The Optimistic Curmudgeon

Wrapping the Re-Enchanting Inklings - Season 8 Finale (8x13)

Dr. Josh Herring reflects on Season 8: The Re-Enchanting Inklings, drawing out connections between guests and suggesting what this season of The Optimistic Curmudgeon says about modernity, the Inklings, and our need to encounter reality.

With shoutouts and callbacks to Annie Crawford, Andrew Lazo, Christiana Hale, Holly Ordway, Landon Loftin, Austin Freeman, Brent Weeks, Steve Beebe, Michael Ward, Sarah Waters, and Rhys Laverty.

Many thanks to this season's sponsors: The C.S. Lewis Institute, and America's Christian Credit Union!

https://americaschristiancu.com/personal/

https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/

We'll be back in the fall of 2025 with Season 9! Until next time, seek the good, live the true, and enjoy the beautiful.

C.S. Lewis' Skepticism & The Silver Chair: A Conversation with Annie Crawford (8x12)

Annie Crawford explains Dr. Michael ward's theory of "donegality," and shows how reading The Silver Chair as C.S. Lewis's lunar novel helps explain the difference between Aslan's Country and the muddled world below. This conversation is largely based on an article Annie wrote for An Unexpected Journal entitled "Finding Faith in Fairy Tales: Answers for Modern Skeptics from C.S. Lewis's The Silver Chair" and Annie explains the nature of modern skepticism and how Lewis works in philosophical responses in the Green Lady's temptation and then Puddleglum's response. Pascal's Wager, the Ontological Argument, Plato's Cave, Freud, Marx, Feurbach, and more---all nestled within The Silver Chair.

Link to Annie's article: https://anunexpectedjournal.com/finding-faith-in-fairy-tales-answers-for-modern-skeptics-from-c-s-lewiss-the-silver-chair/

Sponsor link - America's Christian Credit Union - https://americaschristiancu.com/personal/ 

Till We Have Faces: A Conversation with Fr. Andrew Lazo (8x11)

Fr. Andrew Lazo offers his interpretation of C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces as Lewis's "best book." Lazo reads the novel through The Four Loves, and contends that Lewis's entire project, as it develops across a lifetime of spiritual writing, culminates in this final novel. This conversation also features discussion of the Mere Christians conference, differing views on definitions of love, and lots of Lewisian details. With shoutouts to Michael Ward,  @PintsWithJack , @C.S.LewisUndiscovered , and many friends, this is an episode to savor.

Link to Mere Christians: Inspiring Stories of Encounters with C.S. Lewis - https://www.amazon.com/Mere-Christians-Inspiring-Stories-Encounters/dp/1946708321

Sponsor Link: America's Christian Credit Union - https://americaschristiancu.com/personal/

 

Medieval Cosmology, Enjoyment, and Feminine Identity: A Conversation with Christiana Hale (8x10)

Christiana Hale, author of Deeper Heaven: A Reader's Guide to C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy, discusses her essay on pleasure and contemplation in Life on the Silent Planet: Essays on Christian Living from C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy. Medieval cosmology, Perelandra, closing out the teaching season, the Un-Man's temptations of the Green Lady, right and wrong femininity, and more feature in this wide-ranging conversation. With shoutouts to Canon Press, New Saint Andrews College, Thales College, and the Undiscovered Lewis Conference, this conversation ties together a variety of institutions.

Link to Deeper Heaven: https://www.amazon.com/Deeper-Heaven-Readers-Lewiss-Trilogy/dp/1944482563/

Link to Life on the Silent Planet: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Silent-Planet-Christian-Trilogy/dp/1949716252/

Sponsor Link: https://americaschristiancu.com/personal/ 

Arthuriana in C.S. Lewis: A Conversation with Dr. Holly Ordway (8x9)

Dr. Holly Ordway discusses her essay "Arthur in Edgestow" in Life on the Silent Planet: Lessons in Christian Living from C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy. She explain Lewis's love of Arthurian legends, the choices Lewis makes in incorporating, adapting, and tweaking elements of the Arthurian legendarium in That Hideous Strength. With discussion of Charles Williams, Roger Lancelyn Green, and Merlin, this is a delightful interview with one of the foremost Inklings scholars. Enjoy!

Dr. Ordway's website - https://hollyordway.com/

Books discussed in the interview

Link to Life on the Silent Planet: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Silent-Planet-Christian-Trilogy/dp/1949716252/

Link to The Inklings and King Arthur: https://www.amazon.com/Inklings-King-Arthur-Williams-Barfield/dp/1944769897/

Link to Taliessin through Logres: https://www.amazon.com/Taliessin-through-Logres-Region-Arthurian/dp/0802815782/

Sponsor link: America's Christian Credit Union - https://americaschristiancu.com/personal/

 

Owen Barfield, Language, and Meaning, with Dr. Landon Loftin (8x8)

Landon Loftin, author of What Barfield Thought: An Introduction to the Work of Owen Barfield with Max Leyf, discusses Barfield's role in the Inklings, focus on language, and friendship with Lewis. The conversation draws mostly from Barfield's History in English Words. Loftin goes into specific detail about Barfield's pro-life work, and the connection between humans as rational, linguistic beings and protecting them from abortion. Lewis dedicated The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to Lucy Barfield, Owen Barfield's daughter (and Lewis's goddaughter); their friendship was rich, and Barfield's theory of language and human consciousness sits behind much of what Tolkien and Lewis wrote. Where is meaning? What is language? How does human consciousness relate to words? For these questions, Dr. Loftin is our best guide into Barfield.

Link to What Barfield Thought: https://www.amazon.com/What-Barfield-Thought-Introduction-Work/dp/1666736767

Link to The Rediscovery of Meaning - https://www.owenbarfield.org/selected-books/the-rediscovery-of-meaning/

Sponsor Link: https://americaschristiancu.com/personal

 

Tolkien & Theology - with Austin Freeman (8x7)

Dr. Austin Freeman discusses his book, Tolkien Dogmatics. Doctrines of creation, eschatology, angels, demons, and Christian living all receive major consideration. Along the way, we discuss Kevin Vanhoozer, reflect on the 2024 election (we recorded on November 5, 2024), "Leaf by Niggle," what's happening theologically in the act of creating a story, and more. Austin tells us his view of Amazon's Rings of Power, and we discuss the nature and role of imaginative apologetics. Austin takes on woke Tolkien, and explains just how significant Tolkien's faith was for the legendarium.

Books referenced in the show:

Tolkien Dogmatics - https://www.amazon.com/Tolkien-Dogmatics-Theology-Mythology-Middle-earth/dp/1683596676/

Apologetics and the Christian Imagination - https://www.amazon.com/Apologetics-Christian-Imagination-Integrated-Defending/dp/1945125381

The Drama of Doctrine - https://www.amazon.com/Drama-Doctrine-Canonical-Linguistic-Christian/dp/0664223273/

Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination - https://www.amazon.com/Theology-Fantasy-Imagination-Religion-Culture/dp/1978712189/

Sponsor link: America's Christian Credit Union - https://americaschristiancu.com/personal

Don't forget the book giveaway contest - details are in the show introduction!

Faith, Fantasy, and the Imagination, with Brent Weeks (8x6)

Bestselling author Brent Weeks explains how he got into writing, from where he draws inspiration, how he builds characters, and details hidden in the Night Angel trilogy, the Lightbringer series, and the Kylar Chronicles. Brent comments on issues in modern publishing, Brandan Sanderson, and in general welcomes viewers into his world as an author. Brent is one of the best living fantasy authors; he is deeply shaped by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and his years at Hillsdale College. How do you write strong female characters with authentic femininity? What advantages are there to writing male characters for reading men? Where does Dante come in? As a sincere, convictional Christian, Brent writes excellent mainstream epic fantasy. Don't miss his story about publisher responses to Kip the Brave being fat!

Links to Brent's Books:

Night Angel - https://shorturl.at/N8QCN

Lightbrigner - https://shorturl.at/qU92o

Kylar Chronicles - https://shorturl.at/KYqtq

Brent's website - https://www.brentweeks.com/

Sponsor Links:

America's Christian Credit Union - https://americaschristiancu.com/personal/ 

 

C.S. Lewis and Communication - with Dr. Steve Beebe (8x5)

Dr. Steve Beebe, author a variety of communication textbooks and discoverer of a Lewis project co-written with Tolkien about language, discusses C.S. Lewis's methods of communicating in both written and verbal communication. Beebe argues that Lewis followed five habits that helped him be a powerful communicator. We too can learn to communicate like C.S. Lewis.

Here is Dr. Beebe's book, C.S. Lewis and the Craft of Communication - https://www.amazon.com/C-S-Lewis-Craft-Communication/dp/1433172348

Sponsor Links America's Christian Credit Union - https://americaschristiancu.com/personal/

 

Marriage, Contraception, and Modernity: A Conversation with Dr. Michael Ward on C. S. Lewis and THS (8x4)

Dr. Michael Ward discusses his essay in Life on the Silent Planet: Essays on Christian Living from C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy. The conversation focuses on themes of marriage, contraception, and Lewis's cosmological mythology. Lewis predicted so many of our modern ills, and Dr. Ward's research helps us reckon with the woes of modernity. Dr. Ward walks us through the history of contraception within Protestant theological consideration, and then traces Lewis's engagement with those ideas in Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength.

Link to Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis - https://www.amazon.com/Planet-Narnia-...

Link to After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis's Abolition of Man - https://www.amazon.com/After-Humanity...

Link to Life on the Silent Planet: Essays on Christian Living from C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Silent-Pl...

Sponsor Link

Many thanks to the C.S. Lewis Institute for sponsoring this episode! Check out their Fellowship here: https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/fell...

The C.S. Lewis Institute Fellows Program offers a year of intensive discipleship that leads to significant life-change. Unlike many discipleship programs, the Fellows program focuses on discipleship of both heart and mind. It involves Bible Study, classic readings, lectures, group processing, personal spiritual mentoring and accountability – all in the context of a small group of like-minded believers. This year-long program is designed for those who want to live as fully committed disciples of Jesus Christ and make an impact for Him in the world.