“C.S. Lewis in his writings teaches us that the way to be good evangelizers is to open the imagination especially of young people by teaching them to think and to dream,” said Father Stephen Penna.
“He also teaches us that we are called to read stories that provoke the imagination of children.”
Penna, a professor at St. Joseph’s College at the University of Alberta, made his comments during a panel discussion on C.S. Lewis at a symposium on Lewis at Newman Theological College Nov. 18.
Other panelists were Joseph Pearce, an author and professor of literature at Ave Maria University in Florida and Archbishop Thomas Collins.
“This is a happy moment for me because for the first time in my life as a priest and as an academic I get to speak about someone who really shaped my thinking as a child. I am a self-confessed C.S. Lewis nerd,” Penna declared.
“My happiest thing when I was a kid was to (stay home) sick and curl up in my bed and open up the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or one of the seven marvellous books and dip with Lewis’ guiding hand into that (enchanting) world which created in my young mind a space for playing in a world that was exciting, that was adventurous, that was filled with parables.”
In an interview Penna said Lewis “writes books that don’t talk down to children. He writes books that treat children with respect and sets their imaginations on fire, especially with the notion of a wonderful world and worlds dwelling behind the reality that people see.”
