I first read the Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings as a teenager, not realizing at the time that C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien were close friends and fellow Christians. I thought it was obvious on first reading that Lewis was writing …
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What Devin Brown does best in his new book, The Christian World of The Hobbit (Abingdon Press, 2012), is give his readers access. There is a subtly to Tolkien’s Middle-earth tales which makes them an enigma from the beginning. Brown offers several keys to The Hobbit’s mysteries, keys which open …
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In a letter to the poet W. H. Auden, J. R. R., Tolkien describes the events that took place on a quiet summer’s day in 1930 as he was working at home in his study on a quiet, tree-lined street in residential Oxford: “All I remember about the start of …
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Sister Penelope, a winsome, lifelong correspondent of C. S. Lewis, had written to him about the provenance of his first space travel adventure, Out of the Silent Planet, a volume remarkably full of theological insight. He replied whimsically: “Any amount of theology can now be smuggled into people’s minds under …
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Having already earned a reputation as a formidable literary scholar, C. S. Lewis scandalized his fellow Oxford dons in 1938 when he published a fantasy novel, Out of the Silent Planet. They would have been even more alarmed if they had noticed that he was writing what he called “theologized …
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Anglophiles, mystery lovers (particularly those who prefer the brainy rather than the bloody type), and Inkling fans everywhere are sure to find something to truly enjoy in Looking for the King, the recent novel written by Lewis scholar David Downing. Here’s how the description on the jacket flap begins: “It …
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C. S. Lewis opens “A Preface to Paradise Lost” with an imperative for all would-be critics: “The first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it is—what it was intended to do and how it is meant to be used. …
Read Moreby Jerram Barrs I want to begin by explaining why I chose this title. First, we go back all the way to Lewis’ childhood. From a very early age Lewis had loved fairy stories, legends and myths. He delighted particularly in the myths of the Norsemen – the sagas of …
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Did C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien collaborate on a project that was never published? It is well known that the two were close friends and relished each other’s praise and criticism. However, there is little evidence that the two intended on working together on any manuscript. Steven A. Beebe, professor …
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If you can’t make it to Oxford any time soon, perhaps the next best thing would be to get yourself a copy of The Inklings of Oxford, with text by Harry Lee Poe and photographs by James Ray Veneman (Zondervan, 2009). And if you are going to Oxford, you might …
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