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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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Corey Olsen’s Exploring The Hobbit: A 10 Minute Book Talk

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

From my point of view, there are three (linked) things that make Corey Olsen’s Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit an effective companion to one of the most important pieces of literature in the 20th century: 1. A focussed close-reading of the text, … Continue reading →

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It is Easy to Teach C.S. Lewis’ “Till We Have Faces,” but It’s Hard to Blog About It

Posted on February 10, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

Though I am always nudging readers to see The Great Divorce as C.S. Lewis’ most genius work of fiction, Till We Have Faces truly is a remarkable novel. It is the dying-days journal of Orual, Queen of Glome, who sues her capricious gods … Continue reading →

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Call For Papers: C. S. Lewis and Friends Colloquium, Taylor University, June 4-7, 2020

Posted on February 7, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

I wanted to re-share the Call for Papers for one of my favourite conferences (which I describe here and here). I am working on my proposal today–a month early–because I think they are filling up the timeslots pretty rapidly. If you … Continue reading →

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Charles Williams’ Descent Into Hell: A 10 Minute Book Talk

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

Truly, and in both ways, this is a weird book. Charles Williams‘ (in)famous novel, Descent into Hell (1937), encapsulates Williams‘ idea of “Co-Inherence,” Substitution, or the Way of Exchange. This is a complex, many-layered, lovely, and disturbing book. It is … Continue reading →

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Celebrations of Life: 30 Years, 4 Years, Today

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

Today is the 30th anniversary of the death of my father and baby brother. I saw them perish in a fire when I was a boy–an event that has shaped not just my family life, but my entire understanding of … Continue reading →

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