In the first half of the 20th century, England elites like T.S. Eliot were trying to devalue John Milton and elevate John Donne—exchanging one 17th-century English poet for another. At the height of World War II, C.S. Lewis took up arms against these oppressors and defended Milton in a series of lectures that would later be published as A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942). Since then, every aspiring scholar has had to grapple with Lewis, the lion in the path of Milton studies. In this week's...

While he never visited America, C.S. Lewis and his works have greatly impacted the American religious landscape. While many general readers associate Lewis primarily with The Chronicles of Narnia (1950), before his appearance on the cover of Time in 1947 Americans viewed C.S. Lewis quite differently. In this week's episode Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down to interview Dr. Mark A. Noll about his new book C.S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935–1947 (2024). Stay tuned...

In many ways, C.S. Lewis was both a man ahead of and behind the times. His approach to science and theology was based upon his professorial comprehension of the Medieval world and what he called "The Model." In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss Lewis's last non-fiction book, The Discarded Image (1964). Based on a series of lectures and published posthumously, David, Crystal, and Aaron discuss how the treasures and insights...

From C.S. Lewis's childhood wardrobe, to Tolkien's desk, to countless unpublished letters and manuscripts, The Marion E. Wade Center is full of many wonderful things. To celebrate the January 2024 launch of our new "Wonders of the Wade" video series on YouTube, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing, along with Producer Aaron Hill, sit down with Chloe DuBois and Elise Peterson, two student workers at the Wade, to discuss some of our most amazing finds and wonderful discoveries.

J.R.R. Tolkien loved Beowulf, as evidenced by his landmark lecture, “The Monsters and the Critics,” his posthumously published prose translation (released in 2014), and his inclusion of Anglo-Saxon themes and words throughout The Lord of the Rings. In this week’s episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Dr. Ben Weber, Associate Professor of English at Wheaton College and specialist in Medieval literature to discuss the significance of Beowulf itself as literature, Tolkien’s...

Archived at the Wade Center are a set of letters between Warren Lewis and a missionary named Blanche Biggs. After the death of his brother, C.S. Lewis, Warren received a letter out of the blue from Blanche, who was serving as a missionary in Papua New Guinea. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Diana Glyer to discuss her new book The Major and the Missionary, which collects and examines this set of letters that reveal not only a new side of Warren but the...

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives, industries, and even spirituality across the globe. In this week's episode, critically acclaimed author Philip Yancey sits down with Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing to discuss his new book called "Undone." Published by our close friends over at The Rabbit Room, Yancey's book "renders 17th century poet John Donne's meditations on suffering into modern English, revealing that Donne's world of the plague was not so very different from our own." Donne was...

In Orthodoxy (1908), G.K. Chesterton shares his idea to write a romance in which an Englishman travels around the world and sets foot on a foreign land only to discover that he returned home. "How can we contrive to be astonished at the world and yet at home in it?" Published only four years later in 1912, Manalive is that story. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss Chesterton's novel about Innocence Smith, the man who breaks...

Only G.K. Chesterton could write a detective novel about undercover poet cops bravely battling anarchists as a way of explaining the problem of evil and the revelation of God in nature. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to unpack all the twists and turns in The Man Who Was Thursday—a book that is equal parts profound, existential, exhilarating, and perplexing.

Today's culture favors convenience and speed. Even finding the time to slow down and read a physical book feels impossible. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Dr. Corey Olsen, the Founder and President of Signum University, to discuss his long-running podcast on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, specifically his close reading of The Lord of the Rings. What can we learn about Tolkien, his writing, and our favorite characters by intentionally slowing down to...

How should we read, interpret, and apply history? How can historical misconceptions doom us to repeat the mistakes of the past? Is everything always getting better, or is it possible for new inventions and new ideas to be retrogressive--to take us a step backward? In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss C.S. Lewis's inaugural lecture at Cambridge University for The Chair of Mediaeval and Renaissance, Literature entitled, "De...

These days everyone is a critic. The internet is filled with—some might say "fueled" by—criticism of movies, books, art, society, everything. Over six decades ago, C.S. Lewis recognized and warned us that the wrong kind of critical posture can turn us not only into cynics but into cultural and ideological puritans. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss Lewis's book on this very topic titled, An Experiment in Criticism (1961)....

Long before the internet was invented people wrote letters to C.S. Lewis and he wrote back, sending them meaningful, insightful, and compassionate letters. In this week's episode Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Marjorie Mead, Co-Director of the Wade Center to discuss a book of Letters to Children (1985). Marjorie reveals how the book was conceived, how some of the letters were found, and how Lewis's letters to children can still minister to us today--especially if we've grow...

The works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien are filled with magical lands, walking trees, and talking animals. They elicit wonder in our hearts not just for fictional places but for the real world around us. In this week's episode Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down to interview Dr. Kristen Page about her recent book The Wonder of Creation: Learning Stewardship from Narnia and Middle-Earth (2023). Stay tuned until the end to learn how you can get a discounted (and signed) copy of Dr....

Even though he constantly reminded readers that he wasn't a theologian or a biblical scholar, C.S. Lewis wrote an entire book on how to read and reflect on the Psalms. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss Lewis's often overlooked and under-read book, Reflections on the Psalms (1958). Lewis deftly covers many of the problems that faithful Christians throughout the ages encounter in the Psalter. Why are so many Psalms violent and...

In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to finish unwrapping the many memorable witticisms, penetrating insights, and enchanting metaphors contained within the final chapters of Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton. Additionally, this is both our final episode of 2022 and the final episode of our bi-weekly format. In 2023, we will shift to a monthly release schedule with episodes going live on the final Friday of the month. Make sure to check out...

Over the last century many Christian apologists have made a name for themselves. At the root of this apologetic tree lies the genius and charm of Gilbert Keith Chesterton and Orthodoxy. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to unwrap the many memorable witticisms, penetrating insights, and enchanting metaphors contained within the first four chapters of this rather dully-named yet incredibly encouraging book which influenced many Christian...

Did you know that the archaic language in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight colored J.R.R. Tolkien's prose in The Lord of the Rings? Or that the characters in this medieval, fourteenth century, fairy tale for adults informed and inspired characters and themes in both The Chronicles of Narnia and the Ransom trilogy by C.S. Lewis? In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down to discuss the meaning, symbolism, and application of this tale of fell strokes, of courtly love gone...

Just when you thought Phantastes couldn't get any more fantastical, George MacDonald slips in two short stories: one in which women with wings, who live on another planet, find babies out in nature, and die from desire; the other in which Cosmo von Wehrstahl, a student in Prague, purchases a magic mirror which contains a beautiful woman. In this follow-up to last week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to explore the meaning of Cosmo's story, the...

This is the story that started it all—the fairy tale that baptized C.S. Lewis's imagination and inspired countless fantasy novels such as Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss George MacDonald's dreamlike fairy tale for adults, Phantastes. Join us as explore the symbols, dream sequences, the meaning of the Marble Lady, the journey of Anodos, and the interrelated themes of...

Tolkien fans, you don't want to miss this episode! As Graham Shea notes, "Critics have long debated whether, and to what degree, J.R.R. Tolkien writes allegorically. Any answer to this question must attempt to reconcile Tolkien’s numerous comments about allegory, which often seem to contradict one another." In this week's episode Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing and Producer Aaron Hill sit down to interview Graham Shea about his recent attempt to resolve the conflict between Tolkien and...

Is there such a thing as Christian literature? How important is originality in literature and culture? Should Christianity embrace or reject culture? In their second discussion of Christian Reflections, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing discuss Lewis's answers to these timeless questions using two dense but powerful essays by C.S. Lewis titled, "Christianity and Literature" and Christianity and Culture."

When Yuri Gagarin returned from mankind's first trip into space, he declared, "I looked and looked and looked, but I didn't see God." In an essay written in 1963, C.S. Lewis retorted, "Those who do not find Him on earth are unlikely to find Him in space." In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with the beloved Dr. Jerry Root to unpack two powerful essays collected and published in Christian Reflections: "De Futilitate and "The Seeing Eye." They discuss the ways in...