Category Archives: Original Research

Nolloquium 2020: Remembering the Vision, Looking to the Future (Free Online Colloquium at the Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis and Friends)

Posted on June 4, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had four conferences, including six talks, cancelled or postponed this year–as well as a research trip to the Marion E. Wade Inklings archive in Wheaton, IL. Thanks to some creative work of … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links, Original Research | Tagged Arend Smilde, C.S. Lewis, Charlie Starr, Crystal Hurd, Taylor University, The Archangel Fragment | 2 Comments

“C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien: Friendship, True Myth, And Platonism,” a Paper by Justin Keena

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

There is doubtless a significant amount of interest in the friendship of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis–both in the more formal setting of the Inklings and in their own literary and personal paths. I’ve written here and here about how … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, friendship, J.R.R. Tolkien, myth, Oxford, The Silmarillion, Walter Hooper | 6 Comments

Free Event Today: A Sehnsucht Digital Tea at the C. S. Lewis and Friends Center

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

This summer, my punk rockstar teen and I were planning to go to an epic concert–perhaps one of the biggest of our lives–in the Northeast US. We just got word that the entire tour is postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19. … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, News & Links, Original Research | Tagged Arend Smilde, C.S. Lewis, Charlie Starr, Crystal Hurd, Joel D. Heck, Taylor University, The Archangel Fragment, The Screwtape Letters | 3 Comments

The Living Lie, But Dead Men Tell the Truth: The Screwtape Letters and Ivan Ilych

Posted on April 1, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

In Leo Tolstoy’s brilliant novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886), there is a curious pun in the English translation I use (Aylmer Maude): “The dead man lay, as dead men always lie” (96). As the title suggests, The Death of Ivan … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged Ars moriendi, C.S. Lewis, cruciformity, Death, Leo Tolstoy, Memento Mori, Nicholas Lezard, The Art of Dying Well, The Death of Ivan Ilych, The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters | 7 Comments

The C.S. Lewis & Friends Conference: A Final Call and My Paper Proposal

Posted on March 6, 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). If you are thinking of proposing a paper or creative piece, get that proposal in! They are especially interested in having … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links, Original Research | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Charles Huttar, Diana Pavlac Glyer, Don King, Dorothy L. Sayers, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Chance, Jason Lepojärvi, Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, Monika Hilder, Taylor University | 16 Comments

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 →

Posted in Original Research, Reflections | Tagged books, C.S. Lewis, Signum University, The Great Divorce, Till We Have Faces | 36 Comments

When Screwtape Haunts in Eden: A Lecture on C.S. Lewis’ Fantasy Writings by Dr. Brenton Dickieson

Posted on January 21, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

In this lecture that I prepared for The King’s College in New York City, I talk about my research into C.S. Lewis’ world-building project. In particular, given manuscript evidence that links The Screwtape Letters with the Space Trilogy, I spend … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Original Research | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Perelandra, Ransom Cycle, Screwtape, Space Trilogy, The Screwtape Letters | 2 Comments

2019: A Year of Reading: The Nerd Bit, with Charts

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

“With such wishes for the New Year as still seem possible” ~ C.S. Lewis to his father from the WWI trenches in France “Except at my job—where the machine seems to run on much as usual—I loathe the slightest effort. … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Reflections | Tagged A.N. Wilson, Alan Jacobs, C.S. Lewis, Chaim Potok, Flannery O'Connor, Goodreads, Harry Potter, J.R.R. Tolkien, L.M. Montgomery, Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, N.K. Jemisin, Narnia, Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, Rachel Held Evans, Reading, Sorina Higgins, Stephen King, Suzanne Collins, Terry Pratchett | 6 Comments

“A Sense of the Season”: C.S. Lewis’ Birthday Pivot and the Cambridge Inaugural Address

Posted on November 28, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

In the autumn of 1954 at the age of 56, C.S. Lewis was at the height of his academic career. After nearly two decades of research and writing English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama, this magnum opus intensified … Continue reading →

Posted in Lewis Biography, Original Research, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged anthropology, autoethnography, BBC Talks, C.S. Lewis, De Descriptione Temporum, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, F.R. Leavis, I.A. Richards, J.R.R. Tolkien, literature, Mere Christianity, Narnia, OHEL, Reflections on the Psalms, Surprised by Joy, The Discarded Image, theology, WWII | 2 Comments

Harold Bloom and “The Western Canon”: A Note on His Death

Posted on October 18, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

I received news this week that Harold Bloom has died. Bloom (1930-2019) was an avid reader, a rapid writer, and a penetrating critic whose essays and books on literature are breathtaking in scope and exemplary in their attention to the … Continue reading →