Please note the following in this issue of the C.S. Lewis Society Update (9/26/07):
1. Religious Books Banned in Federal Prisons
2. Film News
3. Next meeting of C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club: Reflections on the Psalms
4. New Journal and Books
5. Other Events
1. Religious Books Banned in Federal Prisons:
In the name of “fighting terrorism,” federal Bureau of Prisons bureaucrats are banning any religious books in prisons not on the Bureau’s short, restricted list of approved books. Among the books banned are ones by C. S. Lewis, Rick Warren, Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, Moses Maimonides, Charles Schuller, Harold Kushner, and many, many other authors. The wholesale censorship has ordered federal prison chaplains to comply based on the premise that library materials should be “free of discrimination, disparagement, advocacy of violence and religious radicalization.” The purge resulted from a 2004 report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department that recommended that prisons take steps to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups, the New York Times reported.
USA Today:
Topeka Capital-Journal
A class action suit has been filed by two prisoners in upstate New York, one a Christian and the other an Orthodox Jew.
Needless to say, C.S. Lewis was a very strong opponent of literary censorship, as he discussed in a number of his books, including PRESENT CONCERNS.
Amazon.com
2. Film News:
A. A feature film is being made of the marvelous autobiographical book, A SEVERE MERCY, by the author and scholar Sheldon Vanauken (Professor of History and English, Lynchburg College). The book recounts the story of Vanauken and his wife Davy’s friendship with C.S. Lewis, their conversion to Christianity and their facing her tragic illness and death. The film is being produced by Origin Entertainment:
http://aseveremercythemovie.com/
Sheldon Vanauken (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Vanauken
B. The beginning of filming for the third book in the Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series, VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, has been pushed back to Summer 2008 in order to accommodate the schedules of the actors. As a result, the film is now scheduled for release in May 2010. (Michael Apted is the director.) Meanwhile, the production of Narnia book THE SILVER CHAIR has been placed on the priority list by the producers at Walden Media as a result of an impending strike next June by the Writers’ Guild, Directors’ Guild, and Screen Actors’ Guild.
C. A handsome movie poster for the next Narnia epic film PRINCE CASPIAN has recently been released, “A New Age Has Begun,” showing a May 16th premiere date for the film:
http://www.cinematical.com/media/2007/09/caspian-teaser.jpg
3. Next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club:
http://www.lewissociety.org/bookclub.php
Book for Discussion:
REFLECTIONS ON THE PSALMS, by C.S. Lewis:
Wednesday, October 3rd, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Lucia La Rocca
Wednesday, October 17th, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Lucia La Rocca
In one of his most enlightening works, C.S. Lewis shares his ruminations on both the form and the meaning of the Psalms. In the introduction he explains, “I write for the unlearned about things in which I am unlearned myself,” so from neither a scholar’s nor a Christian apologist’s stance Lewis takes on a tone of thoughtful collegiality as he writes on one of the Bible’s most elusive books. Characteristically graceful and lucid, Lewis cautions that the Psalms were originally written as songs that should now be read in the spirit of lyric poetry. Drawing from daily life as well as the literary world, Lewis begins to reveal the mystery that often shrouds the Psalms. REFLECTIONS ON THE PSALMS also includes an appendix featuring the full text of selected Psalms and a listing of all the Psalms mentioned and discussed.
“Illuminating and rewarding reading.” –Christian Herald
“For the last thirty years of his life no other Christian writer in this country had such an influence on the general reading public as C.S. Lewis.” –Times Literary Supplement
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 REFLECTIONS ON THE PSALMS and related issues:
“Reflections on the Psalms: Quotations and Allusions,” by Arend Smilde
http://www.solcon.nl/arendsmilde/cslewis/reflections/e-psalmsquotes.htm
“Reflections on the Psalms,” by Will Vaus:
http://www.willvaus.com/reflections_on_the_psalms
REFLECTIONS ON THE PSALMS in available in paperback
REFLECTIONS ON THE PSALMS on CD:
Here also is the schedule of future Lewis Society book club meetings:
http://www.lewissociety.org/bookclub.php
Here also is information on C.S. Lewis:
http://www.lewissociety.org/aboutlewis.php
We hope that you and/or others you know will be joining with us! (Please feel free to forward this update to others.)
4. New Journal and Books:
A. NEW JOURNAL: The C.S. Lewis Foundation has recently launched the new online journal, IN PURSUIT OF TRUTH: A Journal of Christian Scholarship. The journal is edited by Scott Key, Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at California Baptist University.
http://www.cslewis.org/journal/?page_id=2
B. NEW BOOKS: The following new books are noteworthy:
1. DISCOVERING GOD: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief, by Rodney Stark (HarperOne, October 2007):
Amazon.com
“In this wide-ranging investigation, Stark detects sacred reality–not pious deception–at the heart of transcendent beliefs shared by Aborigines and Anglicans. In their myths of the high gods, Stark contends, early tribal peoples glimpsed divine truths obscured in later civilizations when pharaohs and emperors lent government support to temple priesthoods more interested in maintaining a comfortable lifestyle than in serving God. The eventual emergence of a religious marketplace in ancient Rome opened a wide range of metaphysical options. Yet in a culture of religious pluralism, the insistent claims of tightly knit communities of Jews and Christians appeared threatening to Roman leaders, who defended the status quo by persecuting adherents to these unsettlingly intense faiths. Yet it is in these revelatory faiths–and not the meditative religions of Eastern Asia–that Stark discerns the fullest manifestation of God. . . . [S]erious students of religion will recognize this as an essential sourcebook.” — Booklist
2. WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT CHRISTIANITY, by Dinesh D’Souza (Regnery, October 2007):
Amazon.com
This new book looks at Christianity with a questioning eye, but treats atheists with equal skepticism. The result is a book that will challenge the assumptions of both believers and doubters and affirm that there really is, indeed, something great about Christianity.
* Why Christianity explains what modern science tells us about the universe and our origins–that matter was created out of nothing, that light preceded the sun–better than atheism does
* How Christianity created the framework for modern science, so that Christianity and science are not irreconcilable, but science and atheism might be
* Why the alleged sins of Christianity–the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Galileo affair (“an atheist’s fable”)–are vastly overblown
* Why atheist regimes are responsible for the greatest mass murders of history
* Why atheists fear the Big Bang theory and the “anthropic principle” of the universe, which are keystones of modern astronomy and physics
* How Christianity explains consciousness and free will, which atheists have to deny
* Why ultimately you can’t have Western civilization–and all we value from it–without the Christianity that gave it birth.
3. THE SPIRITUAL BRAIN: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, by Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary (HarperOne, September 2007):
Barnes and Noble
Do religious experiences come from God, or are they merely the random firing of neurons in the brain? Drawing on his own research with Carmelite nuns, neuroscientist Mario Beauregard shows that genuine, life-changing spiritual events can be documented. He offers compelling evidence that religious experiences have a nonmaterial origin, making a convincing case for what many in scientific fields are loath to consider-that it is God who creates our spiritual experiences, not the brain. The authors also explore recent claims of a “God gene,” “God helmet,” and claims that our brains are “hardwired” for religion. The authors argue that these attempts are misguided and narrow-minded, because they mistakenly reduce spiritual experiences to material phenomena.
Here also is an interview with Professor Beauregard, who is the Director of the Laboratory of Neuropsychology at the University of Montreal in Canada:
Harper Collins
4. ACTS FOR EVERYONE, PART 1, by Tom Wright (September 2007)
The distinguished New Testament scholar, N.T. (“Tom”) Wright has authored an accessible yet in-depth commentary for everyone to understand the Book of Acts. The book combines wit, insights and wisdom, and is part of the series he has been authoring which also includes books on Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, etc.
Amazon.com
4. Other Events:
http://www.lewissociety.org/events.php
“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, 2008
http://www.geocities.com/charles_wms_soc/events.html
