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.

From comic books to summer blockbusters, all people enjoy art in some form or another. However, few of us can effectively explain why certain books, movies, and songs resonate so profoundly within us. In Echoes of Eden, Jerram Barrs helps us identify the significance of artistic expression as it reflects the extraordinary creativity and unmatched beauty of the Creator God. Additionally, Barrs provides the key elements for evaluating and defining great art: (1) The glory of the original creation; (2) The tragedy of the curse of sin; (3) The hope of final redemption and renewal. These three qualifiers are then put to the test as Barrs investigates five of the world's most influential authors who serve as ideal case studies in the exploration of the foundations and significance of great art.

This book is a powerful tool for understanding fiction and for transforming creative writing and taking it to new levels of clarity, energy and effectiveness. Learn what a story really is and what it is actually doing to and for readers, how all successful fiction follows universal patterns to attract and grip readers, the magnetic power that draws readers into a work of fiction even before the introduction of any character, what the thing called a 'character' actually is, and the secrets of how to rapidly build a convincing one that attracts readers, the things called 'plots', what they are and how they are actually made (rather than how you might suppose they are made). Find out about the writing model which, if followed, will create a machine generating unimaginable numbers of readers and heightened reader satisfaction for you, based on some of the most successful pieces of literature in the English-speaking world.

Fleming Rutledge discovers the deeper religious meaning behind Tolkien's masterpiece.

C. S. Lewis is one of the best-loved and most engaging Christian writers of recent times, and he continues to be a powerful defender of the faith. It is in his imaginative fiction that his genius finds its fullest expression and makes its most lasting theological contribution. Famously, Lewis had friends who, like him, employed powerfully creative imaginations to explore the profundities of Christian thought and their struggles with their faith. These illuminating essays on C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Dorothy L. Sayers, Rose Macaulay, and Austin Farrer are written by an international team of Lewis scholars.

This volume offers essays on a variety of aspects of the inter-related topics of “hiddenness” and “discovery”: literary, biographical, philosophical, and source study. The Inklings that are examined in this anthology are C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield, with two of their literary predecessors and influences that are included under the term “Inklings” in this anthology: G. K. Chesterton and George MacDonald. Readers will find new territory for further exploration of C. S. Lewis and the Inklings in the areas of 1) creative collaboration among the Inklings; 2) genres (for example, the penny dreadful, Christian liturgical poetry); 3) literary influences (H. G. Wells, Dante); 4) linguistics (Tolkien’s “web of words”); and 5) the convergence of literature and theology. Other areas, which readers would find interesting, are medieval cosmology, classical mythology and Nordic mythology in Lewis’s and Tolkien’s works (the pagan mythology of the Greeks and Romans, and the Nordic myth of Ragnarök). Consequently, Lewis’s A Discarded Image was studied by several contributors to substantiate his knowledge on the medieval cosmos.

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal, established by the Arizona C. S. Lewis Society in 2007, is the only peer-reviewed journal devoted to the study of C. S. Lewis and his writings published anywhere in the world. It exists to promote literary, theological, historical, biographical, philosophical, bibliographical and cultural interest (broadly defined) in Lewis and his writings. The journal includes articles, review essays, book reviews, film reviews and play reviews, bibliographical material, poetry, interviews, editorials, and announcements of Lewis-related conferences, events and publications. Its readership is aimed at academic scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, as well as learned non-scholars and Lewis enthusiasts. At this time, Sehnsucht is published once a year.

Although many people today reject Christianity for intellectual reasons, greater numbers of people are rejecting Christianity because it does not engage their imagination. Christians must not only demonstrate that the Christian worldview is true, but that it is also good, beautiful, and relevant. The Good News of the Return of the King: The Gospel in Middle-earth is a book that endeavors to show the truth, goodness, and beauty of Jesus Christ, the gospel, and the biblical metanarrative by engaging the imagination through J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, as well as The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. In this book, I propose that J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is a story about what Jesus’ parables are about: the good news about the return of the king. As a work of imaginative fiction similar to Jesus’ parables, The Lord of the Rings can bypass both intellectual and imaginative objections to the gospel and pull back the “veil of familiarity” that obscures the gospel for many.

Join Neal as she explores how key characters in the Harry Potter books, the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Star Wars movies deal with the problem of good and evil as they make choices and face difficulties--and how their choices form their characters.