ENG 446: Fiction of Lewis & Tolkien

Alister McGrath's provocative and perceptive book Deep Magic, Dragons and Talking Mice takes Lewis as the perfect conversation companion for the persistent meaning-of-life questions everyone asks. Lewis looked at life's mysteries from many different viewpoints. The questions Lewis thought so deeply about are still relevant today, and all are illuminated by his astonishingly varied body of work.

Includes relevant chapter: "Stewards of Arda: Creation and Sustenance in J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium"

These essays provide some understanding of the essentials to Lewis's philosophical theology, that is, the essentia, in the highest degree. Lewis's corpus can seem disparate, but here we find unity in his aims, objectives, and methodology, a consistency that demonstrates the deep roots of his philosophical theology in Scripture, in Greek philosophy, patristic and medieval theology, and in some of the Reformers, all framed by a reasoned discipline from a perceptive and critical mind: method and form; content and reason--for the glory of God.

Lord of the Elves and Eldils is a fascinating look at the fantasy and philosophy of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. The two men were friends and fellow professors at Oxford, renowned Christian thinkers who both 'found it necessary to create for the purposes of their fiction other worlds—not utopias or dystopias, but different worlds.

In this newest addition to the Blackwell Great Minds series, well-known philosopher and Lewis authority Stewart Goetz discusses Lewis's philosophical thought and illustrates how it informs his theological and literary work. Drawing from Lewis's published writing and private correspondence, including unpublished materials, C.S. Lewis is the first book to develop a cohesive and holistic understanding of Lewis as a philosopher. In this groundbreaking project, Goetz explores how Lewis's views shape his stories.

Marking the 50th anniversary of Lewis's death, The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis sees leading Christian thinker Alister McGrath offering a fresh approach to understanding the key themes at the centre of Lewis's theological work and intellectual development. This book brings together a collection of original essays exploring important themes within Lewis' work, offering new connections and insights into his theology. McGrath throws new light on subjects including Lewis' intellectual development, the uses of images in literature.

Stewart Goetz's careful investigation of Lewis's philosophical thought reveals oft-overlooked implications and demonstrates that it was, at its root, at odds with that of Thomas Aquinas and, thereby, the Roman Catholic Church.

What if you could ask C. S. Lewis his thoughts on some of the most difficult questions of life? If you could, the result would be Dr. Alister McGrath's provocative and perceptive book, If I Had Lunch with C. S. Lewis. Best-selling author, prominent academic, and sought-after speaker, Dr. McGrath sees C. S. Lewis as the perfect conversation companion for the persistent meaning-of-life questions everyone asks. Let McGrath be your insightful guide to an intriguing conversation with Lewis about the ultimate questions.

With contributions from a number of well-known evangelical leaders, this book explores the life, work, and theology of one of the most prominent Christians of the twentieth century: C. S. Lewis.

It has long been recognized that J. R. R. Tolkien's work is animated by a profound moral and religious vision. It is less clear that Tolkien's vision confronts the leading philosophical and literary concerns addressed by modern writers and thinkers. This book seeks to resolve such uncertainty. It places modern writers and modern quandaries in lively engagement with the broad range of Tolkien's work, while giving special attention to the textual particularities of his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings.

"Tolkien and Philosophy" is a theme that has not yet been studied with the "philological" accuracy and the textual knowledge that are required to avoid squeezing the Professor's works inside conceptual frameworks that, rather than exposing their intrinsic value, risk losing both their profound meaning and their inherent beauty. What is the relationship between Tolkien's work and Philosophy? The question, if taken seriously, is by no means trivial. For these reasons we wish this book to become, in both method and content, an essential point of reference for anyone interested in better understanding the significant elements that sometimes link, sometimes divide, the "philologist" Tolkien from proper speculative philosophy.

Conventional wisdom holds that C. S. Lewis was uninterested in politics and public affairs. The conventional wisdom is wrong. As Justin Buckley Dyer and Micah J. Watson show in this groundbreaking work, Lewis was deeply interested in the fundamental truths and falsehoods about human nature and how these conceptions manifest themselves in the contested and turbulent public square.