lewis’ love story with poet and author Joy Davidman has been made famous by Lewis biographers and, especially, the stage production and film, Shadowlands. Abigail Santamaria’s fairly recent biography of Davidman, Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C. S. Lewis–which I … Continue reading →

Posted in Memorable Quotes | Tagged Abigail Santamaria, Aubade, C.S. Lewis, Collected Poems, Don King, John Donne, Joy Davidman, owen barfield, Poetry, Shadowlands, The Sun Rising | 11 Comments

A.N. Wilson’s C.S. Lewis: A Mythology

Posted on February 11, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

C.S. Lewis: A Biography by A.N. Wilson My rating: 2 of 5 stars If this were a drinking party instead of a book, A.N. Wilson‘s C.S. Lewis: A Biography would be a five-star story. Humorous, light in tone, deftly written, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged A.N. Wilson, C.S. Lewis, C.S. Lewis Studies, Kathryn Lindskoog, Leo Tolstoy, Reading, St. Paul | 52 Comments

360° Aerial View of Oxford (Friday Feature)

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Oxford is a grand town. You can wander those cobblestone-streets forever, gazing up at the dreaming spires of one of the world’s great centres of learning. I have tried to give readers a flavour of the town as I read … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Harry Potter, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, Oxford, Oxford C.S. Lewis Society | 38 Comments

Alan Jacobs’ Experiment in 1943: Christian Intellectual Foundations with Lewis, Maritain, Auden, Eliot, and Weil

Posted on February 5, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis by Alan Jacobs My rating: 5 of 5 stars In 2012 I was at a dinner table at my first C.S. Lewis conference, the biannual Lewis & … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged 1943, Alan Jacobs, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Christian intellectuals, Jacques Maritain, Public Intellectual, Reinhold Niebuhr, T.S. Eliot, technocracy, The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis, Theology of Culture, W.H. Auden, WWII | 30 Comments

A Grief Observed: A Talk on the Anniversary of My Parents’ Deaths, with C.S. Lewis

Posted on February 4, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Here is a little piece I did this time last year. This past week had that frightful cold snap once again–experienced throughout our entire continent–and the cold has finally broken. But on this day, February 4th, it is hard not … Continue reading →