Monthly Archives: February 2020

Brenton Dickieson’s Great Divergence within the Great Divorce: Podcast Interview on In the Corner Back by the Woodpile

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

A couple of years ago I blogged about the podcast, In the Corner Back by the Woodpile, this one about Phil Keaggy and C.S. Lewis’ influence. It took this long, but I was finally able to sit down with the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged American evangelicalism, American history, C.S. Lewis, Christianity Today, Fundamentalism, hell, Mere Christianity, Narnia, Rob Bell, That Hideous Strength, The Abolition of Man, The Great Divorce | 13 Comments

A Peasant Pagan Prayer in Till We Have Faces

Posted on February 24, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

My first two degrees in literature are in sacred literature, the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. In those texts, there is a constant conversation about the heart of true faith. From Hannah’s prayer to the spirituality of the Psalms, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged Ancient Near East, Bible, C.S. Lewis, Classical Mythology, Greco-Roman World, Greek Mythology, Hebrew Bible, New Testament, paganism, spirituality, The Prayer of Manasseh, Till We Have Faces | 31 Comments

Qu4rtets: Makoto Fujimura and A Response to T.S. Eliot in Word, Image, and Sound (Friday Feature)

Posted on February 21, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

I am reading Makoto Fujimura’s intricate, personal, and intelligent 2016 book, Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering. This book weaves Fujimura’s particular approach to Nigonga painting, “slow art” as he calls it, with Shūsaku Endō stunning novel, Silence, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday | Tagged art, Bruce Herman, Christopher Theofanidis, Japan, Jeremy Begbie, Makoto Fujimura, Shūsaku Endō, Silence, T.S. Eliot, theology and art, theology and literature | 1 Comment

L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valley: A 10 Minute Book Talk

Posted on February 18, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

As part of my 10 Minute Book Talk series, I wanted to include one of my favourite L.M. Montgomery books, Rainbow Valley. I completed a paper presentation on it in 2018, and an academic paper (in review) in 2019. Yet, I recently … Continue reading →

Posted in 10 Minute Book Talk, L.M. Montgomery | Tagged 10 Minute Book Talk, books, L.M. Montgomery, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Prince Edward Island, Rainbow Valley, Reading | 12 Comments

Orual and the King of Glome

Posted on February 17, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

On the surface of it, there is no greater contrast than Queen Orual and her tyrannical father. Even when we consider only Book 1 of C.S. Lewis’ great literary fiction, Till We Have Faces, Orual is not just a successful … Continue reading →