Last spring Micheal Flaherty, President of Walden Media, visited Asbury College as part of its Engaging Culture weekend. As those who have met him know, he is a truly great man–full of wisdom, enthusiasm, real joy, and deep compassion.

While he was on campus, Devin Brown had the opportunity to ask him about Walden’s mission, where its name came from, and even what his favorite scene is. His response to these and other questions can be viewed in “An Interview with Micheal Flaherty” which has been posted at: Asbury.edu

There’s also a question and answer session about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

5 people like this post.

Like 

Micheal Flaherty

Flaherty will speak in chapel services April 24 at 10 a.m. in Hughes Auditorium. Later that afternoon he will hold a special forum with Asbury College’s C.S. Lewis Scholar, Dr. Devin Brown, titled “Spiritual and Character Lessons from the Narnia Films.” He is also serving a judge for the weekend’s Highbridge Film Festival on April 25.

Prof. Greg Bandy, who produces the Engaging Culture Weekend under the sponsorship of a Lilly Grant, underlines the impact of Flaherty’s presence. “We’re incredibly excited to have Micheal Flaherty as our special guest for this weekend. We’ve been working with Walden Media for several years for good reason. We share their values for stories that matter. Also, Mr. Flaherty has a distinguished background as a visionary educator. We’ve had some good synergies as a result.”

(more…)

0 people like this post.

Like 

Part C. S. Lewis-biography, part literary analysis, The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia is, at its heart, the story of a journey. The first step came when its author, Laura Miller, was given a copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by her second grade teacher. Today a well-respected writer and literary critic, Miller looks back at the spell this book cast on her and at how it shaped the reader and the person she has become.

Like all journey stories, some parts will be familiar and some will not. Most Narnia fans will be able to relate to Miller’s account of how the Chronicles of Narnia changed the way she looked at the world. They will identify with Miller’s deep desire to be Lucy, “that rare creation, a character who is good without being a prig or a bore.”

But these are side trips, not the main path in a book which promises to reclaim Narnia “for the rest of us,” this meaning readers who, like Miller, loved Narnia as young people but then felt “tricked, cheated, and betrayed” after they discovered that many Narnian themes mirrored themes found in Christianity.

Anyone not belonging to this “rest of us” group may find it hard to understand why this discovery produced so much anger and bitterness in Miller. Although she devotes most of her book to describing her rocky relationship with the Narnia books, she is never able to articulate exactly why learning that they represent C. S. Lewis’s attempt to put his most foundational beliefs into story form “horrified” her.

Would she have felt so horrified had she discovered Lewis was a Buddhist?

Read the rest at the C.S. Lewis Blog

0 people like this post.

Like 

Dr. Devin Brown recently served as the Scholar-in-Residence for a weeklong Summer Seminar at The Kilns, C.S. Lewis’s home just outside of Oxford, England. The seminar was put on by the C.S. Lewis Foundation, which purchased The Kilns in 1984 and has restored it to its 1930s appearance.

The seminar was composed of fourteen participants from all walks of life who came to live and study in Lewis’s home. In addition to the daily classes which were taught by Dr. Brown in The Kilns’ library, the group was able to tour Lewis’s college, worship at the church he attended, and eat at The Eagle and Child—the pub which hosted the weekly meetings of the Inklings, the writing group composed of Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and their friends.

Lewis moved into The Kilns in 1930 and lived there until his death in 1963. It was the first and the only home he owned.

Read the rest at Asbury.edu

0 people like this post.

Like 

While The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe culminated with a grand coronation scene, Andrew Adamson’s second Narnia film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, never gets around to officially making the young prince into a king. Nor did Lewis’s original. And this is as it should be since this second adventure is about people who are more like us and about life in a world which is more like our own.

When a movie is made from a beloved children’s classic, reviews often end up being little more than a list of what was left out, added, or changed. In the case of a film series, another kind of comparison is also common. Here the reviewer provides a list of favorite elements from the first movie which are then measured against their presence or absence in the second. About a minute into watching the most recent Narnia movie, neither of these two kinds of lists seemed very important to me. Andrew Adamson’s Prince Caspian is a captivating work. And once it starts, the viewer is caught up in the same kind of storytelling wizardry that was so abundant in C. S. Lewis’s original.

Some film critics have complained that King Miraz is less interesting than the White Witch and Narnia is altogether less enchanting. Both claims are true, and both changes were intentional on Lewis’s part.

Read the rest at the C.S. Lewis Blog

0 people like this post.

Like 

Adam Ferguson at Baker Books contacted us with information about Mr. Devin Brown’s companion comentary in the Inside Narnia series: Inside Prince Caspian

Here is what he said:

Prince Caspian, the highly anticipated second film in the Narnia series, releases in two weeks. The first movie in the series – The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – brought in over $740 million worldwide and boosted Narnia-related book sales tremendously. Not surprisingly, many commentaries hit bookshelves surrounding its release. Some did poorly while others did quite well.

One of the titles that did well was Dr. Devin Brown’s “Inside Narnia: A Guide to Exploring The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.” Brown, a Lilly scholar and professor of English at Asbury College, wrote a follow-up commentary in anticipation of the upcoming film, “Inside Prince Caspian: A Guide To Exploring The Return To Narnia,” January 2008.

Brown takes readers through Prince Caspian chapter by chapter, illuminating the features of C. S. Lewis’s writing, providing supplemental information on Lewis’s life and other books, offering comments and opinions from other Lewis scholars, and uncovering the work’s rich meanings.

Note: NarniaFans readers can find Claire’s interview with Devin Brown as well as my “Tumnus’s Bookshelf” book review of his new book inside Prince Caspian in our January archives. The book is well worth the read and a wonderful edition to any ones Narnia library.

0 people like this post.

Like 

Themes of knighthood and chivalry in Prince Caspian is the theme of the latest episode of the Chivalry Today podcast, with interview guest Prof. Devin Brown. Get the inside scoop on the difference between the Order of the Lion and the Order of the Table, see how chivalry plays a major role in the movie, and learn more about knights and chivalry in C.S. Lewis’s writing. Visit: www.ChivalryToday.com

Check it out Here:
Chivalry Today

0 people like this post.

Like 

The opening words in the film trailer for Prince Caspian declare: “The time has come to journey back to Narnia.” And truly the time has arrived for a number of reasons.

Certainly for Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, the time has come to take the next step on their spiritual journey, to enroll for a second term in Aslan’s special school for the soul. For the young Prince Caspian, who has been leading a losing battle against the forces of his evil uncle, the time has come to finally receive the help he so desperately needs. And for us, as well, the time has come to journey back to Narnia—where we will once again be encouraged and inspired and once again will come to see our world and our role in it in new and different ways.

The children are warned, “You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember.” Narnia will be more savage this time, but it will also be more joyous. In fact, because our heroes are older and have a greater capacity for understanding, you could say it will be more everything. The trailer words remind us “One year later for them.” But the first adventure in Narnia has given the four Pevensies a maturity greater than one year normally would. Chronologically, due to a delay in production, the actors who portray the four Pevensies actually have aged two years since the first film. But this will be an asset rather than a liability as it will help communicate this greater maturity. Georgie Henley, who plays Lucy, seems especially grown up.

Read the rest on the C.S. Lewis Blog

0 people like this post.

Like 

When English Professor Devin Brown started writing a literary analysis of C.S. Lewis’s timeless Chronicles of Narnia in 2003, he soon realized how the incredible depth of each book warranted invididual attention. Thus, the idea of having an “inside” for each book was birthed.

Brown says devoting an entire book to each of the Chronicles has worked well for him. To date, Inside The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and Inside Prince Caspian have been published prior to the big screen releases of these films. Currently, Brown is in the process of writing Inside The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which he says will come out in advance of the third film in 2010.

When CBN.com contacted Brown recently about his insight into Narnia, he was delighted to share the spiritiual lessons he observed in Prince Caspian, particularly how we all expericence the battle within.

HEDLUND: What is it about Prince Caspian that makes it unique to the series?

BROWN: Prince Caspian corresponds to an older time in the Pevensies’ lives and in ours as well, a time when the world is more complicated and less black and white, a time when it is not always easy to know what is the best thing to do. For a good part of the book, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are unsure of where they are. After they realize they are back in Narnia, they next have to figure out what they should do and what is the best way to do it.

I think many people will be able to identify with the Christian parallels here. I think that for many mature Christians, the question of what God wants them to do is often more of a struggle than the question of whether they will do it or not.

HEDLUND: What surprises you the most about Prince Caspian?

BROWN: Lewis had a difficult task in writing this sequel. He had to make it different from the first book but not too different, familiar but not too familiar. People who liked The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will be pleased to find the same four heroes, but they will find them one step further along in their spiritual journey. In this sense, we as readers get to grow up along with them and share in their development.

There is a certain innocence that is lost here in the second book. And while, in our own lives, we all regret this loss, there comes a time when we all must leave our childhood world and enter the real world a bit more.

HEDLUND: Do you think there are some lessons in Prince Caspian that perhaps only children will understand and others that make more sense to adults? Why?

BROWN: Children will easily relate to the idea that we all, big and small, have a responsibility to stand up to evil where ever and however we can. Caspian’s wicked uncle has seized power unlawfully, he has mercilessly driven all the Old Narnians into hiding, and he must be stopped. Even the diminutive Reepicheep and his band of merry mice have a role to play.

I hope adults will understand that Lewis choose to have Bacchus and Silenus return with Aslan to emphasize that happiness and celebration are supposed to be part of our everyday life, not just something reserved for holidays and vacations. If we can’t be filled with joy in our ordinary daily life, then we are choosing to live in a world that is a little like Narnia under Miraz.

Read the Rest at CBN.com

0 people like this post.

Like 

Will Sears e-mailed us to help inform you all of something important. Unfortunately, Disney has informed us that the super-trailer will not be finished in time for Narnia Night at Asbury College on April 24, 2008, at 7:30 p.m. Guests are certainly still in for a treat with presentations from Narnia experts, the special Narnia exhibit preview from Clayton Ferguson, and other surprises!

This is very unfortunate, however: please don’t let that be contingent on whether or not you go. You should be in for something spectacular there.

More information:

On Friday, April 25, audiences can attend Asbury College’s second ‘Narnia Night’ to explore the newest addition to C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia films, Prince Caspian. The event begins at 7 p.m. in Hughes Memorial Auditorium.

Narnia Night provides the audience an opportunity to enter the world of Narnia through media and Lewis scholars. The evening includes a presentation by Lewis scholar, author, and Asbury College professor Dr. Devin Brown. Also, Clayton Ferguson, formerly of Walden Media and currently with The Becker Group, will share exclusive sneak peaks into the upcoming Narnia Museum Exhibit that will be traveling internationally for the next five years.

During the event, participants may purchase a limited number of discounted tickets for a local showing of Disney’s movie.

As fans enter the auditorium, which will be transformed into the realm of Narnia, actors in costume will play roles of characters from the film to entertain guests. Narnia fans are invited to a reception immediately following the presentations in the Student Center to purchase Narnia books and a special Aslan art exhibit by Christian Aylor.

Admission is free and open to the general public.

Narnia night is part of Asbury’s Engaging Culture Weekend, which is made possible through the Lilly Grant and a number of other generous sponsors. Professor Greg Bandy and Asbury College Communications Department students are producing the events for the weekend.

Asbury.edu for more about Narnia Night

0 people like this post.

Like