Webinars
Our Most Recent Webinar
“Writing and the Problem of Christianity” – A Webinar with Brian Brown
Brian is the founder and director of the Anselm Society, a Colorado-based organization dedicated to a renaissance of the Christian imagination. Since receiving his B.A. in political theory from Princeton, Brian has worked for various think tanks and as a strategy consultant with over a hundred organizations in the theology, worldview, and culture space. He is a speaker and the author of numerous articles and essays. He was a contributing author to “Why Place Matters,” edited by Wilfred McClay, and co-editor of the Anselm Society’s book Why We Create.
Past Webinars
“‘Closer to the Spirit of Christ’: An Introduction to George MacDonald”: Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson
Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson is a George MacDonald Scholar based in the Ottawa Valley, Canada. She lectures internationally and publishes widely in books, journals, and online, on topics related to MacDonald; 19th century literature and faith; the Inklings; Faith, Arts, & Imagination; Ecology and Community; etc. She features in the documentary “Fantasy Makers: Tolkien, Lewis, and MacDonald,” and is guest on numerous podcasts and YouTube videos. An alum of Regent College and St Andrew’s ‘Institute of Theology, Imagination, and the Arts,’ Kirstin directs Windstone Farm Linlathen, a non-profit that seeks to facilitate and cultivate community, through ‘Theology, Ecology, & the Arts.’ Links to her academic work can be found at kirstinjeffreyjohnson.com.
“Temptation and Grace: With Jesus in the Wilderness”: A Webinar with Malcolm Guite
Malcolm Guite is an English poet, singer-songwriter, Anglican priest, and academic. His research interests include the intersection of religion and the arts, and the examination of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield, and British poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was a Bye-Fellow and chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge, and associate chaplain of St Edward King and Martyr, Cambridge.
Guite is the author of several books of poetry, including Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year (2012), The Singing Bowl (2013), and his most recent book David’s Crown (2021), among others. He has also written several books on Christian faith and theology, such as Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (2017) and Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination (2012). He has a decisively simple, formalist style in his poems, many of which are sonnets, and he stated that his aim is to “be profound without ceasing to be beautiful.” You can learn more about Malcolm Guite at his website.
“C.S. Lewis in America”: A Webinar with Mark Noll
Mark Noll is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. His books and most of his courses treat subjects related to the history of Christianity in the United States, Canada, and the modern world. He is the author of America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (2002), The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (2006), God and Race in American Politics: A Short History (2008), The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith (2009), Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind (2011), Protestantism: A Very Short Introduction (2011), In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life, 1492-1783 (2016), co-author of Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia (2011), and co-editor of Protestantism after 500 Years (2016). His most recent book is C. S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935–1947 (Hansen Lectureship Series) (2023).
Professor Noll is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 2004 to 2005 he served as the Maguire Fellow in American History and Ethics at the Library of Congress. In November 2006 he received the National Humanities Medal, and he has been the recipient of three year-long fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“Emerging from the Underground: Chinese Christians & the Search for a Mature Faith” – Yucheng Bai
Yucheng Bai is a PhD candidate in Religion at Duke University, writing a dissertation on modern Chinese and American church histories. He was born in China and raised as an atheist, but began to question this worldview during in his teenage years. After a long period of seeking, he became a Christian during his undergraduate studies in the U.S., and started to study Christianity academically. He has an MA in Chinese history from Columbia University and a Master’s in Theological Studies from Duke Divinity School.
“The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art” – A Webinar with Christian Wiman
Christian Wiman is the author, editor, or translator of ten books, including Hammer is the Prayer: Selected Poems, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, and Every Riven Thing: Poems. Mr. Wiman is Professor of the Practice of Religion and Literature at Yale University, and has been a Jones Lecturer in Poetry at Stanford and a visiting assistant professor of English at Northwestern. From 2003 until 2013 he was the editor of Poetry magazine, the premiere magazine for poetry in the English-speaking world. Mr. Wiman has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, the Atlantic Monthly, and numerous other publications. He is a former Guggenheim Fellow and holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters from North Central College. His particular interests include modern poetry, the language of faith, “accidental” theology (that is, theology conducted by unexpected means), and what it means to be a Christian intellectual in a secular culture. His most recent book Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair, was released on December 5, 2023.
“The Major & the Missionary” – A Webinar with Diana Pavlac Glyer
Dr. Glyer is a professor in the Honors College at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California where she teaches literature, history, theology, and philosophy in an integrated Great Books curriculum. She is also an award-winning writer whose research focuses on C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Inklings. Her books include The Company They Keep (2008), Bandersnatch (2015), and The Major & The Missionary (2023). She has also authored a series of Christian devotional books called Clay in the Potter’s Hands: Recognizing the Extraordinary Work of God in Your Ordinary, Everyday Life. A new edition of this book revised specifically for artists and students in ceramics classes is forthcoming from Square Halo Press. At present, she is collaborating with Abigail Dengler on a series of books designed to inspire writers step-by-step as they make their way from blank pages to finished manuscripts. The first book in the Writer’s Foundation series will be launched in Spring 2024.
“Baseball, Enchantment, and Children’s Literature” – A Conversation with David Bentley Hart
David Bentley Hart is a philosopher, religious studies scholar, translator, and devoted Baltimore Orioles fan. He has written many books and articles, most recently two 2022 books Tradition and Apocalypse and You Are Gods. He has also translated the New Testament, the second edition of which was published in 2023. In addition to his scholarly works such as Atheist Delusions (for which he was awarded the Michael Ramsey Prize), The Experience of God, and That All Shall Be Saved, Hart has lately devoted time to fiction and creative nonfiction, writing the novel Kenogaia; the children’s fairy-tale The Mystery of Castle MacGorilla, which he co-authored with his son; and Roland in Moonlight, a memoir and dialogue with his dog Roland that was one of 2021’s Books of the Year for the Times Literary Supplement. He writes regularly on his substack Leaves in the Wind.
“Serious, Constant Desire: Joy in C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce” – A Webinar with Joy Marie Clarkson
Joy Marie Clarkson is a research associate in theology and literature at King’s College London. She is the Books and Culture Editor for Plough Quarterly, and hosts a popular podcast and Substack about culture and theology called “Speaking with Joy.” She wrote Aggressively Happy: A Realist’s Guide to Believing In the Goodness of Life, and her second book You Are a Tree: And Other Metaphors to Nourish Life, Thought, and Prayer was released in 2024.
“Substituting the Sign for the Symbol” – A Webinar with Sørina Higgins
May 25, 2023
Sørina Higgins is the Editor-in-Chief of the Signum University Press; she also serves on the faculty of Signum’s SPACE program and of the M.A. in Lit & Lang. Dr. Higgins holds a Ph.D. from Baylor University. Her academic interests include British and Irish Modernism, the Inklings, Arthuriana, theatre, magic, the occult, and ecocriticism. Her dissertation, entitled From Thaumaturgy to Dramaturgy, looks at modernist British and Irish playwrights who were initiated members of occult secret societies, examining how their ceremonial magic rituals influenced their plays, and consequently what role alternative spiritualities played in modernist literature.
Sørina earned her M.A. from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English, where she wrote about Sehnsucht in the works of C. S. Lewis. Dr. Higgins is currently co-editing a volume on the ethical turn in speculative fiction with Dr. Brenton Dickieson and previously edited an academic essay collection entitled The Inklings and King Arthur: J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield on the Matter of Britain (Apocryphile Press, 2017), winner of the 2018 Mythopoeic Society Inklings Scholarship Award. She wrote the introduction to a new edition of Charles Williams’s Taliessin through Logres (Apocryphile, 2016) and edited and introduced Williams’s early play The Chapel of the Thorn (Apocryphile, 2014). Her scholarship appears in International Yeats Studies, The T. S. Eliot Studies Annual, VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center, The Journal of Inklings Studies, Mythlore, and Penumbra. She is also the author of the blog The Oddest Inkling, devoted to a systematic study of Charles Williams’ works. As a creative writer, Sørina has a volume of short stories, A Handful of Hazelnuts, forthcoming from Signum’s own press. She previously published two books of poetry, Caduceus (David Robert Books, 2012) & The Significance of Swans (Finishing Line Press, 2008). You can visit her website at sorinahiggins.com.
“Faith-Keeping in Story and Song” – A Webinar with Matthew Clark
April 20, 2023
Matthew Clark is a singer/songwriter and storyteller from Mississippi. He has recorded several full length albums, including a Bible walk-through called “Bright Came the Word from His Mouth” and “Beautiful Secret Life”, a collection of songs highlighting, in George Herbert’s phrase, “heaven in ordinary.” Matthew hosts a weekly podcast, “One Thousand Words – Stories on the Way”, featuring essays reflecting on faith-keeping. A touring musician and speaker, Matthew travels sharing songs and stories. Whether it’s a song, podcast, meal, or an essay, Matthew loves to “make things that make room for people to meet Jesus.”
“The Well Trilogy” is Matthew’s current project: 3 full-length album/book combos releasing over 3 years. Each installment is made up of 11 songs and a companion book of 13 essays written by a variety of contributors exploring themes around encountering Jesus, faith-keeping, and the return of Christ. Part One, Only the Lover Sings, was released in May 2022; Part Two, A Tale of Two Trees, was released June 2, 2023. You can learn more about Matthew at his website, www.matthewclark.net.
“C.S. Lewis & Objectivity” – A Webinar with Dr. Jerry Root
March 16, 2023
Jerry Root is Emeritus Professor of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois and a visiting Professor at Biola University. Jerry received a Master of Divinity degree from Talbot Graduate School of Theology and earned his Ph.D. through the Open University at the Oxford Center for Mission Studies. He has been studying C. S. Lewis and topics around Lewis for 53 years, as well as teaching Lewis for 43 years. His books include: the bestselling and award winning The Quotable C. S. Lewis, co-edited with Wayne Martindale; The Soul of C. S. Lewis, also co-authored with Wayne Martindale; C. S. Lewis and a Problem of Evil (Princeton Theological Monographs); The Surprising Imagination of C. S. Lewis, and The Neglected C. S. Lewis, both co-authored with Mark Neal; The C. S. Lewis Bible, co-edited with Douglas Gresham (Lewis’s step-son); The Sacrament of Evangelism, co-authored with Stan Guthrie; and Naked and Unashamed, coauthored with Claudia Root & Jeremy Rios.
Recently, Jerry published Splendour in the Dark a book about C. S. Lewis’s narrative poem Dymer (the book also includes Lewis’s 100-page poem). Jerry has also written numerous articles about C. S. Lewis and evangelism published in other books, journals, and periodicals, as well as read numerous academic papers at various academic venues.
“The Power of Friendship” – A Webinar with Sheridan Voysey
February 25, 2023
Sheridan Voysey is a writer, speaker, broadcaster, and founder of FriendshipLab.org. He is the author of eight books, including The Making of Us: Who We Can Become When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned, and Resurrection Year: Turning Broken Dreams into New Beginnings, and is a featured writes for Our Daily Bread, a devotional read by 60 million people daily. Sheridan is a regular presenter of Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2, Europe’s largest broadcaster, and has conducted over 2000 radio interviews in his 25-year broadcast career. He speaks at conferences and events around the world, and has been featured on numerous TV and radio programs including BBC Breakfast, BBC News, Day of Discovery, 100 Huntley Street, CBC’s Tapestry, and in publications like The Times, Telegraph, and Christianity Today. You can learn more about him at his website, www.sheridanvoysey.com.
“Streams in the Wasteland” – A Webinar with Josh Tiessen
January 26, 2023
Josh Tiessen was born in 1995 in Moscow, Russia. He is an international award-winning contemporary artist, based near Toronto, Canada. Tiessen is best known for his hyper-surreal shaped oil paintings, which take up to 1700 hours to complete, and reflect the interaction between the natural world and human-made structures, drawing upon his studies in philosophy, theology, and environmentalism.
Mentored by acclaimed Canadian wildlife artist Robert Bateman, Tiessen has exhibited his work since 2006 in over 100 shows including the National Gallery of Canada and prestigious galleries throughout the United States. He has sold over 150 original works to private and corporate Canadian and international collectors. As a teenager, he was juried in as the youngest member of International Guild of Realism, Artists for Conservation, and Society of Animal Artists. Over 60 awards include the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Canada’s Top 20 Under 20, and numerous international awards.
As a young adult, Art Renewal Center designated him Associate Living Master, and New York-based gallery Jonathan LeVine Projects awarded him first place from 2000 artists in their international competition. LeVine presented the emerging artist’s debut international solo exhibition, Streams in the Wasteland, in May 2019. His next solo exhibition will take place at Rehs Contemporary Gallery in Manhattan this Spring.
Appearing over 200 times in the press and media for his art and philanthropy, Tiessen is also a sought-after speaker and writer, having been published in magazines such as Christianity Today’s Ekstasis and Love Is Moving. He is the author of two art monographs books, including his latest release Streams in the Wasteland, which features paintings and written commentary inspired by Isaiah and biblical themes of creation care.
He holds a Bachelor of Religious Education in Arts, Biblical Studies, and Philosophy, and is currently studying toward a Master of Arts. In spite of early success, Tiessen humbly acknowledges that his artistic talent is a gift from God. You can learn more about him at his website.
“Abolition of Man: Classical Education as a Bridge Between Traditions” – A Webinar with Angel Adams Parham
November 10, 2022
Angel Adams Parham is Associate Professor of Sociology and senior fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture (IASC) at the University of Virginia. She works in the area of historical sociology, engaging in research and writing that examine the past in order to better understand how to live well in the present and envision wisely for the future. This research focus is rooted in her interest in re-connecting sociology to its classical roots so that sociology is understood to be a kind of public philosophy animated by questions such as: What is a good society? and What kinds of social arrangements are most conducive to human flourishing?
She is the author of American Routes: Racial Palimpsests and the Transformation of Race (Oxford, 2017), which was co-winner of the Social Science History Association’s Allan Sharlin Memorial book award (2018) and co-winner of the American Sociological Association’s Barrington Moore award in comparative-historical sociology (2018). In addition to this research, she is active in public-facing teaching and scholarship where she provides resources and training for K-12 educators who are looking to better integrate Black writers and Black history into their teaching. A book related to this work comes out in the summer of 2022 and is entitled The Black Intellectual Tradition: Reading Freedom in Classical Literature.
Parham’s public-facing work has also led her to become the co-founder and executive director of Nyansa Classical Community, an educational organization which provides curricula and programming designed to connect with students from diverse backgrounds, inviting them to take part in the Great Conversation, cultivate the moral imagination, and pursue truth, goodness, and beauty. She has been a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, as well as the recipient of a Fulbright grant. She received her bachelor’s degree from Yale University and completed her doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Compassion & Conviction” – A Webinar with Justin Giboney
October 26, 2022
Justin Giboney is an attorney, political strategist and ordained minister in Atlanta, GA. He is also the Co-Founder and President of the AND Campaign, which is a coalition of urban Christians who are determined to address the sociopolitical arena with the compassion and conviction of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Mr. Giboney has managed successful campaigns for elected officials in the state and referendums relating to the city’s transportation and water infrastructure.
In 2012 and 2016, Georgia’s 5th congressional district elected him as a delegate for the Democratic National Convention. A former Vanderbilt University football player and law student, Justin served on the Urban League of Greater Atlanta Board of Directors. He’s the co-author of Compassion (&) Conviction – The AND Campaign’s Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement and has written op-eds for publications such as Christianity Today and The Hill.
“Our Civilizational Moment” – A Webinar with Os Guinness
September 1, 2022
Os Guinness is an author and social critic. Great-great-great grandson of Arthur Guinness, the Dublin brewer, he was born in China in World War Two where his parents were medical missionaries. A witness to the climax of the Chinese revolution in 1949, he was expelled with many other foreigners in 1951 and returned to Europe where he was educated in England. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of London and his D.Phil in the social sciences from Oriel College, Oxford. Os has written or edited more than thirty books, including The Call, Time for Truth, Unspeakable, A Free People’s Suicide, The Global Public Square, Last Call for Liberty, Carpe Diem Redeemed, and The Magna Carta of Humanity. His latest book is The Great Quest: Invitation to the Examined Life and a Sure Path to Meaning, published in 2022. Since moving to the United States in 1984, Os has been a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies, a Guest Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum and the EastWest Institute in New York. He was the lead drafter of the Williamsburg Charter in 1988, a celebration of the bicentennial of the US Constitution, and later of “The Global Charter of Conscience,” which was published at the European Union Parliament in 2012. Os has spoken at many of the world’s major universities, and spoken widely to political and business conferences across the world. He lives with his wife Jenny in the Washington DC area.
“Work that Enfaiths – Creative in the Image of God” – A Webinar with Mischa Willett
May 19, 2022
Mischa Willett (Ph.D.) is author of two books of poetry, including The Elegy Beta (2020) and Phases (2017) as well as of essays, translations, and reviews that appear in both popular and academic journals. A specialist in nineteenth century aesthetics, he teaches English at Seattle Pacific University.
“Baptized Imagination”- The Romantic Theology of the Inklings: A Webinar with Northwind Seminary
April 30, 2022
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring Northwind Seminary faculty Michael Christensen, Terry Glaspey, Charlie Starr, and Crystal Hurd.
“A romantic theologian does not mean one who is romantic about theology, but one who is theological about romance, one who considers the theological implications of those experiences which are called romantic.”—C. S. Lewis in Essays Presented to Charles Williams
Ordinary Saints: A Webinar with Malcolm Guite, Bruce Herman, and J.A.C. Redford
February 6, 2022
This webinar features an interview with Malcolm Guite, Bruce Herman, and J.A. Redford with our moderator, Amber Salladin on their collaborative artistic Ordinary Saints Project. Poet Guite, painter Herman, and composer Redford have joined together in an artistic/theological exploration of “facing”—toward the unguarded gaze into the face of the Other (including those we love and also the face of the stranger) as a means of seeking the Face of God. Herman’s intimate portraits, Guite’s poetic responses to the paintings, and Redford’s musical setting of these other art forms has resulted in an inspiring model of true collaboration that welcomes the reader, the listener, and the viewer into an intimate communion of art and worship. The Program | Ordinary Saints (ordinary-saints.com)
Reviving Intellectual Hospitality: A Webinar with Cherie Harder
January 27, 2022
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring Trinity Forum President Cherie Harder. Cherie gives a short presentation on the topic of intellectual hospitality, followed by an interview from our moderator, C.S. Lewis Foundation President, Steven Elmore, along with a Q&A session with questions from our audience.
Cherie Harder serves as President of the Trinity Forum. Prior to joining the Trinity Forum in 2008, Ms. Harder served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Policy and Projects for First Lady Laura Bush. Earlier in her career she served as Policy Advisor to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, advising the Leader on domestic social issues and serving as liaison and outreach director to outside groups. From 2001 to 2005, she was Senior Counselor to the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), where she helped the Chairman design and launch the We the People initiative to enhance the teaching, study, and understanding of American history. Prior to that Ms. Harder was the Policy Director for Senator Sam Brownback and also served as Deputy Policy Director at Empower America. She is also a Senior Fellow at Cardus, an Editorial Board member of Comment magazine, a past board member of Gordon College and the C.S. Lewis Institute, a current board member of the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution and Faith and Law, and an advisory board member of the National Museum of American Religion.
Overcoming the Enemy Every Writer Faces – Dragon slaying 101
From our C.S. Lewis Retreat on Saturday, December 4, 2021
Every writer knows the experience. We don’t need others to tell us about it, we know it intimately. We have faced it since the first time we felt the call to write with intention. As writers and sub-creators, we face a foe that stands between us and the incarnation of words that give meaning and substance to the unseen. This experience of opposition is real, and it is common to every writer. It is also a force that can be resisted and successfully overcome. Dragons can be slain. We need to know how to name them and how to resist them.
In this Writer’s Track breakout session, Lancia E. Smith, founder of The Cultivating Project, gives a look at the calling of writers to their vocation, the origin and forms that opposition can take, and effective methods for overcoming that opposing force.
This breakout session, recorded live at the 2021 C.S. Lewis Retreat, includes two videos: 1) a filmed presentation talk from Lancia, followed by 2) a live-streamed interview session between Steven Elmore, President of the C.S. Lewis Foundation, and Lancia.
NOTE: Please watch the presentation video prior to the interview session.
Why Is There Suffering?: A webinar with Bethany Sollereder
Saturday, November 13, 2021
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring Dr. Bethany Sollereder. Bethany will give a short presentation on her newly released book Why Is There Suffering?, which discusses various historical and cultural approaches to the problem of pain. The presentation will be followed by an interview from our moderator, Christopher Howell, along with a Q&A session with questions from our audience.
Bethany Sollereder is a Research Fellow at the Laudato Si’ Research Institute at Campion Hall, at the University of Oxford. She specializes in theology concerning evolution and the problem of suffering and is currently working on the theological aspects of our changing climate. Bethany received her PhD in Theology from the University of Exeter and an MCS in interdisciplinary studies from Regent College, Vancouver. She is the author of God, Evolution, and Animal Suffering: Theodicy Without a Fall (Routledge, 2018). She also works with BioLogos, God and the Big Bang, Learning About Science And Religion (LASAR), and has written for popular publications such as The Christian Century. Bethany also lived at “The Kilns” for several years as a Scholar-In-Residence.
The Most Curious Omission in C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves: A webinar with Jason Lepojarvi
Thursday, October 14, 2021
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring C.S. Lewis scholar Jason Lepojarvi. Jason will give a short presentation on C.S. Lewis’s definition of love in his book The Four Loves. The presentation will be followed by an interview from our moderator, Amber Salladin, along with a Q&A session with questions from our audience.
Born to a Canadian mother and a Finnish father, Dr. Jason Lepojärvi obtained a Ph.D. in Theology at the University of Helsinki. His dissertation God Is Love but Love Is Not God (2015) analyzed the brilliance and blindspots C.S. Lewis’s ideas of love. At Oxford University, Jason served as the Junior Research Fellow in Theology at St. Benet’s Hall and the President of the Oxford University C.S. Lewis Society. In 2018 he took up the position of Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Thorneloe University in Ontario, Canada, where he taught a number of courses on the Inklings. He continues to offer Oxford-style tutorials through his website StudyCSLewis.com.
Glimpses of God – Art, Contemplation, and Prayer: A webinar with Terry Glaspey
Saturday, August 28, 2021
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring author Terry Glaspey. Mr. Glaspey gives a short presentation on how the arts can guide and assist us in prayer and contemplation. It is followed by an interview from our moderator, Christopher Howell, along with a Q&A session with questions from our audience.
Terry Glaspey is a writer, editor, creative mentor, teacher, and someone who finds various forms of art—painting, films, novels, poetry, and music—to be some of the places where he most deeply connects with God.
He has written over a dozen books, including 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know: Fascinating Stories Behind Great Art, Music, Literature, and Film, Not a Tame Lion: The Spiritual Legacy of C.S. Lewis, The Prayers of Jane Austen, 25 Keys to Life-Changing Prayer, Bible Basics for Everyone, and others. His most recent book, Discovering God Through the Arts, was released in February 2021. Terry teaches at Northwind Institute in the Romantic Theology and Spiritual Formation programs. He has been the recipient of several major national awards for his writing. He has also been the recipient of a number of other awards, including a distinguished alumni award and the Advanced Speakers and Writers Editor of the Year award.
Terry enjoys writing and speaking about a variety of topics including creativity and spirituality, the artistic heritage of the Christian faith, the writing of C.S. Lewis, and creative approaches to apologetics.
5 Things I Learned From Warnie Lewis: Webinar with Dr. Don King
Saturday, June 26, 2021
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring professor Don King. Dr. King gives a short presentation on what he’s learned about C.S. Lewis’s brother Warren (“Warnie”) Lewis while writing his upcoming book Soldier, Writer, Inkling: A Life of Warren Hamilton Lewis. It is followed by an interview from our moderator, Scott Key, along with a Q&A session with questions from our audience.
On the faculty of Montreat College since 1974, Don W. King is a Faculty Fellow and Professor of English. From from 1999 to 2015 he served as Editor of the Christian Scholar’s Review. His essays and reviews have appeared in Books & Culture, Christianity and Literature, SEVEN: An Anglo-American Literary Review, Literature and Religion, The Journal of Inklings Studies, and Studies in the Literary Imagination, and he contributed articles on C. S. Lewis’ poetry to The C. S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia and to C. S. Lewis—Life, Works, and Legacy. He is author of C. S. Lewis, Poet: The Legacy of His Poetic Impulse (Kent State University Press, 2001), Hunting the Unicorn: A Critical Biography of Ruth Pitter (Kent State University Press, 2008), Out of My Bone: The Letters of Joy Davidman (William B. Eerdmans, 2009), Taking Every Thought Captive: Forty Years of the Christian Scholar’s Review (Abilene Christian University Press, 2011), Plain to the Inward Eye: Selected Essays on C. S. Lewis (Abilene Christian University Press, 2013), The Letters of Ruth Pitter: Silent Music (University of Delaware Press, 2014), The Collected Poems of C. S. Lewis: A Critical Edition (Kent State University Press, 2015), A Naked Tree: Joy Davidman’s Love Sonnets to C. S. Lewis and Other Poems (William B. Eerdmans, 2015), Yet One More Spring: A Critical Study of Joy Davidman (William B. Eerdmans, 2015), and Sudden Heaven: The Collected Poems of Ruth Pitter, A Critical Edition (Kent State University Press, 2018). His current writing project is Soldier, Writer, Inkling: A Life of Warren Hamilton Lewis.
How to Cultivate Wisdom in an Information Age: Webinar with Brett McCracken
May 13, 2021
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring writer Brett McCracken.
Brett will give a short presentation on “How to Cultivate Wisdom in in the Information Age.” It will be related to his recent book The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World. An interview session with our moderator, Amber Salladin, will follow. Attendees will have the chance to ask questions throughout the interview.
Brett McCracken is a senior editor and director of communications for The Gospel Coalition.
He is the author of The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World (Crossway, 2021), Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community (Crossway, 2017), Hipster Christianity: When Church & Cool Collide (Baker, 2010), and Gray Matters: Navigating the Space Between Legalism & Liberty (Baker, 2013). He has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN.com, Christianity Today, and many other publications.
A graduate of Wheaton College and UCLA (M.A. in Cinema & Media Studies), Brett lives in Santa Ana, California with his wife Kira and two sons, Chet and Ira. He is an elder at Southlands Church Santa Ana. Brett is also a former staff member of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. He served as an event and communications intern in 2005 for the C.S. Lewis “Oxbridge” Summer Institute in Oxford, England and as registrar for the 2006 C.S. Lewis Summer Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Music in Narnia – The Lion’s Song: Webinar with J.A.C. Redford
April 25, 2021
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring composer J.A.C. Redford. J.A.C. will give a short presentation on “Music in Narnia: The Lion’s Song.” It will be followed by an interview with our moderator, Amber Salladin, along with a Q&A session with questions from our audience.
J.A.C. Redford is a composer, arranger, orchestrator and conductor of concert, chamber and choral music, film, television and theater scores, and music for recordings. Artists and ensembles that have performed his work include: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Joshua Bell, Liona Boyd, Cantus, Chicago Symphony, De Angelis Vocal Ensemble, Debussy Trio, Israel Philharmonic, Kansas City Chorale, Los Angeles Chamber Singers, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Anne Akiko Meyers, Millennium Consort Singers, New York Philharmonic, Phoenix Chorale, Staatskapelle Dresden, St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Utah Chamber Artists and Utah Symphony. His music has been featured on programs at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Lincoln Center in New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and London’s Royal Albert Hall. Redford has written the scores for more than three dozen feature films, TV movies or miniseries, including The Trip to Bountiful, One Night with the King, What the Deaf Man Heard, Mama Flora’s Family and Disney’s Oliver & Company, Newsies and The Mighty Ducks II and III. He has composed the music for nearly 500 episodes of series television, including multiple seasons of Coach and St. Elsewhere (for which he received two Emmy nominations). His incidental music has been heard in theatrical productions at the Matrix Theater in Los Angeles and South Coast Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa, California, as well as in the American Playhouse series on PBS. Collaborating with other artists, Redford has orchestrated, arranged or conducted for Academy Award-winning composers, James Horner, Alan Menken, Randy Newman and Rachel Portman, as well as for Terence Blanchard, Danny Elfman, Mark Isham, Thomas Newman, Marc Shaiman, and Cirque du Soleil’s Benoit Jutras, on projects including The Little Mermaid, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Perfect Storm, WALL-E, Avatar, The Help, The Amazing Spider-Man, Skyfall, Bridge of Spies and SPECTRE. He orchestrated and conducted Adele’s Oscar-winning title song for Skyfall, wrote arrangements for Joshua Bell’s Voice of the Violin, At Home with Friends and Musical Gifts recordings, Anne Akiko Meyers’ Serenade: The Love Album, and has written for and recorded with other Grammy Award-winning artists Steven Curtis Chapman, Placido Domingo, Bonnie Raitt and Sting. He has produced, arranged, and conducted music for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and served as a consultant for the Sundance Film Institute, a teacher in the Artists-in-Schools program for the National Endowment for the Arts, a guest lecturer at USC and UCLA, and on the Music Branch Executive Committees for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is the author of Welcome All Wonders: A Composer’s Journey, published by Baker Books. His many recordings include seven collections of his concert, chamber and choral music, The Alphabet of Revelation, Eternity Shut in a Span, Evening Wind, The Growing Season, Inside Passage, Let Beauty Be Our Memorial and Waltzing with Shadows.
Prayer in the Night: Webinar with Tish Harrison Warren
March 25, 2021
We invite you to join us during Lent for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring Rev. Tish Harrison Warren. She will give a short presentation on her book Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep. It will be followed by an interview from our moderator, Amber Salladin and a Q&A session with questions from our audience.
Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. She is the author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, which was Christianity Today’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work, or Watch, or Weep (IVP, 2021). She has worked in ministry settings for over a decade as a campus minister with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries, as an associate rector, with addicts and those in poverty through various churches and non-profit organizations, and, most recently, as the writer-in-residence at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is a monthly columnist with Christianity Today, and her articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Comment Magazine, The Point Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a founding member of The Pelican Project and a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum. She lives with her husband and three children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Christianity & Faithful Politics in a Time of Polarization: An Interview with Luke Bretherton
February 25, 2021
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring Professor Luke Bretherton. Luke will give a short presentation on “Christianity & Faithful Politics in a time of Polarization.” It will be followed by an interview from our moderator, Christopher Howell and a Q&A session with questions from our audience.
Luke Bretherton is Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Professor of Moral and Political Theology and senior fellow of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. Before joining the Duke faculty, he was Reader in Theology & Politics and convener of the Faith & Public Policy Forum at King’s College London. Alongside his scholarship, he has worked with a variety of faith-based NGOs, mission agencies, and churches around the world and been involved in on the ground political initiatives and campaigns. His books include Christianity & Contemporary Politics: The Conditions and Possibilities of Faithful Witness (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), winner of the 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing, and most recently, Christ and the Common Life: Political Theology and the Case for Democracy (Eerdmans, 2019). As well as academic work, he writes in the media (including The Guardian, The Times and The Washington Post) on topics related to religion and politics.
The Inklings, Creativity, & Community: An Online Conversation with Diana Glyer
February 12, 2021
On Friday, February 12 we are delighted to partner with The Trinity Forum to welcome award-winning author and professor Diana Glyer to an Online Conversation. Glyer is intrigued by the creative process, particularly the way that creativity thrives within small groups and creative clusters. She has written extensively on the lives and work of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their beloved community known as The Inklings.
We hope you’ll join us as we hear from Diana on the importance of collaboration and the necessity of friendship to the creative process. Especially in our ongoing season of isolation and social restrictions we want to think imaginatively about how we can cultivate friendships and communities that are generative and culture-shaping.
Behind the Story of Becoming Mrs. Lewis: An Interview with Patti Callahan Henry
January 23, 2021
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College and C.S. Lewis Foundation webinar featuring best-selling author Patti Callahan Henry. Patti presents on the writing of her book Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis, including insights she gained from researching their lives and relationship. It is followed by an interview from our moderator, Amber Salladin and a Q&A session with questions from our audience.
Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels, including Becoming Mrs. Lewis – The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis, Now a USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and the Globe and Mail bestseller. In addition, she is the recipient of The Christy Award — 2019 Winner of the “Book of the Year.” Patti is a frequent speaker at luncheons, book clubs, and women’s groups. The author is also the host of the popular seven-part original “Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast Series.” The podcast audiobook was released in January 2020. Her most recent books, The Favorite Daughter and The Perfect Love Song were released in 2019. Patti’s previous books include Losing the Moon, Between the Tides; Where the River Runs; When Light Breaks; Between the Tides; The Art of Keeping Secrets; Driftwood Summer; The Perfect Love Song: A Holiday Story; Coming Up for Air; And Then I Found You; The Stories We Tell; The Idea of Love; The Bookshop at Water’s End; and Becoming Mrs. Lewis. A finalist in the Townsend Prize for Fiction, an Indie Next Pick, an OKRA pick, and a multiple nominee for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Novel of the Year, Patti is published in numerous languages. Her articles and essays have appeared in Southern Living, PINK, Writer’s Digest, Garden and Gun, Portico Magazine, Love Magazine (UK), Red Magazine (UK), Atlanta Journal, Birmingham Magazine, and more. Her essays can also be found in anthologies and collections such as Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy; Southern Writers Writing, and State of the Heart.
The Gifts of Narnia: Father Christmas and the Advent of Aslan
December 19, 2020
Step into the Wardrobe at the end of the longest Advent of all–a hundred years of winter in Narnia. Join Andrew and Christin Lazo in this devotional study. We’ll explore the spiritual implications of the three extraordinary gifts that Father Christmas brings the children to prepare them for the coming of Aslan: strength for Peter, healing for Lucy, and help for Susan. We’ll also search the Scriptures behind these gifts and see how they point us to Christ, the Greatest Gift of All.
Andrew Lazo is a internationally-known speaker and writer specializing on C.S. Lewis and the Inklings. Andrew earned his Masters in Modern British Literature from Rice University where he was a Jacob K. Javits fellow in the Humanities. He is a frequent speaker around the U.S. and U.K. and has written several articles on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. In 2009, Andrew published Mere Christians: Inspiring Encounters with C.S. Lewis. In 2014 he also was honored to transcribe, edit, and publish a previously unknown book of C.S. Lewis,’ “Early Prose Joy,” which was Lewis’s very first spiritual autobiography. For ten years he taught English and C. S. Lewis at St. Thomas and Houston Christian High Schools in Houston. He is currently a postulant for Holy Orders, preparing for the Episcopal priesthood at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA.
Christin Ditchfield Lazo is an author, conference speaker, and syndicated radio host passionate about calling women to a deeper life — the kind of life that’s found in a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. For thirty years, Christin has been encouraging women who love Jesus, teaching them to walk with Him on a daily basis, so that they can experience a richer, deeper, more meaningful relationship with Him. As a professional freelance writer, Christin has written dozens of best-selling gospel tracts and hundreds of articles, essays, and columns for national and international magazines, such as Focus on the Family, Sports Spectrum(then a publication of Discovery House / RBC Ministries), and Power For Living. For three years, she wrote the “Everyday Theology” column for Today’s Christian (a publication of Christianity Today). She is the author of more than 75 books, translated into a dozen languages, including A Family Guide to Narnia, A Family Guide to the Bible, The Three Wise Women: A Christmas Reflection, A Way With Words, and What Women Should Know About Letting It Go. Christin speaks at conferences, retreats, banquets, and brunches around the country. For seventeen years, she hosted her own syndicated radio program, Take It To Heart!® heard daily on hundreds of stations across the United States and around the world. She’s also a frequent guest on other radio and television programs such as Midday Connection, Truth Talk Live, Dr. D. James Kennedy’s Truths That Transform, Live the Promise with Susie Larson, and Family Life Today.
Waiting on the Word
December 18, 2020
On Friday, December 18th in partnership with The Trinity Forum and The Rabbit Room we are delighted to co-host the renowned poet, singer-songwriter, and Anglican priest Malcom Guite, whose poetic works have been described by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as offering “deep resources for prayer and meditation to the reader.”
Through his poetry, Malcolm aims to restore a quietness, inner peace, and willingness to wait unfulfilled in the dark for light to come. Practicing Advent, Malcolm says, is a countercultural and subversive act. He says, “reclaiming Advent’s rich fast will restore meaning to the even richer feast when Christmas comes.” A week before Christmas, we’ll discuss the work of waiting, the nature of our wonder-filled faith, and the hope of the incarnation. We hope you’ll join us for our final Online Conversation this Advent season!”
Why a Global Pandemic Makes Scientists’ Views of Religion Matter Even More: An Interview with Elaine Howard Ecklund
October 15, 2020
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College webinar featuring professor Elaine Howard Ecklund. We ask Dr. Ecklund about her career, her research, and her faith. We specifically focus on beliefs of scientists about faith and the beliefs of the faithful about science. Joining Elaine in the conversation is moderator Christopher Howell.
Elaine Howard Ecklund is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at Rice University, as well as founding director of the Religion and Public Life Program. Ecklund is a sociologist of religion, immigration, and science who examines how individuals bring changes to religious and scientific institutions. She is the author of four books with Oxford University Press, one book with New York University Press, and numerous research articles and op-eds. Her most recent book (with colleagues) is Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion (Oxford University Press, 2019). Her forthcoming book, Why Science and Faith Need Each Other: Eight Shared Values That Move Us beyond Fear, will be published with Brazos Press, a division of Baker Books, in May 2020. She has received grants from the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Templeton World Charity Foundation, and Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Her research has been cited thousands of times by local, national, and international media. In 2013, she received Rice University’s Charles O. Duncan Award for Most Outstanding Academic Achievement and Teaching. In 2018 she gave the Gifford Lecture in Scotland and in 2019 she was President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Her most recent book on the subject of science and faith is Why Science and Faith Need Each Other: Eight Shared Values That Move Us Beyond Fear.
Creating Community in a Time of Social Distance: An Interview with Diana Pavlac Glyer
September 19, 2020
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College webinar featuring C.S. Lewis & the Inklings scholar Diana Pavlac Glyer. We ask Ms. Glyer about the Inklings, her career, and her faith. We specifically focus on the importance of building community as people of faith, particularly in this time of Covid-19 social distancing. Joining Diana in the conversation is moderator Amber Salladin.
Dr. Glyer is a professor of English at Azusa Pacific University. She has published extensively on Lewis, Tolkien, and the Inklings, including contributions to The C. S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia and C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy. She is the recipient of the Wade Center’s Clyde S. Kilby Research Grant (1997) and APU’s Chase A. Sawtell Inspirational Teaching Award (2002). She is a leading expert on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien; her book The Company They Keep changed the way we talk about these writers. Her scholarship, her teaching, and her work as an artist all circle back to one common theme: creativity thrives in community. Her most recent book on the subject is BANDERSNATCH: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings. She will be launching a second edition of her book Clay in the Potter’s Hands on September 14, 2020. www.dianaglyer.com
The Stories We Tell: An Interview with Davis Bunn
August 15, 2020
We invite you to join us for a C.S. Lewis College webinar featuring best-selling author Davis Bunn. We ask Mr. Bunn about his writing, career, faith, and thoughts on the importance of stories in our relationship with the world around us. Joining Davis in the conversation is moderator Amber Salladin.
Davis Bunn’s novels have sold in excess of eight million copies in twenty-four languages. He has appeared on numerous national bestseller lists, and his titles have been Main or Featured Selections with every major US bookclub. In the past twelve months, Davis has had multiple titles featured as ‘top picks’ and ‘starred reviews’ by Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, RT Reviews, and Booklist. Davis serves as Writer-In-Residence at Regent’s Park College, Oxford University, and until recently was Lecturer in Oxford’s new creative writing program. In 2011 his novel ‘Lion of Babylon’ was named Best Book of the Year by Library Journal. The sequel, entitled ‘Rare Earth’, won Davis his fourth Christy Award for Excellence in Fiction in 2013. In 2014 Davis was granted the Lifetime Achievement award by the Christy board of judges. More recently, Trial Run was named Best Book of The Year by Suspense Magazine. He has appeared on the cover of Southern Writers Magazine, Publishers Weekly, and Christian Retailing. Davis has written and presented a 40-part series for Moody Radio entitled ‘Silent Prayer’, which was broadcast nationwide. Davis lectures around the world on aspects of creative writing. Currently Davis is under contract to write a new television/streaming series based upon his bestselling series, Miramar Bay.
A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: An Evening with Joseph Loconte
May 27, 2020
Joseph Loconte, PhD, is an Associate Professor of History at The King’s College in New York City, where he teaches courses on Western Civilization, American Foreign Policy, and International Human Rights. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918. Mr. Loconte previously served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University, and was a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Mr. Loconte’s other books include: God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West; The Searchers: A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt; and The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler’s Gathering Storm. Mr. Loconte will be joining the Heritage Foundation in June 2020 as the Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies.