Lesser-Known Lewis: Christian Reflections on C. S. Lewis's Essays and Short Works

**SPOILER ALERT** Listen to this short story first here: ⁠"The Man Born Blind"⁠ Or find where you can read it at ⁠pintswithjack.com/essays⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In this part of our conversation with Dr. Charlie W. Starr, we discuss one possible interpretation of "Light" as it pertains to "epistemology" or "how we come to know things". If this is the case, the short stor...

**SPOILER ALERT** Because we are finally covering a short story by C. S. Lewis, we recommend to listen to this 11-minute short story first, becuase it has a twist ending we will spoil in the epiosde: Find it on YouTube here: "The Man Born Blind" Or find where you can read it at pintswithjack.com/essays⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Lewis wrote two slightly different versions of this story, one goes by the ti...

In this 1944 essay "The Funeral of a Great Myth" C. S. Lewis continues the thought he began in "Is Theology Poetry?" about how the scientific theory of evolution has been hijacked by scientism to become an all-encompasing cosmic theory about improvement or development or progress. In Lewis' perspective, it is time to put this "mythic" to death. Dr. Bethany Sollere...

In this 1944 essay "The Funeral of a Great Myth" C. S. Lewis continues the thought he began in "Is Theology Poetry?" about how the scientific theory of evolution has been hijacked by scientism to become an all-encompasing cosmic theory about improvement or development or progress. In Lewis' perspective, it is time to put this "mythic" to death. Dr. Bethany Sollere...

In Case You Missed It - We were recently guests on The Lamp-Post Listener with Daniel and Phil to talk about why we all love Lewis, especially his essay! Check out The Lamp-Post Listener Podcast⁠ and online here at The Lamp-Post Listener. Find more Lesser-Known Lewis —  Online: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pintswithjack.com/lesser-known-lewis⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/lesserknownlewis⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In...

In "G. A. L. Burgeon" C. S. Lewis reviews his friend and fellow Inkling Owen Barfield's book This Ever Diverse Pair . Joined by Barfield's grandson, also named Owen, here we encounter how Lewis applies some of his thinking on metaphor and imagination to a novel written by Owen Barfield - the friend from whom Lewis derived much of his thinking about thinking, imagination, and meta...

In "Who gaf me drink?" C. S. Lewis reviews his friend and fellow Inkling Owen Barfield's book Romanticism Comes of Age . Joined by Barfield's grandson, also named Owen, here we encounter how Lewis applies some of his thinking on metaphor and imagination to a book largely about imagination written by Owen Barfield - the friend from whom Lewis derived much of his thinking about thi...

In the second part of his 1936 essay, "Bluspels and Flalansferes: A Semantic Nightmare" C. S. Lewis, once again, is defending metaphors as valid, useful, valuable, even necessary ways of speaking about reality. He concludes it is actually those who are best at creating metaphors who are "masters of meaning" rather than those who try to avoid metaphors and stick to the literal....

In his 1936 essay, "Bluspels and Flalansferes: A Semantic Nightmare" C. S. Lewis, once again, is defending metaphors as valid, useful, valuable, even necessary ways of speaking about reality. He introduces the idea of a "Master's Metaphor" and a "Pupils Metaphor" to explain how metaphors can be tied to our understanding of a concept, but that this is not always th...

In the second part of this 1960 essay, "The Language of Religion," C. S. Lewis once again defends the ordinary and poetic nature of most of our language within and about Christianity from those who would want it to be more scientific, literal, or quantitative. There is a use for this language, says Lewis, and even Christians sometimes need language like this when doing theology. However,...

In this 1960 essay, "The Language of Religion," C. S. Lewis once again defends the ordinary and poetic nature of most of our language within and about Christianity from those who would want it to be more scientific, literal, or quantitative. There is a use for this language, says Lewis, and even Christians sometimes need language like this when doing theology. However, if this was the on...

Exploring C. S. Lewis' 1944 essay "Is Theology Poetry?" where he defends the Christian belief against the accusation that we believe it merely because it is imaginatively appealing. There may often be aesthetic enjoyment of the truths of Christianity; it may be poetic, narrative, mythic, and metaphoric at times. And these are all valid ways of coming to know truth, but they not the o...

Exploring C. S. Lewis' 1944 essay "Is Theology Poetry?" where he defends the Christian belief against the accusation that we believe it merely because it is imaginatively appealing. There may often be aesthetic enjoyment of the truths of Christianity; it may be poetic, narrative, mythic, and metaphoric at times. And these are all valid ways of coming to know truth, but they not the o...

Myth was important to C. S. Lewis. He thought it should be important to everyone, especially Christians. Before we get to Lewis' essays "On Metaphor and Myth" this season, we check in with Dr. Charlie W. Starr, author of ⁠"The Faun's Bookshelf: C. S. Lewis on Why Myth Matters"⁠ , to ask just that question — why does myth matter? For more on Charlie W. Starr — ⁠His Books...

Myth was important to C. S. Lewis. He thought it should be important to everyone, especially Christians. Before we get to Lewis' essays "On Metaphor and Myth" this season, we check in with Dr. Charlie W. Starr, author of "The Faun's Bookshelf: C. S. Lewis on Why Myth Matters" , to try and get an overview on what Myth is to Lewis. In short, Myth is a way of languaging, o...

In Case You Missed It - Jordan took the guest spot on The Inklings Variety Hour to discuss the essay "Religion and Rocketry" with host Chris Pipkin. We cover everything from the question of aliens, to government conspiracies, to apologetics, to Richard Dawkins, Elon Musk, and James Cameron. Contact Chris Pipkin at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com Find more Lesser-Known Lewis —  Online: ⁠⁠⁠⁠...

In Case You Missed It - We were recently guests on Pints with Jack’s After Hours episode. We talk with David Bates about our show, and looking at the connections between C. S. Lewis' “Religion and Rocketry,” “The Seeing Eye,” and Out of the Silent Planet . Check out Pints with Jack's podcast and online at pintswithjack.com . Find more Lesser-Known Lewis —  Online: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pintswithjack.c...

This clip is from our upcoming episodes with Dr. Charlie W. "Indiana Jones" Starr . Here he tells us about his unique role in C. S. Lewis studies and how he came to discover Lewis' only attempt at writing an Archangel Letter as a sequel to The Screwtape Letters . Find more Lesser-Known Lewis —  Online: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pintswithjack.com/lesser-known-lewis⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.c...

In celebration of our first year on the air (yes, a whole year, and we're as surprised as you are), we have a casual conversation to tell you about — What is Lesser-Known Lewis? Who are we? What have we been doing so far? Why do we do what we do? Why do we do the podcast the way we do it? What would we like to do next? How would we like to grow? How can the listener get more involved? Follow a...

This week's episode is a short teaching Jordan was invited by Sean to share at Eston College. Jordan takes what we have been learning from C. S. Lewis on prayer this season and looks to The Chronicles of Narnia to see where we might see the same thing, and reflect on how the simple yet beautiful observations Lewis makes about prayer that should strengthen all of our prayer lives. Find more Les...

To wrap up our Second Season, where C. S. Lewis served as a guide to the Christian life, we sit down with Rev. Dr. Bryan Hollon to talk about what we can learn from C. S. Lewis on how to use Scripture personally, and in the ways we communicate the Gospel. The C. S. Lewis Institute Ten Commandments in an Age of Moral Confusion, Conference at Christ Church, Plano, TX. The Chicago Statement on Biblic...

Exploring the second part of C. S. Lewis' 1940 essay "Dangers of National Repentance." This time David helps us think through what we should do about collective guilt, the difference between repentance and penitence, looking at others with charity. We also consider what the sins of our own age might be — what is the long in our own eye? Consider attending the ⁠Common Roots Conference...

Exploring C. S. Lewis' 1940 essay "Dangers of National Repentance," where Lewis challenges the young people of his day on their impulse to repent of the acts of past generations. He thinks we ought to be careful when repenting of collective guilt because in order to do this you risk a few dangers. Dangers Jesus confronted when he challenged us to look at the log in our own eye. Dr. N...

Exploring the second part of C. S. Lewis' 1947 essay "On Forgiveness." Here Lewis turns our attention to how we can accept forgiveness from God and how we can (and ought to) forgive others when they sin against us. As we wrestle with how this challenges and encourages us in our own lives, William provides some good perspective and advice from his experience in the world of counseling...

Exploring C. S. Lewis' 1947 essay "On Forgiveness." You'll never guess what it's about ;) In this first part, Lewis leads us to reflect on how we approach God when we ask for forgiveness. He helps us see the important difference between forgiving and excusing and after reminding us that confession and repentance are important regular activities of the Christian life, he chall...