Online Zoom Forum: C S Lewis: The Spiritual, Social, and Ethical Vision in his Life and Work.

Date: Wednesday 12 February 2025.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).

Description:

Format: There will be five talks, each of 12 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.

 

Chair:

Simon Barrow:

Bio: Simon Barrow is a writer, commentator, educator and researcher with wide experience in politics, public issues, media, organisational change, ethics and religion/beliefs. He was director of the think-tank Ekklesia from 2005-2024. His book Britain Needs Change: The Politics of Hope and Labour's Challenge, co-edited with Gerry Hassan, was published by Biteback in November 2024. His latest book is Beyond Our Means: Poetry, Prose and Blue Runes (Siglum, January 2025) and will be followed by Against the Religion of Power: Telling a Different Christian Story (Ekklesia Publishing, April 2025).


Speakers:

Prof Ron Wheeler:

Title: Reading The Screwtape Letters for Instruction in Practical Theology.

Description: In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis tackles some of the difficulties and distractions faced by the developing disciple of Jesus. To aid the transformation of Christ followers, Lewis addresses four questions: What is the nature of Reality? How do we develop as followers of Christ? What should we avoid as followers of Christ? What should we engage as followers of Christ?

Bio: Ronald E. Wheeler instructs students in composition and literature courses at Johnson University in Knoxville, Tennessee (fall 1977 to present). He also taught rhetorical studies for Tusculum College at the Knoxville campus (May 1995 through October 2006). He teaches an adult fellowship of readers at Woodlawn Christian Church. Ron and his wife, Martha, have two adult children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.



Prof Jim Beitler:

Title: Reading as a Spiritual Practice: Lessons from C.S. Lewis’s Library.

Description: This talk explores what C.S. Lewis’s notes in his books have to teach us about reading as a spiritual and ethical practice.

Bio: Jim Beitler is the Director of the Marion E. Wade Center and a Professor of English at Wheaton College, where he holds the Marion E. Wade Chair of Christian Thought. His scholarship focuses on the rhetoric of Christian witness and writing as a spiritual activity, looking to C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, Desmond Tutu, and other exemplary communicators as guides for faithful practice. Beitler is the author of three books—Charitable Writing: Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words (with Richard Hughes Gibson, 2020), Seasoned Speech: Rhetoric in the Life of the Church (2019), and Remaking Transitional Justice in the United States (2013)—and he teaches undergraduate courses on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Tolkien and Environmental Stewardship, and Christianity and Fantasy. He also serves as one of the hosts of the Wade Center Podcast.

 

Dr Elizabeth Drummond Young:

Title: Friendship and Faith.

Description: In this talk I look at CS Lewis's assessment of friendship, and consider whether his views on this have any relationship with his personal faith journey from atheism to Christianity.

Bio: Elizabeth Drummond Young is a teaching fellow in philosophy at The University of Edinburgh (in the Centre for Open Learning). Her research interests include the contribution of women to philosophy in the 20th Century and the philosophy of religion. 

 

 

Dr Brenton Dickieson:

Title: C.S. Lewis' Spiritual Imagination.

Bio: Brenton Dickieson (PhD, University of Chester) is an award-winning teacher, researcher, and writer from Prince Edward Island. A scholar of Spirituality and Speculative Fiction, Brenton is Lecturer and Preceptor in Literature at Signum University, and teaches Religious Studies, Inquiry Studies, and Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture at the University of Prince Edward Island. He is the host and founding co-producer of the MaudCast: The Official Podcast of the L.M. Montgomery Institute. Brenton also curates the literature and culture blog, www.aPilgrimInNarnia.com, with more than 1,300 published pieces and surpassing 2,000,000 views. His forthcoming book with Oxford University Press is called The Shape of the Cross in C.S. Lewis’s Spiritual Imagination. Brenton lives in beautiful Prince Edward Island with his superstar kindergarten teacher wife, Kerry, and their son, Nicolas, a singer-songwriter.



The Rev Andrew Lazo:

Title: "Lucy Knew Where Everything Was": Lewis and the Centrality of Vision.

Description: As with everything Lewis wrote, the Chronicles of Narnia contain dozens of examples of the importance of seeing things clearly. Communications Expert Steven A. Beebe has recently highlighted how Lewis's commitment to clarity made Lewis such an effective communicator. This brief talk takes Lucy Pevensie as a way to examine Lewis's emphasis throughout his work on the importance of vision.

Bio: The Rev. Andrew Lazo is an internationally-known speaker and writer specializing in 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 by 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.

After finishing studies for an M. Div. (with Honors) at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA in May 2022, Andrew was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in January 2023 and serves as the Apprentice Rector at Church of the Messiah in Winter Garden, FL. He is also pursuing his doctorate in Romantic Theology at Northwind Seminary, where he serves as a Distinguished Lecturer. Andrew is married to author and speaker Dr Christin Ditchfield Lazo.

For more than fifteen years, Andrew has been working on a long-awaited study of Till We Have Faces, making groundbreaking discoveries all along the way. The results of his ongoing research have led him to give talks to the Mythopoeic Society in 2016 as Scholar Guest of Honor; in the summer of 2017, Andrew served as a plenary speaker at the C.S. Lewis Foundation’s 2017 Summer Institute in Oxford and Cambridge.

 

C S Lewis



An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.

NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.

Cost: By Donation:
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



If you are having a difficulty paying by Paypal, then you can pay by bank transfer instead.

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Here are the bank transfer details:

Account Name: Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace
Bank: Bank of Scotland
Bank Address: Edinburgh Royal Mile Branch
Account Number: 06131159
Sort Code: 802000

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GB70 BOFS 8020 0006 1311 59

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