DOCSLIB.ORG

Through the Shadowlands Platonism in the Works of C.S

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Through the Shadowlands Platonism in the Works of C.S Through the Shadowlands Platonism in the Works of C.S. Lewis Lisa Moate BA (Hons) Philosophy, 2008 University of Notre Dame Australia This thesis is presented for the degree of Master of Philosophy of Murdoch University August 2015 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for a degree at any tertiary education institution. Name: Lisa D. Moate Date: 19th August 2015 ii Abstract In this thesis, I examine the influence of Platonism on C.S. Lewis. I argue that this influence is principally reflected in changes to Lewis’s views as to what constitutes morality. Lewis’s conversion to Christianity, in particular, represents a fundamental change in the way he approached a Platonist interpretation of morality. I argue that Platonism was central to Lewis’s conversion. I will examine work written prior to his conversion to establish that Lewis struggled to come to terms with concepts of theism. I will also explore the ways in which Platonism influenced this struggle to show the extent of Plato’s influence on Lewis’s conversion to Christianity. Through this exploration, I seek to establish that Platonism was central to Lewis’s conversion to Christianity. Furthermore, I will also explore the extent to which this Christian Platonism influences Lewis’s developing views of universal morality in the popular works written after his conversion. I will seek to show that Lewis’s embracing of Platonism, leading on to his conversion to Christianity, influenced his acceptance of the distinction between the empirically observable “sensible” illusion of reality and the true intelligible reality and that one must also manifest this knowledge in practice through engaging in virtuous acts. In order to illustrate the manner in which Lewis changes his approach to morality after his conversion, I will first examine the poetry he wrote prior to converting to Christianity, which depicts the ability to recognise and accept the intelligible nature of reality as being fundamental to morality. I will also emphasise the idea that indulgence in materialism results in negative consequences in its departure from virtue. This examination will provide a standard against which Lewis’s post-conversion works can be compared. These post-conversion works reflect the increased significance that Lewis placed on Christian Platonism. This is done by drawing on the experiences of the people and characters depicted in those works in order to show ways in which Lewis suggests that virtue can be resulted in. iii Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................... v Chapter One – Introductory .............................................................................................................................. 6 Part One: Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 6 Part Two: Modes of Written Expression .............................................................................................. 11 Chapter Two – Pre-Conversion Lewis ....................................................................................................... 19 Chapter Three - Dymer…………………………………………………………………………………………………28 Chapter Four - Christian Platonism……………………………………………………………………………….47 Part One: Christian Platonism – Influences on Lewis ..................................................................... 48 Part Two: Lewis’s Conversion to Christian Platonism ................................................................... 55 Chapter Five – Platonic Influences on Lewis’s Conception of Love ............................................... 71 Part One: Types of Love .............................................................................................................................. 71 Part Two: Levels of Love ............................................................................................................................ 83 Chapter Six – Platonic Influences on The Chronicles of Narnia ........................................................ 98 Part One: “The Last Battle” ........................................................................................................................ 98 Part Two: “The Silver Chair” ................................................................................................................... 114 Part Three: Additional Examples .......................................................................................................... 124 Chapter Seven – Heaven and Hell .............................................................................................................. 130 Part One: The Great Divorce ................................................................................................................... 130 Part Two: The Screwtape Letters ......................................................................................................... 145 Chapter Eight – Final Impressions ............................................................................................................ 156 Part One: The Essays of C.S. Lewis........................................................................................................ 156 Part Two: Contemporary Value ............................................................................................................. 162 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................... 168 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................................... 170 iv Acknowledgements Thanks go to my principal supervisor Doctor Ian Cook who not only agreed to take over as my supervisor but also provided me with an avenue in which I could give shape to my ideas and research. Thanks also go to Doctor Joseph Naimo of The University of Notre Dame Australia, who supported me and offered his help. Doctor Naimo’s help, and willingness to take on a partial supervisory role, was instrumental in the completion of this project. To Mr Colin Redmond, a colleague and dear friend, I also owe my gratitude. Your unfailing friendship, encouragement and guidance has been instrumental in my continued ability to undertake this work. Thanks to Megan Levy for friendship and providing me with a greater understanding of the Christian context of Lewis’s philosophy, and thanks especially to my office mates at Murdoch; Robert Andrews and Clare Maltas, and to our former office mate Denise Pringle; for camaraderie and friendship. Special thanks go to Rod Berry of Pickwick’s Second-hand Bookshop in Kalamunda, who was kind enough to share some recollections of his personal friendship with C.S. Lewis’s stepson Douglas Gresham. Thanks also to Penny of Magpie Books in Fremantle for keeping me notified when relevant material passed through the shop. My appreciation also goes to Notre Dame University’s School of Philosophy for continuing to extend to me sessional tutoring contracts and for being charitable and supportive, and to Murdoch University’s administrative staff, particularly Yolie Masnada, for their efficiency and provision of resources and facilities. v Chapter One – Introductory Part One: Introduction In this thesis I seek to show that Platonism is an integral part of C.S. Lewis’s concept of universal morality. Furthermore, I will also argue that Platonism influenced Lewis’s conversion to Christianity. I will explore the extent of this development through an evaluation of Lewis’s ideas as presented in texts written both before his conversion to Christianity and after his conversion. I will also explore Lewis’s popular works in order to establish the position that Lewis converted to Christian Platonism and that this remains a strong underlying theme throughout his working career. The importance of this study can be reflected in the following quotation, which highlights a lack of insight into Lewis’s actual conversion. In his review of Colin Duriez’s From Narnia to Christianity, as featured in The Sydney Morning Herald on the 28th of September 2013, Robert Wilson wrote that In spite of the fact Lewis wrote so much about the Christian faith, he is surprisingly vague about details of his own conversion, first from atheism to belief in God, but later to Christianity. He described himself as the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. He wrote that he never had the experience of looking for God: “It was the other way around; He was the hunter [or so it seemed to me] and I was the deer. He stalked me like a redskin, took unerring aim and fired”.1 I will explore the points raised by Wilson and in doing so I argue that Lewis takes on a Platonist approach to virtue and metaphysics. I argue that Platonism was the vehicle for his conversion to Christianity and the mode by which Lewis understands the ascension of the soul to take place, based on the Platonic concept that true reality can only be comprehended through employing the intelligible mind. What is observable with the senses is taken to be an illusion. Plato’s virtue theory is linked to this, holding that succumbing to the senses rather than employing the intelligible mind to understand reality inhibits the development of
Load more

Recommended publications
  • CS Lewis on Death
    Volume 1 Issue 2 Article 4 January 1971 Farewell to Shadowlands: C.S. Lewis on Death Kathryn Lindskoog Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythpro Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Lindskoog, Kathryn (1971) "Farewell to Shadowlands: C.S. Lewis on Death," Mythcon Proceedings: Vol. 1 : Iss. 2 , Article 4. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythpro/vol1/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythcon Proceedings by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mythcon 51: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico • Postponed to: July 30 – August 2, 2021 Abstract Examines death as portrayed in many of Lewis’s fictional and apologetic writings, and particularly in the Chronicles of Narnia. Discusses Lewis’s attitudes toward his own impending death as expressed to friends and his brother Warren. Keywords Lewis, C.S.—Attitude toward death This article is available in Mythcon Proceedings: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythpro/vol1/iss2/4 Lindskoog: Farewell to Shadowlands: C.S. Lewis on Death suooestion has been made14 that the Nine corresponded to the nine 4. JJJ 383 planets. These would be Mercury, Venus, the Earth, the Hoon, S. III 456 Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Pluto •as probably not 6. I 472 known to the astronomers of the Second AQe; Neptune is not 7.
    [Show full text]
  • <I>Screwtape Letters</I> and <I>The Great Divorce
    Volume 17 Number 1 Article 7 Fall 10-15-1990 Immortal Horrors and Everlasting Splendours: C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce Douglas Loney Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Loney, Douglas (1990) "Immortal Horrors and Everlasting Splendours: C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 17 : No. 1 , Article 7. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol17/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Sees Screwtape and The Great Divorce as constituting “something like a sub-genre within the Lewis canon.” Both have explicit religious intention, were written during WWII, and use a “rather informal, episodic structure.” Analyzes the different perspectives of each work, and their treatment of the themes of Body and Spirit, Time and Eternity, and Love.
    [Show full text]
  • SHADOWLANDS Introduction
    SHADOWLANDS Introduction ‘Shadowlands’ tells of the extraordinary love between C. S. Lewis, the famous writer and Christian academic and Joy Gresham, an American poet who came to know him first through his writing. She was to die shortly after their marriage. ‘Shadowlands’ was first a television and then a stage play and is now a film starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. This guide is for use before and after a viewing of Richard Attenborough’s film. It seeks to expand for class work the themes of love and bereavement, the risks of emotional involvement and the challenge to all faiths of pain and tragedy as well as discussing the way film tackles these difficult subjects. JACK AND JOY Olive Staples Lewis - known always as Jack - was born in 1898 in Belfast three years after the Lewis’s first son, Warren or “Warnie”. The brothers were very close, and spent much of their adult bachelor life living together near Oxford in a ramshackle house, The Kilns, known to their friends as The Midden (Old English for dung heap). What impressions do we first receive of the brothers? How does the film express briefly a little of their life “before” Joy? What do we learn during the course of the film of C. S. Lewis’s world? Apart from Joy, what other women do we “meet” in ‘Shadowlands’? How are they represented? Find out a little about Britain in the 1950s. Who was Prime Minister? When did rationing end? Why was Princess Margaret known as the “heartbreak princess”? As well as picture and library research, ask those who were alive at the time.
    [Show full text]
  • Joy Davidman Lewis: Author, Editor and Collaborator
    Volume 22 Number 2 Article 3 1998 Joy Davidman Lewis: Author, Editor and Collaborator Diana Pavlac Glyer Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Glyer, Diana Pavlac (1998) "Joy Davidman Lewis: Author, Editor and Collaborator," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 22 : No. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol22/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Biography of Joy Davidman Lewis and her influence on C.S. Lewis. Additional Keywords Davidman, Joy—Biography; Davidman, Joy—Criticism and interpretation; Davidman, Joy—Influence on C.S. Lewis; Davidman, Joy—Religion; Davidman, Joy. Smoke on the Mountain; Lewis, C.S.—Influence of Joy Davidman (Lewis); Lewis, C.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Shadowlands-Digital-Playbill-V4.Pdf
    Max McLean Founder & Artistic Director Presents SHADOWLANDS by William Nicholson Max McLean, Founder & Artistic Director Presents by William Nicholson Featuring Daniel Gerroll Robin Abramson John C. Vennema Sean Gormley Dan Kremer Stephanie Cozart Daryll Heysham Eddie Ray Martin Video Editor Original Music & Sound Design Voice & Dialect Casting Director Matthew Gurren John Gromada Claudia Hill-Sparks Carol Hanzel Technical Director Production Manager Sound Editor Casting Consultant Brandon Cheney Lew Mead Daniel Gonko Judy Henderson, C.S.A. Marketing General Management Assistant Director Company Manager Southside Entertainment Aruba Productions Dan DuPraw Tara Murphy Executive Producer Ken Denison Directed by Christa Scott-Reed This production made possible by arrangement with The Agency (London) Ltd. 24 Pottery Lane, London W11 4LZ, [email protected] CAST OF CHARACTERS (in order of appearance) C.S. Lewis ...................................................................................... Daniel Gerroll Dr. Maurice Oakley/Gregg/Clerk/Doctor/Priest/Waiter ......Daryll Heysham Christopher Riley ........................................................................Sean Gormley Rev. Harry Harrington ....................................................................Dan Kremer Major Warnie Lewis ............................................................ John C. Vennema Woman/Registrar/Nurse .................................................... Stephanie Cozart Joy Davidman .........................................................................Robin
    [Show full text]
  • The Immanence of Heaven in the Fiction of CS Lewis and George
    Shadows that Fall: The Immanence of Heaven in the Fiction of C. S. Lewis and George MacDonald David Manley Our life is no dream; but it ought to become one, and perhaps will. (Novalis) Solids whose shadow lay Across time, here (All subterfuge dispelled) Show hard and clear. (C.S. Lewis, “Emendation for the End of Goethe’s Faust”) .S. Lewis’s impressions of heaven, including the distinctive notions ofC Shadow-lands and Sehnsucht, were shaped by George MacDonald’s fiction.1 The vision of heaven Lewis and MacDonald share is central to their stories because it constitutes the telos of their main characters; for example, the quest for heaven is fundamental to both Lewis’s The Pilgrim’s Regress and MacDonald’s “The Golden Key.” Throughout their fiction, both writers reveal a world haunted by heaven and both relate rapturous human longing after the source of earthly glimpses; both show that the highest function of art is to initiate these visions of heaven; and both describe a heaven that swallows up Earth in an all-embracing finality. The play Shadowlands is aptly named; for Lewis, the greatest earthly joys were merely intimations of another world where beauty, in Hopkins’s words, is “kept / Far with fonder a care” (“The Golden Echo” lines 44-45). He was repeatedly “surprised by Joy,” overcome with flashes ofSehnsucht during which he felt he had “tasted Heaven” (Surprised 135). For Lewis, “. heaven remembering throws / Sweet influence still on earth . .” (“The Naked Seed” 19-20). This “sweet influence” is a desire, not satisfaction; in his words, it is a “hunger better than any other fullness” (“Preface” from Pilgrim 7).
    [Show full text]
  • Unbroken – Pressbook Italiano
    Unbroken – pressbook italiano 1 Unbroken – pressbook italiano UNIVERSAL PICTURES e LEGENDARY PICTURES presentano una Produzione JOLIE PAS PRODUCTION — 3 ARTS ENTERTAINMENT Un film di ANGELINA JOLIE Da una Sceneggiatura di JOEL COEN & ETHAN COEN RICHARD LAGRAVENESE & WILLIAM NICHOLSON Tratto dal libro di LAURA HILLENBRAND “Sono ancora un uomo. Una storia epica di resistenza e coraggio” con JACK O’CONNELL DOMHNALL GLEESON MIYAVI GARRETT HEDLUND FINN WITTROCK Prodotto da ANGELINA JOLIE CLAYTON TOWNSEND MATTHEW BAER ERWIN STOFF Produttori Esecutivi MICK GARRIS THOMAS TULL JON JASHNI Direttore della Fotografia ROGER DEAKINS Uscita Italiana: 29 Gennaio 2015 Durata del Film: 130 minuti Il materiale fotografico è disponibile sul sito www.upimedia.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Unbrokenilfilm Instagram:http://instagram.com/Unbrokenit/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/Unbrokenilfilm Ufficio Stampa Universal Pictures International Italy: Cristina Casati – [email protected] Marina Caprioli – [email protected] Matilde Marinai – [email protected] 2 Unbroken – pressbook italiano Introduzione "La prima volta che ho avuto modo di parlare con Louie Zamperini, è stato per telefono, nel primo pomeriggio di più di dieci anni fa, quando ero alla ricerca di una bella storia. Ascoltando i racconti della sua vita movimentata, avventurosa e piena di imprevisti sapevo di aver trovato non solo una bella storia da scrivere: avevo trovato forse la storia di vita più straordinaria che avessi mai ascoltato. Mi meravigliai ad ogni svolta del racconto: la giovinezza turbolenta; la velocità superlativa che lo ha portato alle Olimpiadi e l’ incontro con Hitler; le ore strazianti da bombardiere della Seconda Guerra Mondiale; l’ incidente aereo; il naufragio sulla zattera di salvataggio durato 47 giorni a 2000 miglia; l’incontro con gli squali; il tifone; la fame; la cattura; la lotta epica di un prigioniero di guerra; gli anni segnati dai postumi del terrore tipico del disturbo post-traumatico da stress (DPTS); ed il bel momento finale di redenzione.
    [Show full text]
  • Movie Museum AUGUST 2015 COMING ATTRACTIONS
    Movie Museum AUGUST 2015 COMING ATTRACTIONS THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY 2 Hawaii Premieres! Hawaii Premiere! ANTHONY ZIMMER FAR FROM THE EDO CASTLE HUGH AND HEKE ABOUT HER BROTHER (2005-France) MADDING CROWD REBELLION (2010-New Zealand) (2010-Japan) French w/Eng subtitles ws (2015-UK/US) in widescreen in English, in widescreen Japanese w/Eng subtitles ws aka Edo-jo tairan with Sayuri Yoshinaga. with Sophie Marceau, with Carey Mulligan (1991-Japan) Directed by Reston Griffiths. Director: Yôji Yamada. Yvan Attal. 11:00am, 3:45 & 5:45pm Japanese w/Eng subtitles, ws 12:00 & 6:15pm 11:00am, 2:45 & 6:30pm 11:30am, 3:00 & 6:30pm ---------------------------------- with Hiroki Matsukata. --------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ---------------------------------- Hawaii Premiere! 11:00am, 3:30 & 8:00pm FAR FROM THE Hawaii Premiere! Hawaii Premiere! DREAMS FOR SALE ---------------------------------- MADDING CROWD HUGH AND HEKE PEACE aka Yume uru futari DREAMS FOR SALE (2015-UK/US) (2010-US/Japan/South Korea) (2010-New Zealand) (2012-Japan) aka Yume uru futari in widescreen Japanese w/Eng subtitles, ws in English, in widescreen Japanese w/Eng subtitles, ws (2012-Japan) Carey Mulligan, Matthias A highly original doc about Directed by Reston Griffiths. Sadao Abe, Takako Matsu Japanese w/Eng subtitles, ws Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen. people, cats and society. 1:15, 4:45 & 8:15pm 1:15 & 8:00pm 6 7 1:00 & 5:30pm 8 1:45, 4:00 & 8:00pm 9 1:15, 5:00 & 8:45pm 10 Hawaii Premiere! 2 Hawaii Premieres! Hawaii Premiere! Hawaii Premiere! 5 FLIGHTS UP A LA MALA LOL (Laughing Out Loud) PEACE (2014-US) LOL (Laughing Out Loud) (2015-Mexico) (2008-France) (2010-US/Japan/South Korea) in widescreen (2008-France) Spanish w/Eng subtitles, ws French w/Eng subtitles, ws Japanese w/Eng subtitles, ws Diane Keaton, Morgan French w/Eng subtitles, ws Director: Pedro Pablo Ibarra with Sophie Marceau, A highly original doc about Freeman, Cynthia Nixon.
    [Show full text]
  • Shadowlands Script
    Shadowlands, A Summary of the Story in the Movie Pre-movie notes: comment on The Magician’s Nephew, Fred Paxford, and the Common Room. 90-minute version starts with High Table, Jack says, “Why am I so afraid? … shadows. Real life hasn’t begun.” 73-minute version starts with a BBC address by Lewis. Radio Voice: “The time is just coming up to ten minutes to 3. We are now broadcasting the sixth in a series of eight talks by the writer C. S. Lewis, best known for his imaginative fables The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Screwtape Letters. This afternoon his theme is Christian marriage.” Jack: “I must begin by making it plain that I have never been married myself. However, the Christian idea of marriage is not based on the experience of individual men and women, but on the teaching of Christ, that is, that marriage is for life.” [laughter] Christopher: “And now the honorable professor plain Jack Lewis will make another very complicated question very simple. This week infanticide. Infanticide is a long word, isn’t it? Let me put it to you in the bluff common man’s language that has made me so popular among bluff common men.” Jack: “I don’t believe you heard a word of it.” Christopher: “A noble address, Jack. Judiciously navigated.” Jack: “Shouldn’t I have said that I’ve not been married?” Clergyman: “Not at all. The personal touch.” Jack: “Anyway I don’t see that it makes any difference. We don’t expect those who teach us sexual morality to be practicing fornicators.” Fellow: “I shouldn’t play that card too often.” Jack: Fellow: “The expert on marriage who’s never been married.
    [Show full text]
  • Mapping the British Biopic: Evolution, Conventions, Reception and Masculinities
    Mapping the British Biopic: Evolution, Conventions, Reception and Masculinities Matthew Robinson A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education, University of the West of England, Bristol June 2016 90,792 words Contents Abstract 2 Chapter One: Introduction 3 Chapter Two: Critical Review 24 Chapter Three: Producing the British Biopic 1900-2014 63 Chapter Four: The Reception of the British Biopic 121 Chapter Five: Conventions and Themes of the British 154 Biopic Chapter Six: This is His Story: ‘Wounded’ Men and 200 Homosocial Bonds Chapter Seven: The Contemporary British Biopic 1: 219 Wounded Men Chapter Eight: The Contemporary British Biopic 2: 263 Homosocial Recoveries Chapter Nine: Conclusion 310 Bibliography 323 General Filmography 355 Appendix One: Timeline of the British Biopic 1900-2014 360 Appendix Two: Distribution of Gender and Professional 390 Field in the British Biopic 1900-2014 Appendix Three: Column and Pie Charts of Gender and 391 Profession Distribution in British Biopics Appendix Four: Biopic Production as Proportion of Total 394 UK Film Production Previously Published Material 395 1 Abstract This thesis offers a revaluation of the British biopic, which has often been subsumed into the broader ‘historical film’ category, identifying a critical neglect despite its successful presence throughout the history of the British film industry. It argues that the biopic is a necessary category because producers, reviewers and cinemagoers have significant investments in biographical subjects, and because biopics construct a ‘public history’ for a broad audience.
    [Show full text]
  • Production Begins Next Month for New C.S. Lewis Motion Picture Production Begins Next Month for New C.S
    HOME > C.S. LEWIS > C.S. LEWIS MOVIES > Production Begins Next Month for New C.S. Lewis Motion Picture Production Begins Next Month for New C.S. Lewis Motion Picture August 30, 2020 • David Sutton • C.S. Lewis Movies Tomorrow Max McLean of Fellowship for Performing Arts will fly to the United Kingdom where he will begin shooting on location for the motion picture film adaptation of C.S. Lewis The Most Reluctant Convert. Fellowship for Performing Arts has amazed audiences with top notch C.S. Lewis stage productions The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, Shadowlands, and C.S. Lewis The Most Reluctant Convert. The material that this movie is based upon is Max McLean’s one man stage play that chronicles the Narnia author’s journey from atheism to Christianity (NarniaFans.com 4 Shield Review). Although a filmed from the stage version of this production is already available on DVD, the new movie version will be entirely different with a full cast shoot- ing at historic locations from C.S. Lewis’s life. “The difference about this play is it’s going to be on location all over Oxford. We have full access to Maudlin College, The Kilns, the church, [and] various other places that are mentioned in the play. Instead of it being a one person show, it’s going to be a multi-actor show. I’ll play the older Lewis, we’ll have a boy Lewis, a young Lewis in his 20’s, cast his mother, his father, Tolkien, Barfield, Kirk, among others, and that is going to begin shortly.” – Max McLean In March 2020 the entire world of Fellowship for Performing Arts came to a complete standstill.
    [Show full text]
  • Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis - Cancer Returns
    Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis - Cancer Returns Who was Joy Davidman Gresham before she married C.S. Lewis? Among other things, she was an extremely intelligent woman who was a poet, a thinker, a teacher, a mother and ... a wife (although her marriage, to William “Bill” Lindsay Gresham, ended in divorce). She later wrote about what caused her to leave Bill (who had called her, one night, to say that he was having a nervous breakdown and couldn’t come home): By nightfall there was nothing left to do but wait and see if he turned up, alive or dead. I put the babies [her two sons with Gresham, David and Douglas] to sleep and waited. For the first time in my life I felt helpless; for the first time my pride was forced to admit that I was not, after all, “the master of my own fate” and “the captain of my soul.” All my defenses—the walls of arrogance and cocksureness and self-love behind which I hid from God—went down momentarily. And God came in. (From Out of My Bone: The Letters of Joy Davidman, edited by Don W. King, at page 128.) Several days later, Bill returned home ... and found another woman with whom he thought he'd make a life. Joy was on her own. With an apparently irreparable marriage, Joy left her two sons with a cousin (Renee) and sailed to England in 1952. She wanted to consult with a writer and thinker whom she greatly respected—C.S. Lewis. Staying with her friend, Phyllis Williams, Joy left London for a day-trip to Oxford.
    [Show full text]