Tag Archives: hell

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 | 12 Comments

The Deeper Meaning of “The Great Divorce” (Throwback Thursday)

Posted on June 20, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Last 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 blog-hoard or someone else’s–and throw it back out into the digital world. This might be … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged C.S. Lewis, controversy, Dante, Galatians 2:20, George MacDonald, heaven, hell, Love Wins, Narnia, Rob Bell, self-death, The Great Divorce, The Last Battle, The Problem of Pain, theology | 47 Comments

Wormwood Reborn? A Screwtapian Look at The Gates by John Connolly (A Little Hallowe’en Demonic Lit)

Posted on October 31, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

One of the great perks as a university teacher is that I am constantly in conversation with students about good books. While this occasionally gets me into conversations about Twilight (which I did read, but only with great commitment to my … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections, Reviews | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Dante, demons, Douglas Adams, fantasy, hell, John Connolly, Lemony Snicket, literature, Philip Pullman, Screwtape, Teaching, Terry Pratchett, The Gates, The Screwtape Letters, Twilight | 15 Comments

Reading the Great Divorce: Friday Feature Podcast

Posted on August 11, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

Today’s Friday Feature is another podcast by William O’Flaherty, and fits in well with my mission to get people to read and reread The Great Divorce. Here William allows four people to share what they found meaningful about Lewis’ dream novella … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday | Tagged C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, heaven, hell, podcast, The Great Divorce, theology | 10 Comments

The Deeper Meaning of “The Great Divorce” (Feature Friday)

Posted on June 9, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

It’s difficult to know why, but this post has remained among the most popular for the last few months. For the past few years I have been trying to encourage a recovery of The Great Divorce. It is a great work, … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday, Original Research | Tagged C.S. Lewis, controversy, Dante, Galatians 2:20, George MacDonald, heaven, hell, Love Wins, Narnia, Rob Bell, self-death, The Great Divorce, The Last Battle, The Problem of Pain, theology | 38 Comments

Interview with William O’Flaherty, “C.S. Lewis Goes to Hell”

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

Readers of A Pilgrim in Narnia will know of my abiding interest in The Screwtape Letters. As the 75th anniversary of the first printing of the Letters is next Monday, we are taking a couple of weeks to celebrate this “positively diabolical” … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Memorable Quotes, News & Links | Tagged books, C.S. Lewis, C.S. Lewis Goes to Hell, hell, lion the witch and the wardrobe, Narnia, Screwtape, The Screwtape Letters, theology, William O'Flaherty, writing | 12 Comments

The Deeper Meaning of “The Great Divorce”

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Brenton Dickieson

This is dangerous territory–partly because some have trumbled into the “real” meaning of this or that book and caused an awful mess. When read this way the Bible most especially becomes secret code for everything from American foreign policy to the … Continue reading →

Guest Blog: C.S. Lewis Goes to Heaven: William O’Flaherty’s Interview with David Clark

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Brenton Dickieson

William O’Flaherty is the intrepid host of the “All About Jack” podcast and the Essential C.S. Lewis website. He interviewed Dr. David Clark, and includes that transcript here as part of our ongoing series on The Great Divorce. Dr. Clark … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged C.S. Lewis, fantasy, heaven, hell, That Hideous Strength, The Great Divorce, The Last Battle, theology, Till We Have Faces | 7 Comments

A Level of Hell that Dante Forgot: A Note from Discworld

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

Terry Pratchett is about as weird and wonderful an author as I could ever want. A master world-builder, he trades in irony, parody, and satire the way the TV show Glee trades in stereotypes. And yet, despite the constant self-degradation … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Memorable Quotes | Tagged C.S. Lewis, children's literature, Dante, Discworld, fantasy, Faust, Fictional Universes, Glee, Goethe, hell, intertextuality, Terry Pratchett, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters | 29 Comments

“I’d Rather be Damned than Go along With You!” The Big Man in The Great Divorce

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

Readers here will know that I’ve blogged about bullying before. C.S. Lewis himself struggled with the culture of bullying at the schools he went to. In this intriguing chapter of The Great Divorce, published 70 years ago today, Lewis explores … Continue reading →