Tag Archives: Surprised by Joy

“A Sense of the Season”: C.S. Lewis’ Birthday Pivot and the Cambridge Inaugural Address (Updated 2022)

Posted on November 29, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

In the autumn of 1954 at the age of 56, C.S. Lewis was at the height of his academic career. With a chance to speak to the academic community at Cambridge and the listening world on the BBC, Lewis used … Continue reading →

Posted in Lewis Biography, Original Research, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged Abigail Santamaria, 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, Joy Davidman, literature, Mere Christianity, Narnia, OHEL, Reflections on the Psalms, Surprised by Joy, The Discarded Image, theology, WWI | 6 Comments

Which Image Triggered C. S. Lewis’ Enthusiasm for Wagner’s Ring Cycle? A Proposal by Norbert Feinendegen

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

Since the first time I read C.S. Lewis’ peculiar and beautiful memoir, Surprised by Joy, I have been fascinated by Lewis’ numinous experience of joy that came with his encounter between a moment in Wagner’s Ring Cycle and one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Reflections | Tagged Arthur Rackham, C.S. Lewis, friendship, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, J.R.R. Tolkien, Norbert Feinendegen, Norse Mythology, northernness, owen barfield, Richard Wagner, Ring des Nibelungen, Sigurd and Gudrún, Surprised by Joy, Tegner's Drapa, The Inklings, The Ring Cycle, Wagner | 14 Comments

“A Sense of the Season”: C.S. Lewis’ Birthday Pivot and the Cambridge Inaugural Address (Updated 2021)

Posted on November 29, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

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, WWI | 6 Comments

“The Personal Heresy” and C.S. Lewis’ Autoethnographic Instinct: An Invitation to Intimacy in Literature and Theology

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

Canada’s annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (Congress2021) is now winding down. I missed being live on the ground, stumbling with weary feet and droopy eyes from one brilliant intellectual session to another, discovering great local craft brewpubs … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research | Tagged An Experiment in Criticism, Autobiography, autoethnography, C.S. Lewis, Congress2021, De Descriptione Temporum, Heather Walton, Literary Theory, new criticism, Surprised by Joy, The Personal Heresy, theology and literature | 10 Comments

“The Personal Heresy” and C.S. Lewis’ Autoethnographic Instinct: An Invitation to Intimacy in Literature and Theology (Congress2021 Paper)

Posted on May 28, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

As I noted yesterday, this week is Canada’s annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Congress2021. In the same morning, I am presenting twice, at two different societies–at the Canadian-American Theological Association with a paper on C.S. Lewis’ spiritual theology, … Continue reading →

On the Nobody Somebody Has Inside: C.S. Lewis and a Post About Bullying For Pink Shirt Day #pinkshirt

Posted on February 24, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

By all accounts, the famous children’s author C.S. Lewis was bullied badly in the English private school that he was subjected to as a child. His first school, Wynyard, had a bully as a headmaster. Robert Capron–nicknamed “Oldie” by Lewis … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged bullies, bullying, C.S. Lewis, children's literature, Letters to an America Lady, Narnia, pink shirt, Pink Shirt Day, Surprised by Joy, the Narnian, Walter Hooper | 9 Comments

A Flash of Joy: Discussing C.S. Lewis and L.M. Montgomery Online with The C. S. Lewis Society of Central Indiana (Fri, Feb 19th, 2021, 7-9pm EST)

Posted on February 19, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

As I talk about in the piece I touched up and republished yesterday, “CSL:LMM, C.S. Lewis and L.M. Montgomery,” I have been playing with the ways that Montgomery and Lewis overlap–even though they are writers of a different generation, gender, … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links | Tagged C.S. Lewis, L.M. Montgomery, Sehnsucht, Surprised by Joy, The Flash, The MaudCast | 2 Comments

“Joy Beyond the Walls of the World, Poignant as Grief,” with J.R.R. Tolkien and Frederick Buechner

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

This week, I have decided to share my thoughts about Frederick Buechner‘s recent book, The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life (2017), and to share some highlights from the text. Drawing materials from his memoirs in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Frederick Buechner, On Fairy-Stories, Surprised by Joy, The Remarkable Ordinary | 9 Comments

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

Posted on November 29, 2020 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 →

The Poets Behind C.S. Lewis’ Paragraph about WWI, with Wilfred Owen

Posted on November 11, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

I have struggled in the past to understand C.S. Lewis’ complicated relationship with WWI–the Great War, as they called it. In my piece, “Marching as to War: C.S. Lewis on His Way to the Front Line,” I tried to show … Continue reading →