It's the end of another calendar year, and our cultural trends decree that we compile best-of lists for everything from the music we heard to the socks we wore. Not to mention the books we read. I haven't ranked mine in any order; they appear here as I've thought of them, along with a word … Continue reading Reading Old And New

In the spring of 1963, C.S. Lewis found himself confined by heart trouble to an armchair in his living room, wearing a catheter, and unable to go upstairs. Despite this forced inactivity—or possibly because of it—he had the chance to finally get his thoughts straight about a project he'd contemplated for some time, but had … Continue reading Even As We Are Fully Known: C.S. Lewis’ “Letters to Malcolm”

You record my lamentation; put my tears into your bottle. Are not these things noted in your book? —Psalm 56 In April of 1956, C.S. Lewis was married to Joy Davidman in a registry office. On Lewis' part, it was largely meant as an act of charity, allowing Davidman and her two sons to escape … Continue reading Tears In A Bottle: C.S. Lewis’ “A Grief Observed”

In 1958, C.S. Lewis was asked by an American Christian radio station to record a series of talks. The subject he chose was Love. The talks were duly recorded, but—in an almost farcical irony—the Brit proved too liberal for the Americans; the Episcopalian bishops supervising the project were scandalized at how frankly Lewis had discussed … Continue reading You Are All My Friends: C.S. Lewis’ “The Four Loves”

It's almost a sure bet that if people have heard of C.S. Lewis, then they've read The Chronicles of Narnia. Occasionally they haven't, but such cases are rare enough that people generally assume others know the stories. When conversations about him start up the question that's usually asked is "Have you read the Cosmic Trilogy?" … Continue reading All That We Think Is Love: C.S. Lewis’ “Till We Have Faces”

Beth Allison Barr's The Making of Biblical Womanhood has been making quite a splash among the people who care deeply about women's issues in Christianity, whether egalitarian or complementarian, which of course means that not everyone approves. Barr herself does not present the book as a neutral examination of the history of women in the … Continue reading The Freedom To Love: Beth Allison Barr’s “The Making of Biblical Womanhood”

Science fiction as we know it was born in the 1930s and 40s, a time of social and political crisis for many in the world. When people weren't certain if they would see tomorrow, stories about the future often became an outlet for the fears and concerns of the present. Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, for … Continue reading I And Thou: Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Left Hand of Darkness”

Miracles: A Preliminary Study is C.S. Lewis' third major work of Christian apologetics—and also his last. He became known as an apologist first through The Problem of Pain and then through his radio broadcasts which later became Mere Christianity. Both of these projects were published during the war, and Miracles itself started growing during those … Continue reading Spirit And Nature: C.S. Lewis’ “Miracles”

That Hideous Strength, the third book in C.S. Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy, is often noted for being rather different than the first two. It is longer by far, it is set entirely on Earth, and Elwin Ransom is not the main character. But in fact the novel continues exploring many of the themes and ideas already … Continue reading Men Without Chests: C.S. Lewis’ “That Hideous Strength”

It is difficult, at first, to classify The Great Divorce. On the one hand it isn't a non-fiction work of apologetics or theology. But on the other hand, the story is so slight that it hardly counts as a straightforward novel; certainly the narrative is much less involved than any part of the Cosmic Trilogy … Continue reading As Real As What You Love: C.S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce”