To help audiences understand C.S. Lewis, the celebrated 20th-century author behind Disney’s upcoming “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” movie — Ignatius Press offers six top author-experts on the author and his writings.
These articulate, entertaining, and renowned authors and scholars know C.S. Lewis and his fascinating world of Narnia inside and out.
Michael Coren is the author of C.S. Lewis: The Man Who Created Narnia, a biography of Lewis written for teens (Ignatius Press, January 2006). Coren examines how Lewis’ own life led him to write The Chronicles of Narnia. A Canadian broadcaster and columnist, Coren is host of the nightly television program, The Michael Coren Show, and also hosts a radio show of the same name. Michael is a columnist with the Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg Sun. He is the best-selling author of 10 books-including works on J.R.R. Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton, and H.G. Wells. Coren is also a highly popular and entertaining public speaker.
James Como, Ph.D., is a New York-based scholar of C.S. Lewis and a professor of rhetoric and public communication at the City University of New York. A founding member of the New York C.S. Lewis Society, Como’s books include Remembering C.S. Lewis (Ignatius Press, 2005) and Branches to Heaven: The Geniuses of C.S. Lewis. Como’s broadcast commentary on Lewis includes the PBS documentary The Question of God. In 1993 he visited the closed set of Richard Attenborough’s Shadowlands and interviewed the principals of that film.
Thomas Howard is an English professor at St. John’s Seminary in Massachusetts. In his soon-to-be-re-released book, NARNIA AND BEYOND: A Guide to the Fiction of C.S. Lewis, Howard examines Lewis’ joyous world view, evinced by dancing, drinking and partying rabbits, badgers, dwarves and children in the “fairy tales” of The Chronicles of Narnia. Howard says Narnia shows Lewis’ view those women-as embodied particularly in Lucy who sees things first-are especially receptive to mystical experiences. Most of all, Howard says that Lewis is “a storyteller in the tradition of the bards who sang to us because it is a worthy and beautiful thing to do.”
Joseph Pearce is the author of C.S. Lewis and the Catholic Church (Ignatius Press 2003), a biography that examines the Anglican Lewis’ relationship to the Roman Catholic Church. Pearce, a noted biographer of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, J.R.R. Tolkien, Oscar Wilde, and others, is a former London skinhead who turned away from that racist world view and now teaches literature at Ave Maria University in Florida. Pearce answers each question asked clearly and with respect-a great interview for the journalist seeking a fellow Brit’s perspective on one of the 20th century’s greatest writers.
Peter Kreeft, a Boston College professor of philosophy, sees C.S. Lewis as one of the key prophets for the Third Millennium. Kreeft is a best selling author of more than 40 books, including C.S. Lewis for the Third Millennium, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven, Love is Stronger Than Death, and Ecumenical Jihad: A combat manual for the culture wars. He lectures widely on Lewis and is probably America’s leading expert on his thought
Richard Purtill is the author of 20 books, including C.S. Lewis’ Case for the Christian Faith. Purtill is professor emeritus in philosophy at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. Purtill says Lewis’ knack for “marvelous metaphors” is one of his great strengths in both fiction and non-fiction.
For an interview to discuss C.S. Lewis with one of the six Ignatius Press author-experts detailed above, please contact Christine Valentine-Owsik at 215-230-8095 or valencom@aol.com.
Science Fiction Expert Available to Talk About the Popularity and Passion of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’
Phil Ray, associate professor of English at Connecticut College and a specialist in science fiction and fantasy literature, is available to talk about the social, religious and cultural relevance of the upcoming blockbuster movie “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
Ray, who regularly teaches classes on “Narnia” author C. S. Lewis, said that “The Chronicles of Narnia” resonates with the public because Lewis presents the “truths” of Christianity through pictures and plots that even the youngest reader can grasp.
“”Narnia” is Lewis’s greatest work because he deals with his favorite theme, the central Christian “truths,” and because in the process he liberates himself from the restraints of logical and theological argument to revel in the pleasures of storytelling at its most basic level,” Ray said.
“In “Narnia” Lewis says goodbye to lay theology and re- embraces pure story.”
To contact Prof. Ray, contact the Connecticut College Office of Media Relations at 860-439-2508.
