Tag Archives: The Personal Heresy

My Conference Papers this Week in Canada and K’zoo on C.S. Lewis’ Constructed Language and Intertextuality, with a Note on the Impostor Syndrome

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

In an intriguing confluence of events, this week is Canada’s annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Congress2022–what scholarly Canadians used to call “the Learneds”–and is at the same time as the International Congress on Medieval Studies, hosted by … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, News & Links, Original Research, Studies in Words | Tagged C.S. Lewis, conlangs, Constructed Languages, Dante, Imposter Syndrome, intertextuality, Literary Theory, Marsha Daigle-Williamson, owen barfield, philology, Ransom Cycle, Reflecting the Eternal: Dante’s Divine Comedy in the Novels of C.S. Lewis, The Personal Heresy, The Screwtape Letters, world-building | 9 Comments

Great and Little Men: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Letter about C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot

Posted on August 30, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

For much of the last week, I have been fighting through the relationship between C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot. In my 2015 post about Eliot’s striking lyrical poem, “…In the Vacant Places,” I was more than a bit optimistic when … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged A Grief Observed, A Preface to Paradise Lost, An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, E.M.W. Tillyard, F.R. Leavis, I.A. Richards, J.R.R. Tolkien, Reflections on the Psalms, T.S. Eliot, The Inklings, The Personal Heresy, The Waste Land | 29 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 | 9 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 →

An Obituary of C.S. Lewis’ Life as an Oxford Don, by John Wain (The 57th Anniversary of Lewis’ Death)

Posted on November 22, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

Today is the 57th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’ death. In past years, I have reflected upon Lewis dying in the shadows of great men like JFK and Aldous Huxley on 11/22/63. This year, I wanted to share an obituary of … Continue reading →

Posted in Lewis Biography, Memorable Quotes | Tagged 11/22/63, A Grief Observed, books, C.S. Lewis, Inklings, Is Theology Poetry, John Wain, Joy Davidman, obituary, OHEL, Oxford, Reflections on the Psalms, The Personal Heresy, The Screwtape Letters, The Waste Land, They Asked for a Paper | 19 Comments

An Obituary of C.S. Lewis’ Life as an Oxford Don, by John Wain (The 56th Anniversary of Lewis’ Death)

Posted on November 22, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Today is the 56th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’ death. In past years, I have reflected upon Lewis dying in the shadows of great men like JFK and Aldous Huxley on 11/22/63. This year, I wanted to share an obituary of … Continue reading →

8 Questions about the Problem of Susan Narnia Debate, or How to Read Well

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Kat Coffin’s brief article last week on “The Problem of Susan” is the hottest post of 2019. “How do you Solve a Problem like Susan Pevensie?” has been discussed in the blog comments and in various forums, sometimes with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Reflections, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged A Preface to Paradise Lost, An Experiment in Criticism, Gender Theory, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mere Christianity, Michael Ward, Narnia, Reading, sexism, That Hideous Strength, The Last Battle, The Personal Heresy, The Problem of Susan, The Screwtape Letters, The Silver Chair, Till We Have Faces, Virginia Woolf | 56 Comments

George Watson’s Provocative Comments on C.S. Lewis as Literary Critic

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

One of the advantages of finding new libraries is that the librarian’s skill of book-buying is more art than science. The librarians I know, despite their adept use of analytics, have as much curator or architect in them as they … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis, Douglas Adams, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, F.R. Leavis, g k chesterton, George Watson, Inklings, Jacques Derrida, Joy Davidman, librarians, literary criticism, myth, Narnia, Postmodernism, Reader Response Criticism, Reading, Roland Barthes, Samuel Johnson, Sherlock Holmes, Socratic Club, Studies in Words, The Allegory of Love, The Discarded Image, The Personal Heresy, Till We Have Faces, William Empson | 28 Comments

How Screwtape was Introduced to the World

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

Next week we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the book that made C.S. Lewis a household name: The Screwtape Letters. It was first serialized in The Guardian, a relatively minor Anglican weekly. Screwtape joins Charles Dickens‘ Bleak House, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and Stephen King‘s The Green Mile … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Original Research | Tagged Dune, Frank Herbert, Out of the Silent Planet, Science Fiction, Screwtape, Stephen King, The Allegory of Love, The Guardian, The Personal Heresy, The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters | 48 Comments

The Personal Heresy and the Growth of a Person

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Brenton Dickieson

One of the books that cut C.S. Lewis’ critical teeth is The Personal Heresy: A Controversy. The book is a debate with Cambridge professor Dr. E.M.W. Tillyard over questions about the role of the poet in how the reader appreciates … Continue reading →