David J. Theroux, the Founder and President of the C. S. Lewis Society of California has e-mailed us with the latest updates on many upcoming events that you’re all invited to attend! I hope that some of you have the chance to visit these events and join Lewis Societies, or even have the opportunity to start one in your own area if one does not exist. Here’s the update:
1. Science, Consensus and the “Inner Ring”:
We are regularly inundated with claims from the media, interest groups, and politicians of imminent “crises.” The latest “scientific findings” of a “consensus of peer-reviewed experts” are thrust before us 24/7 that unless some new government powers are adopted, unprecedented catastrophe looms regarding such matters as food safety, global warming, terrorism, etc. The “news” too often pressures scientists to hype and even distort new discoveries that support a crisis “consensus,” search for shocking surprises and herald alleged trends. Meanwhile, government’s pervasive funding of science is channeled to politicized “consensus” views, with scientists lured into conforming to be part of the “inner ring” of experts quoted in the media and anointed by government largess.
In this new article by Robert Higgs, he discusses the reality of “peer review,” “consensus,” and the politicization of science:
“Peer Review, Publication in Top Journals, Scientific Consensus, and So Forth,” by Robert Higgs
C.S. Lewis well knew from firsthand experience the reality of academic and scientific politics and considered most of the daily “news” to be misleading and presumptuous. As a result, he had much to say about the illusion of “consensus” and the deceptive lure to be accepted at any price. The following timeless presentation he delivered as the Memorial Lecture to the 1944 graduating class at King’s College, University of London.
“The Inner Ring,” by C. S. Lewis
2. Next meeting of the C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club:
Book for Discussion:
THE DISCARDED IMAGE: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
By C.S. Lewis
“Wise, illuminating, companionable, it may well come to be seen as Lewis’s best book.”
–THE OBSERVER
“Erudite and graceful, filled with anecdote and analogy, illuminating the images of the past.”
–LOS ANGELES TIMES
“His wonderful gusto, the clarity of his style, the wit of his comments and analogies, the range of his learning and the liveliness of his mind are displayed to the full, warmed by a prevailing good humor.”
–THE LISTENER
Meeting moderator/leader: Eric Rauscher
Wednesday, May 16th, 7:30 p.m.
This meeting will focus on C. S. Lewis’s deeply enriching book, THE DISCARDED IMAGE, which paints a lucid picture of the medieval, Christian world view, as historical and cultural background to the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The book describes the “image” as “the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe,” which contrasts directly with “modernist” and “post-modernist” views. This, Lewis’s last book, has been hailed as “the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind.” The book debunks many myths including the view that the medievals thought that the earth was flat, that they thought that the universe was small, and that in their placing the earth at the center, man existed not at a position of privilege but at the margins of the universe. As Lewis notes:
“Because, as Dante was to say more clearly than anyone else, the spatial order is the opposite of the spiritual, and the material cosmos mirrors, hence reverses, the reality, so that what is truly the rim seems to us the hub… We watch ‘the spectacle of the celestial dance’ from its outskirts. Our highest privilege is to imitate it in such measure as we can. The medieval Model is, if we may use the word, anthropo-peripheral. We are creatures of the Margin.”
Here is a preview of the book, including the Contents and sample chapters.
The meetings will be held at:
11990 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94619
510-482-2906 phone
wine, soft drinks and other refreshments served
Here also are articles that discuss THE DISCARDED IMAGE:
“THE DISCARDED IMAGE,” by Jim Slagle
“THE DISCARDED IMAGE”
THE DISCARDED IMAGE is available in paperback (Cambridge University Press).
Here also is the schedule of future book club meetings.
Here also is information on C.S. Lewis.
We hope that you and/or others you know will be joining with us!
3. Other Upcoming Events:
“Evangelicals and Roman Catholics: Christian Unity via C.S. Lewis?”
Sponsored by the C. S. Lewis Society of Frederick (MD)
C. Burr Artz Public Library, Frederick, MD
May 21, 2007
http://www.frederickcslewissociety.org/May_Lecture.html
Dorothy L. Sayers Society Annual Convention
Sponsored by the Marion E. Wade Center
Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL
June 13-17, 2007
http://www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter/news/news.html
The 26th Annual Chesterton Conference: “The Man Who Was Today”
Sponsored by the American Chesterton Society
University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN
June 14-16, 2007
http://www.chesterton.org/rediscover/conference.html
“Opposition Is True Friendship: Love, Friendship and Philosophy in C.S. Lewis’s World”
Sponsored by the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Monrovia, CA
June 16, 2007
C.S. Lewis Summer Conference: “Finding the Way: C.S. Lewis as Pilgrim Guide in an Age of Pluralism”
Sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation
San Diego, CA
June 28-July 1, 2007
http://www.cslewis.org/programs/sumconference/2007/index.html
The 38th Annual Mythopoeic Conference (Mythcon XXXVIII), “Becoming Adept: The Journey to Mastery”
Sponsored by the Mythopoeic Society
University of California, Berkeley, CA
August 3-6, 2007
http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon38.html
“The Crisis of the University: Freedom, Tolerance and the Pursuit of Truth”
Sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
October 5-6, 2007
http://www.cslewis.org/programs/ff/2007/index.html
“C.S. Lewis: Man and His Work: A 21st Century Legacy”
Sponsored by L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture
Southeastern College at Wake Forest, Wake Forest, NC
October 26-27, 2007
http://www.sebts.edu/CSLewis/