Three Reasons to Read (or Reread) C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength

by Ted Lewis
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Can a technocracy really happen? Can technicians and scientists truly rule society? Lewis actually had a deep concern about this prospect. Most readers of Lewis are aware of his theological writings and his fiction. But he also wrote over thirty books and articles that specifically addressed his concern for the way applied science, undergirded by a mechanistic worldview, would pose a serious threat to the modern world. Chief among his worries were innovations in genetic engineering…

Lewis the Sexist?

Interview with Monika Hilder.
Literary critic John Goldthwaite once asserted that "Lewis feared women and disliked them categorically." Novelist Philip Pullman added his two bits: Lewis was "monumentally disparaging of women," claimed Pullman; in fact, "he didn't like women in general, or sexuality at all."…

Why I Read Dorothy L. Sayers

by Jan Lermitte
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I did not immediately love the work of Dorothy L. Sayers.  I tend to read detective novels as escapist fiction, and Sayers’ stories are often too sophisticated for that. Too many epigraphs by Shakespeare, Spencer, and other long-dead male writers; complex characters who represent various classes of modern Britain after WWI and quote Latin, French, or speak with a broad Cockney accent…

THE SAME BABY IN A DIFFERENT DRESS

by Tony Lawton
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I am an actor. Since 1998, I have been performing solo versions of C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters. I usually get hired by evangelical institutions to perform these works…

Friend or Foe: Can Flattery Be Befriended?

by Claudia May
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In her recording of the song, “Flattery Will Get You Everywhere,” country singer Lynn Anderson mines various facets of flattery. She acknowledges that if someone utters unkind words, her mind “would soon close from ear to ear.” But if a suitor or acquaintance flatters her, she devours their words and “lick[s] the platy clean . . . so starved” is she for “pretty words [that] are ever insincere.” She is cognizant of the calculating traits of flattery, but she does not seem to care because she thrives on the attention flattery offers. Emboldened by the charisma of flattery, she tells her flatterer to “brag [her] up” because “flattery will get you everywhere.” The back note of these lyrics suggests that the one being flattered is a co-conspirator, a willing accomplice to flattery’s devious and perhaps not-so-devious ways. …

Hospitality and the Value of Listening Presence

by Joy Steem
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When I die, I think I would like a wooden rocker engraved upon my headstone. There is something comforting about a rocker; and the powerful symbolism is one of gentle invitation. For me, that’s the message of the Gospel: a gentle call to unburden ourselves and find strength in true rest. But it’s not a solitary or lonely silence; rather, it is rest in good company, where we come to recognize ourselves in both our collective and individual stories.…

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