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! Please note the following in this issue of the C.S. Lewis Society Update (8/29/07):
1. More on Harry Potter and Christianity
2. Film News
3. New Publications
4. Next meeting of C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club: Studies in Words
5. Other Events
1. More on Harry Potter and Christianity:
In agreement with a recent Wall Street Journal review by Mechan Cox Gurdon of the new book, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, Newsday columnist Raymond Keating discusses the Christian imagery in J.K. Rowling’s new and final book in her Potter series.
“Harry Potter and the Christian allegory,” by Raymond Keating
2. Film News:
A. A number of the fantasy novels by novelist, playwright, poet, biographer, and theologian Charles Williams, starting with his ALL HALLOW’S EVE, will be made into major films by renowned producer Ralph Winter. Mr. Winter is also producing the film version of C.S. Lewis’s best-selling book, THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, which is scheduled for release in late 2008. Among his many other film credits are the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Star Trek III-VI films as well as “Planet of the Apes,” “Mighty Joe Young,” and “Flight of the Intruder,” as well as the ABC TV series, “Lost.”
Charles Williams was a member of The Inklings literary circle at Oxford, which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and Lewis’s acclaimed dystopian novel of a scientistic totalitarianism, THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH, was heavily influenced by the work of Williams.
Web site for The Charles Williams Society
B. At the recent German Games Convention, Disney Interactive featured portions of a new video game based on Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia book, PRINCE CASPIAN, which will be released in conjunction with the forthcoming film in May 2008. Here incidentally is the official web site for the Narnia films:
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia/
3. New Publications:
A. BOOK: For those interested in using Lewis’s books in schools and colleges, study groups, book clubs, churches, and seminars, the following new book is recommended. The book provides summaries, questions, references, and insights into how to teach Lewis’s books.
TEACHING C.S. LEWIS: A Handbook for Professors, Church Leaders, and Lewis Enthusiasts, by Richard A. Hill and Lyle Smith (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007)
B. JOURNAL: The Arizona C.S. Lewis Society has recently launched SEHNSUCHT: The C. S. Lewis Journal, with the first issue featuring articles by Walter Hooper, Victor Reppert, and others. (“Sehnsucht” means longing.)
4. Next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club:
Book for Discussion:
STUDIES IN WORDS, by C.S. Lewis:
Wednesday, September 5th, 7:30 p.m.;
Meeting moderator/leader: Andrew DosaWednesday, September 12th, 7:30 p.m.;
Meeting moderator/leader: Andrew Dosa
Man is unique among all creatures in his use of words, and words affect us directly in most every aspect of our lives. In this absorbing, breathtaking and entertaining book, Lewis examines eleven selected words and teases out their connotations from a vast range of English literature in which their meaning has changed through the centuries. The selected words are Nature, Sad, Wit, Free, Sense, Simple, Conscience and Conscious, World, and Life, plus the phrase, “I dare say!” Lewis reveals the “dangerous sense” of assuming a word’s current meaning in reading earlier literature, which can produce a complete misunderstanding of an author’s intent.
In STUDIES IN WORDS, Lewis invokes the mysteries of G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown, quotes the deepest yearnings expressed by such writers as Homer, Dante, Chaucer, Lucretius, Seneca, and Coleridge, and traces shadows upon the Hellenic cave while juggling Anglo-Saxon monosyllables. He does this without a trace of the pointless and contradictory “deconstructionism” which, in the hands of contemporary writers more interested in condemnation than description, has cast an affliction upon modern literature. Far from leaving readers gasping for air, Lewis opens the layers of linguistics, “driving words from different languages abreast” in order to bring out the wonderful meanings of words.
“Rarely is so much learning displayed with so much grace and charm. My only regret is that the book was not twice as long.” –New York Times Book Review
“…a brilliant book addresses to students and lay people alike, unbaffling, deeply informative, and timelessly persuasive.” –Robert Burchfield, Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary
The meetings will be held at:
11990 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94619 (atop the Oakland hills)
510-482-2906 phone
wine, soft drinks and other refreshments served
Here also are a couple short articles that discuss STUDIES IN WORDS and related issues:
“Studies in Words,” review by Michael Jose
“Studies in Words,” by Wikipedia
STUDIES IN WORDS in available in paperback
Here also is the schedule of future Lewis Society 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! (Please feel free to forward this update to others.)
5. Other Events:
“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 Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC
October 26-27, 2007
http://www.sebts.edu/CSLewis/
“C.S. Lewis Conference”
Sponsored by Hope Lutheran Church
Atascadero, CA
January 25-27, 2008
(More details to follow)
“Sixth Frances Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends”
Sponsored by Taylor University, Upland, IN
May 29-June 1, 2008
http://www.taylor.edu/academics/supportservices/cslewis/colloquium/
“Charles Williams and His Contemporaries”
Sponsored by The Charles Williams Society
Sr. Hilda’s College, Oxford, England
July 4-6, 2007
http://www.geocities.com/charles_wms_soc/events.html