Plunge into the soul of Lewis's Space Trilogy, L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Dwarves, elves, princes and princesses, dark powers, unlikely heroes and fantastic places open up to us in this excellent introduction to Christian mythopoeia. This overview of the major Christian mythmakers explores how they influenced and inspired one another, and identifies the symbols and emblems in their works. Rediscover the characters and worlds of authors such as - C. S. Lewis - George MacDonald - G. K. Chesterton - J. R. R. Tolkien - John Bunyan - Madeleine L'Engle - Charles Williams - Walter Wangerin

Plunge into the soul of Lewis's Space Trilogy, L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Dwarves, elves, princes and princesses, dark powers, unlikely heroes and fantastic places open up to us in this excellent introduction to Christian mythopoeia. This overview of the major Christian mythmakers explores how they influenced and inspired one another, and identifies the symbols and emblems in their works. Rediscover the characters and worlds of authors such as C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, G. K. Chesterton, J. R. R. Tolkien, John Bunyan, Madeleine L'Engle, Charles Williams, Walter Wangerin

C. S. Lewis is one of the most influential and beloved Christian writers of the past century, and interest in him continues to grow as books about his fantasy, fiction, and biography continue to appear. Although Lewis's personal journey was a deeply philosophical search for the most adequate worldview, the few extant books about his Christian philosophy focus on specific topics rather than his overall worldview. In this book, Michael Peterson develops a comprehensive framework for understanding Lewis's Christian worldview--from his arguments from reason, morality, and desire to his ideas about Incarnation, Trinity, and Atonement. All worldviews address fundamental questions about reality, knowledge, human nature, meaning, and so forth. Peterson therefore examines Lewis's Christian approach to these same questions in interaction with other worldviews. Accenting that the intellectual strength and existential relevance of Lewis's works rest on his philosophical acumen as well as his Christian orthodoxy--which he famously called mere Christianity--Peterson skillfully shows how Lewis's Christian thought engages a variety of important problems raised by believers and nonbelievers alike: the problem of evil and suffering, the problem of religious diversity, the problem of meaning, and others. Just as Lewis was gifted in communicating philosophical ideas and arguments in an accessible style, Peterson has crafted a major contribution to Lewis scholarship presented in a way that will interest scholars and benefit the general reader.

The author presents new arguments which support the view that Paul, not Jesus, was the founder of Christianity. He argues that Jesus and also his immediate disciples James and Peter were life-long adherents of Pharisaic Judaism. Paul, however, was not, as he claimed, a native-born Jew of Pharisee upbringing, but came in fact from a Gentile background. He maintains that it was Paul alone who created a new religion by his vision of Jesus as a Divine Saviour who died to save humanity. This concept, which went far beyond the messianic claims of Jesus, was an amalgamation of ideas derived from Hellenistic religion, especially from Gnosticism and the mystery cults. Paul played a devious and adventurous political game with Jesus' followers of the so-called Jerusalem Church, who eventually disowned him. The conclusions of this historical and psychological study will come as a shock to many readers, but it is nevertheless a book which cannot be ignored by anyone concerned with the foundations of our culture and society. -- Book jacket.

Relying mostly on modern genetic science, this book exposes how various forms of creationism-including intelligent design-fail to provide testable models for the appearance and evolution of life. On the contrary, science has been very successful in the description of the unguided processes that led to the creation of the universe and one of its consequences, the appearance of life forms, including humans.

True Myth examines the meaning and significance of myth as understood by C.S. Lewis and Joseph Campbell and its place in the Christian faith in a technological society. C.S. Lewis defined Christianity, and being truly human, as a relationship between thepersonal Creator and his creation mediated through faith in his son, Jesus. The influential writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell had a different perspective, understanding Christianity as composed of mythical themes similar to those in other religious and secular myths. While accepting certain portions of the biblical record as historical, Campbell taught the theological and miraculous aspects as symbolic - as stories in which the reader discovers what it means to be human today. In contrast, Lewis presented the theological and the miraculous in a literal way. Although Lewis understood how one could see symbolism and lessons for life in miraculous events, he believed they were more than symbolic and indeed took place in human history. In True Myth, James W. Menzies skilfully balances the two writers' differing approaches to guide the reader through a complex interaction of myth with philosophy, media, ethics, history, literature, art, music and religion in a contemporary world.

We find ourselves living today in very much a "post-Christian" world. Not only does the culture largely reject Christianity's claims, we find that long-held basic truths that people have embraced throughout history have been jettisoned—the belief in objective morality (right and wrong transcend each person's opinions and feelings), spiritual reality (the world contains more than what we see via our 5 senses – that God is real), that truth is objective and knowable (if something is true, my disagreeing with it or finding it unpleasant emotionally doesn't make it false). This presents a great difficulty for Christians trying to communicate the Christian message to people today. We can take nothing for granted if the message is to make any sense to the hearer. We must start with the most basic concepts. The question then arises—How do we make a start when the bedrock ideas are not only disbelieved but viewed with contempt by so many today? C. S. Lewis thought that he had found "a door" we could enter to "steal past the watchful dragons" of the modern person's reason by way of imaginative fiction. He sought to re-introduce Christian ideas clothed in mythological garb so that in time, after their affections had been stirred, the explicit message about Christ might be given a fair hearing. He engaged both the heart and the head. In this way, he "pre-evangelized" his audience. This book examines the grounds—both philosophically and theologically—upon which he did that. It explores Lewis's view of reality and the human imagination, surveying his Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy in particular, to demonstrate precisely how he carried out this strategy. We can learn from Lewis here, as we show both the beauty and the truthfulness of Christianity to people in a way that meets them where they are.

Representing a decade of scholarly activity within the C. S. Lewis & Inklings Society (CSLIS), this book challenges readers to examine the complex factors that shaped the theological perspectives, cultural concerns, and literary conventions in the works of the Oxford Inklings. The mythopoeic fiction that Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, and their associates enjoyed and composed put mortal humanity in contact with the immortal and the divine. The selection of papers in this volume, intended not only for experts but also for undergraduates and general readers, includes keynote presentations by Joe R. Christopher, Rolland Hein, Kerry Dearborn, David Neuhouser, and Thomas Howard that explore the Inklings legacy of moral mythopoeia, as well as essays that analyze works like Screwtape (Tom Shippey), The Magician s Nephew (Salwa Khoddam), The Silmarillion (Jason Fisher), The Lord of the Rings (David Oberhelman) and The Dark Tower (Jonathan B. Himes). The Inklings believed there was still power in the old myths, and ultimately that there was still truth to fortify humanity in them. Their friendship and their fiction provided these men a forum for entertaining speculative and sometimes unorthodox answers to the complex realities of sacred tradition.

This three-volume collection demonstrates the depth and breadth of evangelical Christians' consumption, critique, and creation of popular culture, and how evangelical Christians are both influenced by—and influence—mainstream popular culture, covering comic books to movies to social media. Evangelical Christians and Popular Culture: Pop Goes the Gospel addresses the full spectrum of evangelical media and popular culture offerings, even delving into lesser-known forms of evangelical popular culture such as comic books, video games, and theme parks. The chapters in this 3-volume work are written by over 50 authors who specialize in fields as diverse as history, theology, music, psychology, journalism, film and television studies, advertising, and public relations. Volume 1 examines film, radio and television, and the Internet; Volume 2 covers literature, music, popular art, and merchandise; and Volume 3 discusses public figures, popular press, places, and events. The work is intended for a scholarly audience but presents material in a student-friendly, accessible manner. Evangelical insiders will receive a fresh look at the wide variety of evangelical popular culture offerings, many of which will be unknown, while non-evangelical readers will benefit from a comprehensive introduction to the subject matter.