Please note the following in this issue of the C.S. Lewis Society Update (11/21/07):
1. More Christianity vs. Atheism Debates
2. Next meetings of C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club: The Screwtape Letters
3. New Books for Christmas
4. Other Events
1. More Christianity vs. Atheism Debates:
The new Christianity vs. atheism debates will continue on November 30th when Christian author Dinesh D’Souza and atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett meet on the subject “God is a Manmade Invention,” at 7 p.m. in the Cabot Auditorium at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.
On December 5th, D’Souza will then debate Skeptic magazine editor Michael Shermer on “Is Christianity Good for the World?” at 7 p.m. in the Marvin Center at George Washington University, and then again on December 9th at 2 p.m. in the Beckman Auditorium at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
To date, anti-theist Richard Dawkins has not accepted D’Souza’s offer to debate.
Here are a number of recent article by D’Souza:
“Atheism, Not Religion, Is the Real Force Behind the Mass Murders”
“The Atheist Who Came In From the Cold”
Dinesh D’Souza is the author of the best-selling new book, What’s So Great About Christianity
2. The next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society Bay Area Book Club will be as follows:
Book for Discussion:
THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, by C.S. Lewis:
Wednesday, November 28th, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Frank Green
Wednesday, December 12th, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Frank Green
A best-selling masterpiece of satire and dedicated to his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, this classic book by C.S. Lewis has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of the evil Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to “Our Father Below” who holds an administrative post in the governing bureaucracy (“Lowerarchy”) of Hell. At once comic, deadly serious, and highly original, Lewis gives us the correspondence of the worldly-wise old devil to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man known only as “the Patient.” THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is the most engaging account of temptation — and triumph over it — ever written.
The immense success of the book when it was first published resulted in C.S. Lewis appearing on the cover of Time Magazine. More recently, cartoonist Bill Watterson named the fictional first-grade teacher in his “Calvin and Hobbes” after the devil Wormwood. In the animated video to U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”, a copy of THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is seen falling from Bono’s hand. In the 2006 book The Top Ten, a compilation of “top ten novels” lists by different writers, David Foster Wallace names THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS as the greatest novel in history. A sold-out stage production directed by Jeffrey Fiske was produced in New York City in 2006, and a widely acclaimed revival production by Fiske opened on October 16th.
http://www.fpatheatre.com/
And a film version of the book is now underway, co-produced by Ralph Winter (X-Men, Star Trek, Fantastic Four) and Douglas Gresham (Lewis’s stepson), for release at Christmas 2008.
“Mr. Lewis has contrived to say much that a distracted world greatly requires to hear.”
–Times Literary Supplement
“If wit and wisdom, style and scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, Mr. Lewis will be among the angels.”
–The New Yorker
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 numerous articles and excerpts re THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS:
“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS” by Wikipedia
“Excerpts from THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS”
“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS”, by Will Vaus
“Screwtape: What’s Going On?”, by Bruce Edwards
“Wicked Good: THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS on Page and Stage” by John J. Miller
“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS foreword,” narrated by John Cleese of Monty Python (YouTube)
“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS Letter 1,” narrated by John Cleese of Monty Python (YouTube)
THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is available in paperback.
THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is available free online.
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.)
3. New Books for Christmas:
C. S. Lewis, My Godfather: Letters, Photos and Recollections
By Laurence Harwood
There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
By Antony Flew and Roy Abraham Varghese
Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief
By Rodney Stark
What’s So Great About Christianity
By Dinesh D’Souza
The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul
By Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible
By Robert J. Hutchinson
Acts for Everyone, Part 1
By N.T. (Tom) Wright
The Dawkins Delusion: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine
By Alister McGrath
The Gods of War: Is Religion the Primary Cause of Violent Conflict?
By Meic Pearse
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
By Richard Bauckham
The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, 2nd Edition
By Craig L. Blomberg
Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit’s Power
By J. P. Moreland
Passionate Conviction: Modern Discourses on Christian Apologetics
Edited by Paul Copan and William Lane Craig
4. Other Events:
“Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Dorothy Sayers”
Sponsored by the Dorothy Sayers Society
St. Anne’s, Soho, England
December 17, 2007
conference@sayers.org.uk
“Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Dorothy Sayers”
Sponsored by the Dorothy Sayers Society
St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey
London, England
January 15, 2008
conference@sayers.org.uk
“C.S. Lewis Conference”
Sponsored by Hope Lutheran Church
Atascadero, CA
January 25-27, 2008
http://www.pseudobook.com/cslewis/?page_id=49
“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
“Oxbridge 2008: The Self and the Search for Meaning”
Sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation
Oxford University, July 28 – August 2, 2008
Cambridge University, August 3-8, 2008
http://www.cslewis.org/programs/oxbridge/2008/index.html
Please advise me with any questions.
Best regards,
David
David J. Theroux
Founder and President
C. S. Lewis Society of California