ANNOTATED PRE-READING & TIPS FOR C.S. LEWIS & CHRISTIAN WRITERS TOUR
For those who will be in London prior to the tour, you may wish to go and see The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. https://doriangrayplay.com/
This is a pre-tour wonder-play adapted in Australia and starring Golden Globe winning Actress Sarah Snook and related to our tour’s literary period.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is showing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until the 11th of May.
Note – the tour will commence at 6pm on Thursday the 9th of May.
Samuel Johnson, a great English writer said, “Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life;
for there is in London all that life can afford”
BOOKS AND ARTICLES, VIDEOS & PODCASTS IN TOUR ORDER
* One Star = Accessible, relevant overview
** Two Stars = Next best thing
Book: Edoardo Albert, London: A Spiritual History, 2016.
C.H. Spurgeon
Documentary: Through the Eyes of Spurgeon – Official Documentary (youtube.com)*
Running time – 2 hours
PDF: What Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s Sermon on The Cholera Epidemic Can Teach Us About Multi-Dimensional Characterization in Preaching: Timothy Yap**
Excellent article on Plague, Covid & Pastoral Preaching. PDF is attached.
Book: An All Round Ministry,1900. 400 pp.
Book: Lectures to My Students. 1954. C. 300 pps.
Quotes: 27 Powerful Charles Spurgeon Quotes
Book: Timothy George (ed.) A Marvelous Ministry: How the All-round Ministry of C.H. Spurgeon Speaks to us Today, 1996.
G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
Book: The Autobiography of G.K Chesterton **
https://www.amazon.com.au/Autobiography-G-K-Chesterton-G-K/dp/1586170716
Book: Orthodoxy, Ch.6 ‘The Paradoxes of Christianity’,1909. *
https://www.amazon.com/Orthodoxy-G-K-Chesterton/dp/1469946939
Book: The Everlasting Man.– influenced Lewis towards Christianity.
Book: Matthew J Milliner, The Everlasting People: GK Chesterton & the First Nations, IVP, 2021.
Chapters 1& 2. Enlightened approach, ahead of its time.
TV Series: The Father Brown Mysteries – books by Chesterton now a BBC TV series on an innocent priestly detective (Currently available to watch on ABC iView).
Book: C. Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory, 2022, Index on Chesterton & CSL.
Book: Joseph Pierce, Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief,
Ignatius, 1999, esp. ix-7, ‘The Attraction of Orthodoxy’pp.50-55; 88-101, 185-98; ‘War of Words’ & ‘Nuclear Reactions’ (CSL, Sayers, GKC etc) 214-239; CSL & D. Sayers ‘A Network of Minds’ 267-78.
Excellent on cultural context.
CS Lewis, Inklings & co.
Book: CS Lewis, The Joyful Christian: 127 Readings
Book: Humphrey Carpenter, The Inklings: CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams and friends, Harper Collins, [1978], 2006.*
https://www.amazon.com/Inklings-Tolkien-Charles-Williams-Friends/dp/1455158194
This is very good
Book: Humphrey Carpenter, JRR Tolkien: A Biography, 1977.
Book: Tom Shippey, JRR Tolkien: Author of the Century, 2001.
Both of these biographies are great
Book: Lin Carter, Tolkien: A Look Behind the Lord of the Rings, 1969,
Chs. 4-7 gives an c.50p., handy summary of The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings.*
https://www.amazon.com/Tolkien-Look-Behind-Lord-Rings/dp/1434498085
CSL’s main apologetic and fantasy works:
Mere Christianity
The Abolition of Man
The Problem of Pain
The Great Divorce
Screwtape Letters
A Grief Observed
The Narnia Stories
The Space Trilogy
Book: Gilbert Maelander, The Taste for the Other: The social and Ethical thought of C. S. Lewis
A relational & ethical view
Book: Alistair McGrath, C.S Lewis, A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet*
https://www.amazon.com/C-Lewis-Life-Eccentric-Reluctant/dp/1496410459
This is the best biography
Book: Michael Ward, Planet Narnia
Book: Michael Ward, The Narnia Code
Book: Michael Ward, After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man. Education & interreligious ethics.
Michael Ward is the best CSL scholar.
Book: Rowan Williams, The Lion’s World: A journey into the heart of Narnia, 2012
An excellent defence of Lewis.
Movies from c. 2006-10.
The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
All 3 are very good, sympathetic, Christian
Shadowlands – on CSL and Joy Davidman
A tearjerker more stereotypically romantic than historically fair to Lewis (McGrath).
The Most Reluctant Convert
Excellent on CSL’s conversion – Available on YouTube or Apple TV
Documentary: The Magic Never Ends – The Life and works of C.S. Lewis , narrated by Ben Kingsley.
Available to purchase on some streaming platforms.
CLICK HERE to view the preview
Surprised by Oxford
A good love story but softened the book’s conversion story of Caro Weber by CSL. Oxford stars!
Freud’s Last Session – with CS Lewis.
Now showing in select cinemas CLICK HERE to watch movie trailer
See too new Atheist Objections & Lewis’ answers in:
Peter S. Williams, C.S. Lewis & the New Atheists,2013.
For Australian views on CSL see digital magazine: Zadok Perspectives
(featuring an Editorial on the Legacy of CS Lewis by Gordon Preece and other articles on CS Lewis)
https://1drv.ms/b/s!AsHtv59kjSzuhronYYe2GvK3YCl5mQ?e=hZzUih
Rob Banks, ‘Lewis as Communicator’, for whom Lewis is the great lay Christian.
See in hard-print handout Zadok Paper S147 winter 2006, ‘Ethics as Apologetics for Modernity & Postmodernity: CS Lewis’ linking of Natural Law & Narrative’.
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings, 3 volumes and 3 movies:
The Fellowship of the Ring,
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
I suggest reading one book, then one movie, then the next etc.
The Hobbit
The Silmarillion
Autobiographical Movie: The Young Tolkien
Well worth watching
Book: Louis Markos, On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis, Moody, 2012.
Book: Ralph C. Wood, The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-Earth, 2003, especially Chapters 1 & 5.
John Bunyan
Book: The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Baptist classic on our earthly pilgrimage to heaven.
Book: CSL, The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism, 1933.
Book: CSL, Selected Literary Essays* Cambridge Uni. Press, 1969
esp. Ch. 10 ‘The Vision of John Bunyan’, 146-153. Classic literary-theological criticism.
Exemplary of Lewis’ academic day-job.
https://www.amazon.com/Selected-Literary-Essays-Canto-Classics/dp/1107685389
Dorothy L. Sayers
Book (Biography): David Coomes, Dorothy L. Sayers, A Careless Rage for Life, 1992.
Article: Are Women Human? By Dorothy L. Sayers *
Article: Christine M. Fletcher, ‘Dorothy L. Sayers: Beyond Women’s Work’
Can be read in the hard copy of Equip, March 2016, pp. 3-5.
Book: Mary Stewart van Leeuwen, A Sword Between the Sexes? CSL & the gender debates, 2010 Especially Ch. 1 & Ch. 4 ‘Not the only fundamental difference’: The Edwardian World of CSL and Dorothy Sayers’ and Ch.10 Suppressed by Jack’: The Two Sides of CSL.
Joy Davidman
Book: Don W. King ‘Yet One More Spring’, A Critical Study of Joy Davidman, 2015.
Book: Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain: An interpretation of the Ten Commandments, 1955.
Compare & Contrast:
CSL, A Grief Observed. The anguished cry of a man come late to love
& CSL’s more, but not exclusively rational Problem of Pain.
Book: A. McGrath’s Deep Magic, Dragons & Talking Mice, 2014,
Chapter 7, ‘Coping with Suffering: CSL on the Problem of Pain’.
See also your copy of Gordon Preece, ‘Ethics as Apologetics for Modernity and Postmodernity: CS Lewis’ linking of Natural Law and Narrative’, Zadok Papers, Winter 2006, 9-16.
Podcasts
Thanks to Susan Preece for providing these podcast options.
All below links are for apple.com, however podcasts can also be listened to (by searching using the Podcast name) on Spotify, or your preferred podcast network.
Undeceptions with John Dickson – On Tolkien
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/undeceptions-with-john-dickson/id1478239058?i=1000637346787
The Rest is History – J.R.R. Tolkien
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-rest-is-history/id1537788786?i=1000577613968
Undeceptions with John Dickson – Dorothy L. Sayers
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/undeceptions-with-john-dickson/id1478239058?i=1000612982235
Undeceptions with John Dickson – Lewis’ Oxford
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/undeceptions-with-john-dickson/id1478239058?i=1000586017801
Undeceptions with John Dickson – Lewis’ Narnia
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/undeceptions-with-john-dickson/id1478239058?i=1000589761003
Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s Sermon on the Cholera epidemic can teach us about Multi-Dimensional Characterization in
Preaching Click here: WHAT_CHARLES_HADDON_SPURGEON_S_SERMON_ON (1)
