Thursday, August 23, 2007

In Pursuit of Truth

The C.S. Lewis Foundation (owners of the Kilns and the folks who run the program “Oxbridge”) have started a new online, peer-reviewed journal: In Pursuit of Truth. The online articles look very helpful.

Here's an outline of an article by Leland Ryken on bad ways--and good ways--to read Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Bad practice #1 is using The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe instead of receiving it.

Bad practice #2
is to value The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe primarily as a collection of ideas.

Misconception #3
is to assume that when Lewis composed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he started with a set of ideas and then created fictional details to embody them.

Good practice #1 is to read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe first as an escape from the real world to an imagined world.

Good practice#2 is to enter into the particulars of the imagined world that a writer creates.

Good practice #3
is to view the far-flung fantasies of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a window to reality and truth.

Good practice #4
is to value the artistry and technique of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a self-rewarding aesthetic experience.

Good practice #5
is to recognize and value the religious and moral viewpoints embodied in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.


Read the whole thing--and check out the rest of the journal.

(HT: Mere Orthodoxy)