Category: Resource Spotlight

Navigating Noah (Love it or Hate it?)

William OFlaherty Resource Spotlight

Normally my weekly resource highlight is very specifically related to C.S. Lewis, however I received permission from Dr. Charlie Starr (the author of the following article) to share a review of the controversial movie NOAH. Dr. Starr is a Lewis scholar and in addition to referencing Lewis several times manages to help the reader see a larger issue at hand besides this individual movie.

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I’ve seen Christians screaming about the biblical inaccuracies of Darren Aronofsky’s Noah film and the license he took with the story, and on the other hand I’ve seen not just unbelievers but Christians screaming at the Christians who don’t like somebody mucking with a text they hold sacred, a story they believe really happened. It seems to me the first group is being inconsistent and the second group is being insensitive.

C.S. Lewis Society of California Site

William OFlaherty Resource Spotlight

The C.S. Lewis Society of California has such a strong presence online that it is impossible to provide an adequate description of all their resources here because the purpose of this feature is designed to merely provide a short summary of other places online worthy of you attention. That said, not all the sections within their site are equally useful; but, then again, that will depend upon what you seek.

Charlie Starr’s Lewis Pages

William OFlaherty Resource Spotlight

Dr. Charlie W. Starr has published several scholarly and popular articles on C. S. Lewis, especially on Lewis and film. His personal website has a section devoted to Lewis that you will want to check out. A large variety of articles he has written over the years are available in his “Charlie’s Lewis Essays” subsection. Among the articles is a very insightful piece called “C.S. Lewis’s Vision of Heaven” that was first published in CSL: The Bulletin of the New York C.S. Lewis Society. His “Chronicles of Narnia” area includes all the maps on Narnia in one place for easy reference. There are several other subsections in Charlie’s site to explore as well.

Annual C. S. Lewis Lecture (TN)

William OFlaherty Resource Spotlight

While there are a variety of places online to listen to audio lectures about the life and work of C.S. Lewis none that I’m aware of have a archive going back over 30 years. That’s the case for a annual lecture series held at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. While the site hasn’t obviously existed that long, it collects all the available recordings dating back to 1983 when the inaugural lecture was given by the Dr. Paul Holmer from Yale University.

As time of this posting the site does have several shortcomings. The audio only played well on Internet Explorer browser on my computer, but fortunately a quick check on my Android phone yielded no difficulty.

NarniaFans.com

William OFlaherty Resource Spotlight

Several fans sites for The Chronicles of Narnia started showing up prior to the released of the movie version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe back in 2005. One that has remained active over the years is NarniaFans.com. While still its own site, it is also one of the featured partner sites of the Middle Earth Network (disclaimer: EssentialCSLewis.com is also a featured partner and I have written articles on NarniaFans). As you might guess, NarniaFans does focus a great deal on the movies that have been released of the Chronicles so far. However, there is also a variety of general Lewis information along with some related fantasy news from time to time.

The Marion E. Wade Center

William OFlaherty Resource Spotlight

Originally known as “The C.S. Lewis Collection,” this resource, now goes by “The Marion E. Wade Center” is a lot more than an online destination. However because it does have a good variety of material in addition to what’s available at their physical location at Wheaton College I felt it worth putting in the spotlight. Both locations are devoted to not just Lewis, but also six other British authors (Owen Barfield, G.K. Chesterton, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams).

C. S. Lewis (Theology) Collection

William OFlaherty Resource Spotlight

Most are aware that in addition to Lewis’s landmark books, he wrote a lot of shorter works that were published in a variety of publications. One of those is a journal called Theology. Over a three year span (1939-41) he had ten pieces released there. Last year in honor of the 50th anniversary of his death the editors created a special page online for anyone to access PDF copies of all of those writings. They include four articles, three book reviews and three letters (correspondence). The most famous selection is the essay version of Lewis’s best sermon (and it was only his second), “The Weight of Glory.”

Joel Heck’s Lewis Site

William OFlaherty Resource Spotlight

There are many individuals who have a website devoted to C.S. Lewis. Some are actually by Lewis scholars, such as the one being featured today. It is by Joel Heck, who is Professor of Theology at Concordia University Texas. It was not difficult deciding whether or not to spotlight this one. While it may contain too many details for the average Lewis reader, Heck’s Chronologically Lewis has been an invaluable resource for me. It contains nearly a day-to-day summary of Lewis’s entire life. That resource is free, but he does have a simpler desktop any-year calendar you can buy.

Official C.S. Lewis Site (HarperCollins)

William OFlaherty Resource Spotlight

Would you believe it if I told you that C.S. Lewis, himself, actually had his own website? Technically speaking he does not, however, the publisher of most of his books, HarperColllins, does have a site. Of course, there are general limitations to it being a publisher’s site. The main one is the fact that it does exist solely to sell his books; which in and of itself actually isn’t so bad. As you can see from the picture above there are five main areas to the site (plus the traditional “home” button). For those already familiar with Lewis’s books I recommend going to the “BLOG” link. This area contains a large variety of articles about Lewis and his writings by a variety of Lewis scholars and enthusiasts that are very informative.

All About C S Lewis (Reggie Gates)

William OFlaherty Resource Spotlight

There are a variety of books available about the writings of C.S. Lewis (in addition to the biographies) and you can find a decent amount of material online about his life and writings. However, there are not too many audio based resources. One great FREE resource that has been around for nearly six years is called “All About C S Lewis.” Reggie Gates has been an enthusiast of Lewis’s writings for many decades and provides excellent podcast that are somewhat like what you make get from CliffsNotes, only it’s in audio.