A few weeks ago I noticed that some of the C.S. Lewis books were getting new cover art on Amazon.com.  I ignored it at first, but I have seen it reported on in a number of places and thought it would be good to alert readers of this website about them as well.

Now, some sites are reporting that there are 9 books receiving new covers, whereas the official C.S. Lewis book website says “Collect all 10 beautiful new editions of C.S. Lewis’s greatest works.”  I’m doing some digging to find out if it is, in fact, 10 books receiving the new cover art.

(more…)

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With wit and insight, C.S. Lewis’ landmark book, The Screwtape Letters, reveals many ways in which evil can take hold, both within and without. In the intimate woodland retreat of Camp Allen, join Professor Ralph Wood of Baylor University as he imparts lessons from Lewis on how to perceive and resist the snares of Screwtape in our everyday lives.

Featuring Lewis scholars Louis Markos, George Musacchio, & Andrew Lazo, worship with Rev. Michael Wyckoff, and performances by Ad Deum Dance Company and singer/songwriter Michael Kelly Blanchard.

This retreat will challenge your mind, refresh your body, and renew your spirit. Don’t miss it!

Other Highlights:

• Small group sessions on conference themes

• Worship and fellowship with friends old and new

• Outdoor recreation during free time

• Children’s Track for young Narnians (ages 7-12)

• Bag End Café – informal after-hours readings and musical offerings by retreat participants and guest musicians

Visit us online at www.cslewis.org
or call toll-free 1-866-334-2267

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It would be very hard to think about playing the devil in a play. In “The Screwtape Letters” which began showing in Washington, D.C. on April 17th and ran through May 18th, Max McLean played the lead character from the C.S. Lewis’ book with the same title. Mr. McLean sat down with The Christian Post and chatted about how he felt about playing a devil and what he thinks is the most common temptation in society today.

When The Christian Post asked him how he felt about playing a devil and if it was difficult because he was a Christian, McLean said that from actually an acting perspective, it was a lot of fun. That’s the reality of if, but as a Christian, he said that was what had been very helpful about it is that he (Screwtape) exposed in him his pride because he is pure pride. So in order to play him you have got to just go for those places which unfortunately were quite easy for him to find. I think that we can all relate to that pride aspect.

McLean said that what he most admired about C.S. Lewis is that he was so self-forgetful. He could say “What if I look at it from the other point of view?” and that is where the genius of Screwtape is. First of all , it really takes the enemy very seriously, which is of course is like the James verse about you believe in God, great, the demons believe in God and they shudder. That is exactly where Screwtape is at.

When asked which temptation from the play he thought was most frequently employed in today’s modern society McLean said that the world view is that being cool is better than being authentic, where superficiality is more important than substance, and if the devil can he’d like us to stay on the external and not deal with the character issues, which is firmly rooted in humility. He wants us to get outside of ourselves and that is why he wants so much noise that we don’t have any quiet time with our Lord and we can’t really reflect. I think Mr. McLean hit it on the mark. The devil loves chaos so that we can’t have that quiet time with God and really self evaluate our character.

One News Now

Affectionately Yours, Screwtape

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The High Calling had a chance to interview Micheal Flaherty about their films and they brought up both Dawn Treader and Screwtape Letters. Here’s a portion of that interview. You can read the rest at the source link above.

Can you give any news about when Screwtape or Dawn Treader will come out?

The first time I spoke with you, I had just received the first draft of Dawn Treader. Literally as we were speaking it was there on my desk. I hadn’t even opened it up yet. I couldn’t wait to read it, though, because Eustace is one of my favorite characters.

Dawn Treader is moving very well. Michael Apted, who directed Amazing Grace, is directing it. He also directed Coal Miner’s Daughter and a bunch of others. He’s a great director. He’s the president of the Directors Guild.

Screwtape on the other hand is just a really tricky adaptation.

I think a big part of being faithful to that work is keeping it dark in a way that’s probably going to bother some people. I don’t know how that works with movie profitability, but Screwtape always takes the approach of the demons. They have to be the heroes—even if they’re tragic heroes—for it to be faithful to what Lewis did.

We’re trying to find that balance between the comedy and the stakes. We’re working hard on the script. One of the questions we’re asking is how do you show the real transformation that happens inside a person.

Screwtape keeps encouraging the patient to go through the motions in his daily life and work.

You just nailed the entire paradox of this project. The book is so clever, because Screwtape is saying things like, “Have them write the check out to Unicef.” Just have him writing, saying, “Oh boy, this is going to hurt.” It goes back to that great Corinthians passage, you can do all of these things, but if you do them without love, it’s worthless. We’re trying to figure out how to illustrate that. What I love about Screwtape, what I love about the Gospel is all this external behavioral stuff that too often people confuse as central to our faith, is just an element of it. What really matters is the outpouring of love and the reflection of love.
It strikes me how much “God is love,” and when we love what we’re doing and when we get other people to love it, there’s truth in it. I’m excited to see what comes out of it.

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Please note the following in this issue of the C.S. Lewis Society Update (2/15/08):
http://www.lewissociety.org

1. C.S. Lewis in TV’s “Lost”
2. Recent Articles
3. New Books
4. Next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society Bay Area Book Club
5. Other Events

1. C.S. Lewis in TV’s “Lost”:

The extremely popular ABC-TV series of mystery, spirituality and intrigue with a group of people marooned on a desert island, “Lost,” is now in its fourth season. And in episode two, the program is revealing remarkable clues that point to C.S. Lewis’s influence. For example, when Ben noted that Charlotte’s complete name is “Charlotte Staples Lewis,” the blogosphere utterly lit up about Lewis, with people pointing out the connections to Lewis’s books, PRINCE CASPIAN and PERELANDRA. Such suggestions have arisen before, especially in the first season, when the original program was produced by Christian film producer Ralph Winter, who is also currently producing the film version of THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS. Here are example articles:

“Tiddlywinkydinks: Perelandra Lost” (Inner Toob)

“Lost’s Second Episode Reveals More Clues,” by Sonja Zjawinski (Wired News)

“‘Lost’: Chute First, Ask Questions Later,” by Jeff Jensen (Entertainment Weekly)

2. Recent Articles:

A. Here is another article from the author of the important, new book, PLANET NARNIA (Oxford University Press):

“C. S. Lewis and the Star of Bethlehem: Recovering the Medieval Imagination,” by Michael Ward (Christianity Today)
http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/001/15.30.html

B. Is the warning in C.S. Lewis’s dystopian science fiction book THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH coming true in Britain? In the book, Lewis conceived of a government-funded scientistic think tank, the National Institute for Coordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.), which would rule society absolutely according to eugenic, utilitarian principles. Incredibly enough, in 1999, the Labor government established the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (N.I.C.E.) with special powers to determine the treatments in Britain’s government-funded health system. As Elizabeth Woodeson, head of scientific development and bioethics at the Department of Health has stated, “The Secretary of State believes that…clinicians should be able to follow the N.I.C.E. [quality of life] guidelines without being obliged to accede to patient demands.” The result for example was the decision to withhold food and water from Leslie Burke, who was suffering from a degenerative motor neurone disease, with Burke filing a lawsuit in response in order to save his life:

“Commentary: Britain’s N.I.C.E. Think Tank Not So Nice – C.S. Lewis’ Prophesy Comes Eerily True,” by Hilary White (LifeSite)

C. Review of Dinesh D’Souza’s bestselling book, WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT CHRISTIANITY:

“God’s Advocate: Dinesh D’Souza goes the distance with the atheists,” by Peter Wehner (Weekly Standard)

D. For decades, the world’s leading atheist (and David Hume) scholar Antony Flew attacked theism as irrational. In his new book, THERE IS A GOD, he reveals why he has changed his mind and has abandoned atheism. Here is an interview with him:

“My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism: A Discussion between Antony Flew and Gary Habermas”

3. New Books:

SURPRISED BY HOPE: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, by N.T. Wright

GOD’S UNDERTAKER: Has Science Buried God?, by John Lennox

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: A Theistic Argument, by J. P. Moreland

CHRISTIANS AT THE CROSS: Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus, by N.T. Wright

IS YOUR LORD LARGE ENOUGH: How C.S. Lewis Expands Our View of God, by Peter J. Schakel

THE REASON FOR GOD: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller

THE HEART OF NARNIA; Wisdom, Virtue, and Life Lessons from the Classic Chronicles, by Robert Velarde

INSIDE PRINCE CASPIAN: A Guide to Exploring the Return to Narnia, by Devin Brown

THE CASE FOR THE REAL JESUS: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ, by Lee Strobel

4. The next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society Bay Area Book Club will be as follows:

Book for Discussion:

TILL WE HAVE FACES: A Myth Retold, by C.S. Lewis:

Wednesday, February 20, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Roy Carlisle

Wednesday, March 5, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Roy Carlisle

TILL WE HAVE FACES was considered by Lewis to be his greatest novel, and critics agree. Based on the classic Roman myth, this tale of two princesses — one beautiful and one unattractive — and of the struggle between sacred and profane love is Lewis’s reworking of the myth of Cupid and Psyche and one of his most enduring works. The book is brilliant and intriguing study of love, pride, power and God.

“The most significant and triumphant work that Lewis has yet produced”.”
–New York Herald Tribune

“In Mr. Lewis’s sensitive hands the ancient myth retains its fascination while being endowed with new meanings, new depths, new terrors.”
–Saturday Review

The meetings will be held at:

11990 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94619 (atop the Oakland hills)
510-482-2906 phone
wine, soft drinks and other refreshments served

Here also are numerous articles re TILL WE HAVE FACES:

“TILL WE HAVE FACES” by Henry Karlson:

“TILL WE HAVE FACES” by Wikipedia:

“A Great Gulf Fixed: The Problem of Obsessive Love in C.S. Lewis’ TILL WE HAVE FACES,” by Amelia F. Franz

“TILL WE HAVE FACES, by C.S. Lewis,” reviewed by Peter Schakel; Literary Encyclopedia

“TILL WE HAVE FACES, by C.S. Lewis”, by Kevin Stilley

“A review of TILL WE HAVE FACES by C.S. Lewis”

“Notes on TILL WE HAVE FACES”

TILL WE HAVE FACES is available in paperback

TILL WE HAVE FACES on CD

Here also is the schedule of future Lewis Society book club meetings

Here also is information on C.S. Lewis

We hope that you and/or others you know will be joining with us! (Please feel free to forward this update to others.)

5. Other Events:
http://www.lewissociety.org/events.php

“Sixth Frances Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends”
Sponsored by Taylor University, Upland, IN
May 29-June 1, 2008

“LionCon: A Narnian Convention”
Sponsored by LionCon.org
June 20-22, 2008
http://www.lioncon.org/

“Charles Williams and His Contemporaries”
Sponsored by The Charles Williams Society
Sr. Hilda’s College, Oxford, England
July 4-6, 2008

“Oxbridge 2008: The Self and the Search for Meaning”
Sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation
Oxford University, July 28 – August 2, 2008
Cambridge University, August 3-8, 2008

Please contact me with any questions.

Best regards,

David

David J. Theroux
Founder and President
C. S. Lewis Society of California
100 Swan Way, Suite 200
Oakland, CA 94621-1428
(510) 635-6892 Phone
(510) 568-6040 Fax
dtheroux@lewissociety.org
http://www.lewissociety.org

Founder and President
The Independent Institute
(510) 632-1366 Phone
DTheroux@independent.org
http://www.independent.org

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Welcome to Tumnus’s Book Shelf where we review any and all books related to Narnia and CS Lewis! For this weeks review, we will be looking at CS Lewis’s
The Screwtape Letters

Book Title:The Screwtape Letters
Author: CS Lewis.
Publisher: HarperOne; New Ed edition (February 6, 2001)

ISBN-13:978-0060652937

Summary of the book:

Some Possible Spoilers.( Please Highlight to read)

Junior Tempter Wormwood was assigned to try and lead his human patient into Hell. Through a series of letters his “uncle” Screwtape instructed him on how to perform this task and about it’s importance to their cause. As they were at war with God, every soul that remained lost was a small victory for them. They devoured souls and needed every single one.

The first letter focused just on the importance of keeping the patient from becoming a Christian. However the focus of their correspondence shifted when the patient became a Christian. The goal from then on in was to either lead the patient into abandoning the faith, or to prevent him from growing. Their tactics were the same as they have used from the beginning.

From surrounding him with certain kinds of people, to attacking his relationships, to coercing him into being a zealot, to simply clouding his emotions, Wormwood was to stop at nothing. If he failed he would be punished accordingly. Screwtape instructed Wormwood to keep their letters private and say nothing to any other tempters.

SPOILERS!The letters carry on until the patient was killed in an air raid. Screwtape was enraged at this news. Wormwood had failed. They had lost the patient completely as he was now safely in Heaven.END SPOILERS!

Review.

Most writing classes will always tell you that writing a villain is more fun than writing a hero and a lot easier. There is some truth to that. A hero will always have a specific motive and a strong moral compass that can’t be broken. Villains, however provide plenty of room to wiggle around and cut loose. However at other times the villain can be very difficult and challenging to write, especially if a villain is your “hero“.

CS Lewis himself knew that first hand in writing what many consider one of his “best” works, The Screwtape Letters. Prior to this book, no writer accept for John Milton in Paradise Lost, had attempted to tell a story strictly from a demons point of view. Unlike Paradise, there is no poetic grandeur with Screwtape. While Milton’s epic poem is often quoted ( “ Better to reign …”) , the Letters have seen their share of imitators in the past few decades. Some didn’t work too well and missed the mark, others could have been better and some actually were really good. Irregardless, Lewis’s work is the original masterwork, and it is easy to see why it is hard to properly emulate.

One thing that makes it so unique is how it is written. Screwtape Letters is a satire. In a satirical work you take a very serious subject and look it it in almost a humorous way. In reading satire, you end up wondering why do we do that. For example Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is a satire and in it he talks about a cannonball in such a way that it makes the reader wonder, “ why do we design such monstrosities?”

In Screwtape Lewis takes our sins and vices and makes us wonder, “ Why do we fall for the lies and temptations of the evil one?” We see through Screwtape that the demons like it best if we are on the safest road to Hell. That path is the one is with out any warnings, or signposts. They lead us upon it simply by using our most common vices that seem almost harmless and in the end we end up into deceiving ourselves about what we do.

One could even say that the is essentially the language the evil one likes to use best. What else could the words of the serpent to Eve have been but a parody or a satire of the truth that she knew? This allows the character of Screwtape to be a more convincing devil as we know his language so well. Because we have heard it before it has become our language.

Another thing unique about Screwtape is the way the titular character is written. Most “Screwtape inspired” characters, or even demons for that matter, come off as either campy-over the top figures, akin to Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa in the Power Rangers, a super-intimidating evil force like Darth Vader ( even Frank Peretti’s demons in his earlier works had a lot in common with Vader), or a laughable cartoon like the villains in a Scooby-Doo cartoon. This leaves the reader almost expecting the devil to say, “Curses, foiled again!” or “ And I would have gotten away with it too, had it not been for….” This could lead the reader into one of the two dangerous extremes Lewis warned about with demons: disbelief or unhealthy interest.

Both of these he avoided in his portrayals of Hell and the demons. The vision of Hell and the demons that Lewis strives to paint is something that no one else has gauged. It seems like a bureaucracy. Lewis himself said that he based his demons off of bureaucrats. Because of that Screwtape doesn’t come off as a snarling dragon or a mischievous imp in red tights and a pitchfork. He talks like a politician as was intended by Lewis as it was more convincing sound. According to Lewis the greatest evil occured in these settigns and not in the more “sinister” places of the world.

Because of how Screwtape talks, he doesn’t seem evil to some readers. In Screwtape’s mind, he isn’t evil. To Screwtape and Wormwood they are doing what’s right. In his twisted mind Screwtape is still an angel of light and Satan is the right one to follow. To those he’s tempting, they should also seem good. That is what makes him so convincing: they appear as the really are, not how they’d rather have us see them.

There are also times in the banter between the two demons when Screwtape comes across more as an uncle chiding a misbehaving nephew and less of the stereotypical villain rebuking a failing underling. Even at the end Lewis allows Screwtape to maintain his same wit that he has in the entire work. It tells the reader that Screwtape has been on this road before, it isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last.

Unlike most works in this genre, Lewis made sure not to use dated examples in his letters. While his references to “ The War” are clear that he is meaning World War II, it could apply to just about any war to occur from now till the end of history. SPOILERS!The description of how The Patient died could just as well apply to the battle fields of Iraq or Afghanistan, the World Trade Center in New York on 9-11, or the jungles of Vietnam as well as World War II. That’s what makes Screwtape so excellent is it is timeless.END SPOILERS!

Wars and vices like envy, pride, bigotry, vanity, strife, zealously, greed, and lust which are dealt with in The Screwtape Letetrs will exist long after current “pop-cultural threats from the world” like Harry Potter-mania and Da Vinci Code fever have died down. The situations that the patient faces in the letters are the same as we face now. By not using pop-cultural references that readers of his day would understand, as some are oft to do now, he allows Screwtape to speak to every generation.

The fact that the “Patient” is never given a name also allows him to be an “everyman” and allows the letters to be about any one, even you or me. It’s what makes the letters so chilling, the fact that you start to wonder if two demons could really be talking about you like this. It doesn’t cause you to look under the beds for demons, but begin to pray for coverage in your own weak areas.

We have no idea what Wormwood is like except it seems that this is one of his first assignments. He seems very excited by everything he finds on Earth giving the reader the impression that this is his first taste of the world. He seems to enjoy death and destruction and is easily distracted from his job by the nature of everything going on around him. Perhaps it is the fact SPOILERS! that he is distracted by the “scream of bombs, the fall of houses, the stink of smoke in the nose and in the lungs…” that allows the patient to slip through his fingers and into Heaven.END SPOILERS!

Some Christian readers have wondered and even been concerned about the fact that “Screwtape” and “Wormwood” call each other uncle and nephew. We know from scripture that demons were once angels who fell, and therefore cannot be married or given in marriage. Why the title?

“Nephew” and “Uncle” are familiar terms that denote a closeness in a relationship, between a younger and older person. Many times a child will call an older male, who is a close family friend an “uncle,” even if he is not the brother of the mother or father. It invokes not only closeness at times, but also authority. Even in The Last Battle, the children make reference to Polly Plummer being “Aunt Polly” even though she is of no relation to them, but is simply a term to refer to her . The “Uncle” “Nephew” relations are not meant to be a theological heresy. They are meant to be terms of authority, between the demons similar to Tolkien’s use of the title “lord” in Lord of the Rings.

This leads to a very puzzling aspect of the nature of the demons. They speak of “loving” each other and “desiring” each other in ways that can be misread as affection or even romantic nature. Lewis makes it clear both in his preface, and in the letters themselves that the terms they use for “love” and “desire” are simply the same ways that they mean for us. To Screwtape, a tempter like Wormwood, or humans like us, are food. Him saying he loves humans or Wormwood or desires them is akin to me saying I love a cheeseburger and fries with a milk shake on the side, and not the love I may have for a girl.

Screwtape’s hunger, is a hunger for food. He needs to fill it either with a human soul or a tempter, just as I would fill my hunger or desire for food with a plate of nachos and not a girl. This shows what Peter writes in 1st Peter 5:8, “Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” This allows Screwtape’s “love” to stand in contrast with the love of God that he distorts. Screwtape says in one letter that they want humans for food, God wants to have a relationship with us and make us his children. God, through His Son Jesus Christ, is willing to die for us to make us His children, Screwtape wants to kill us to make us food.

Beyond a plethora of books based on or inspired by it, The Screwtape Letters has been influential elsewhere. The teacher in the Calvin and Hobbes comics was named for the demon Wormwood, as was the Secretary General of the UN in Mark Miller and Alex Ross’s DC comics graphic novel Kingdom Come. In a U2 music video Bono is seen reading the book. Lewis’s friend and colleague JRR Tolkein also referred to it in some of his own letters to his son as he said it was Wormwood who was keeping Lewis and Tolkien from meeting. Notably Lewis also dedicated he book to him as it was Tolkien who led him back to the Christian faith.

Some have misread the book and felt that Lewis had a sinister, Satanic bend in writing it. That was not the case. Lewis, a devout Christian actually stated that this was his least favorite work and the hardest one to write because it was so focused on evil. There was no way for him to craft a juxtaposition to Screwtape as he felt he was too deficient to write anything from an Angelic perspective. Because of it he’d never write another book like it again. He only had one goal in mind which he set out to do well, which is wonder what it would be like if we could read into the devil’s conversations about us.

By allowing us to intercept this mail, Lewis helps us become aware of the enemies attacks .They are so foreign to us, yet so familiar. Screwtape speaks to us in a language that is alien to us, yet it is familiar to us by nature. It is a satire, yet in it’s satirical approach it is also very serious. It’s a classic work, yet like the Bible itself it’s just as relevant today as it was when it was first written.

Like Lewis I have no way of knowing how this correspondence came to me. But I have read it and I know what to do with what I’ve learned from it. It is more than worth the read. Dare you open The Screwtape Letters and see for yourself? You may be surprised what you’ll read. Because what you read may even be about you.

Five out of Five shields

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Please note the following in this issue of the C.S. Lewis Society Update (12/05/07):
http://www.lewissociety.org

1. “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”: New Movie Trailer
2. Other Films: “Beowulf” and “The Golden Compass”
3. Christianity vs. Atheism Debate Video: Dinesh D’Souza vs. Daniel Dennett
4. The next meeting of the C.S. Lewis Society Bay Area Book Club
5. New Book: “Planet Narnia,” by Michael Ward
6. Other Events

1. “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” Movie Trailer:

Of all of C.S. Lewis’s many works, the 7-volume “Chronicles of Narnia” book series is by far and away the most popular with sales of more than 100 million copies worldwide. The first film in the new series being produced by Walden Media and Walt Disney Productions, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” grossed $740 million in box office sales and additional record DVD sales.

Now the second film in the Narnia series, “Prince Caspian,” is set for release on May 16, 2008, and the first trailer has just been released for showing in theaters.

Here is the official “Prince Caspian” movie poster.

And here is the banner for the film.

2. Other Films: “Beowulf” and “The Golden Compass”:

“‘Beowulf’ vs. ‘The Lord of the Rings’”, by Gary Kamiya (Salon.com).

“The Chronicles of Atheism: When ‘The Golden Compass’ hits theaters this month, many will be introduced to the works of Philip Pullman, a writer who detests C.S. Lewis’s fantasy world,” by Peter T. Chattaway (Christianity Today)

3. Christianity vs. Atheism Debate Video: Dinesh D’Souza vs. Daniel Dennett

The video is now available from the recent debate in which leading atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett was challenged by Christian Dinesh D’Souza, author of the new bestselling book, “What’s So Great About Christianity.”

Held November 30th at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., this sold-out event was organized by the atheist Tufts’s Freethought Society, and resulted in a spill-over audience watching the program on closed circuit TV. Clearly expecting Christianity to be routed, the audience instead witnessed Dennett decidedly lose.
http://media.richarddawkins.net/video/2007/DennettDinesh_all.mov

4. The next meeting of the C.S. Lewis Society Bay Area Book Club will be as follows:

Book for Discussion:

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, by C.S. Lewis:

Wednesday, December 12th, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Frank Green

A best-selling masterpiece of satire and dedicated to his friend J.R.R.Tolkien, this classic book by C.S. Lewis has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of the evil Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to “Our Father Below” who holds an administrative post in the governing bureaucracy (”Lowerarchy”) of Hell. At once comic, deadly serious, and highly original, Lewis gives us the correspondence of the worldly-wis old devil to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man known only as “the Patient.” THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is the most engaging account of temptation — and triumph over it — ever written.

The immense success of the book when it was first published resulted in C.S. Lewis appearing on the cover of Time Magazine. More recently, cartoonist Bill Watterson named the fictional first-grade teacher in his “Calvin and Hobbes” after the devil Wormwood. In the animated video to U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”, a copy of THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is seen falling from Bono’s hand. In the 2006 book The Top Ten, a compilation of “top ten novels” lists by different writers, David Foster Wallace names THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS as the greatest novel in history. A sold-out stage production directed by Jeffrey Fiske was produced in New York City in 2006, and a widely acclaimed revival production by Fiske opened on October 16th.
http://www.fpatheatre.com/

And a film version of the book is now underway, co-produced by Ralph Winter (X-Men, Star Trek, Fantastic Four) and Douglas Gresham (Lewis’s stepson), for release at Christmas 2008.

“Mr. Lewis has contrived to say much that a distracted world greatly requires to hear.”
–Times Literary Supplement

“If wit and wisdom, style and scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, Mr. Lewis will be among the angels.”
–The New Yorker

The meetings will be held at:

11990 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94619 (atop the Oakland hills)
510-482-2906 phone
wine, soft drinks and other refreshments served

Here also are numerous articles and excerpts re THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS:

“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS” by Wikipedia

“Excerpts from THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS”

“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS”, by Will Vaus

“Screwtape: What’s Going On?”, by Bruce Edwards

“Wicked Good: THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS on Page and Stage” by John J. Miller

“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS foreword,” narrated by John Cleese of Monty Python (YouTube)

“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS Letter 1,” narrated by John Cleese of Monty Python (YouTube)

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is available in paperback.

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is available free online.

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS on CD.

Here also is the schedule of future Lewis Society book club meetings.

Here also is information on C.S. Lewis.

We hope that you and/or others you know will be joining with us! (Please feel free to forward this update to others.)

5. New Book: “Planet Narnia”

The December 2007 issue of “Touchstone” magazine features the cover article, “Narnia’s Secret: C.S. Lewis & and the Seven Heavens,” by Dr. Michael Ward (Chaplain of Peterhouse, University of Cambridge). In the article, he discusses the revolutionary findings in his new book, “Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis” (Oxford University Press).

For more than half a century, scholars have labored to show that C. S. Lewis’s famed “Chronicles of Narnia” series has an underlying symbolic coherence, pointing to such possible unifying themes as the seven sacraments, seven deadly sins, and seven books of Edmund Spenser’s “Faerie Queene.”  However, none of these explanations has won general acceptance and the structure of Narnia’s symbolism has remained a mystery.

Now, Michael Ward has finally solved the enigma. In “Planet Narnia” he demonstrates that the medieval (Ptolemic) cosmology or world view, a subject which fascinated Lewis throughout his life, provides the imaginative key to the seven novels. Drawing on the whole range of Lewis’s writings (including “The Discarded Image,” “The Space Trilogy,” and previously unpublished drafts of the “Chronicles”), Ward reveals how the Narnia stories were designed to express the mythological characteristics of the seven medieval planets — Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn — planets which Lewis described as “spiritual symbols of permanent value” and “especially worthwhile in our own generation.” Using these seven symbols, Lewis secretly constructed the “Chronicles” so that the story-line in each book, countless points of ornamental detail, and, most important, the portrayal of the Christ-figure of Aslan, all serve to communicate a coherent, unifying, and governing perspective. For instance, in “The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’,” the sun is the prevailing planetary spirit: magical water turns things to gold, the solar metal; Aslan is seen flying in a sunbeam; and the sun’s rising place is actually identified as the destination of the plot: “the very eastern end of the world.”

“Planet Narnia” is a seminal and ground-breaking book that will provoke a major revaluation not only of the “Chronicles,” but of Lewis’s whole literary and theological outlook. Ward uncovers Lewis as an even more subtle, imaginative and important writer and thinker than previously understood.

Planet Narnia XI Summary

6. Other Events:

“Is Religion a Force for Good or Evil? And Can You Be Good Without God?
Dinesh D’Souza vs. Michael Shermer: A Debate”
Sponsored by Athens and Jerusalem
Beckman Auditorium
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, Calif.
December 9, 2007
626-395-4652
http://www.dineshdsouza.com/events/D’SOUSA_DEBATE_FLYER.pdf

“Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Dorothy Sayers”
Sponsored by the Dorothy Sayers Society
St. Anne’s, Soho, England
December 17, 2007
conference@sayers.org.uk

“Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Dorothy Sayers”
Sponsored by the Dorothy Sayers Society
St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey
London, England
January 15, 2008
conference@sayers.org.uk

“Planet Narnia”
Presentation by Michael Ward
Sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Graduate Students
Bowling Green State University
BGSU Student Union, Room 308 (6:45 pm)
Bowling Green, OH
January 22, 2008

“C.S. Lewis Conference”
Sponsored by Hope Lutheran Church
Atascadero, CA
January 25-27, 2008
http://www.pseudobook.com/cslewis/?page_id=49

“Sixth Frances Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends”
Sponsored by Taylor University, Upland, IN
May 29-June 1, 2008
http://www.taylor.edu/academics/supportservices/cslewis/colloquium/

“Charles Williams and His Contemporaries”
Sponsored by The Charles Williams Society
Sr. Hilda’s College, Oxford, England
July 4-6, 2008
http://www.geocities.com/charles_wms_soc/events.html

“Oxbridge 2008: The Self and the Search for Meaning”
Sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation
Oxford University, July 28 – August 2, 2008
Cambridge University, August 3-8, 2008
http://www.cslewis.org/programs/oxbridge/2008/index.html

Please advise me with any questions.

Best regards,

David

David J. Theroux
Founder and President
C. S. Lewis Society of California
100 Swan Way, Suite 200
Oakland, CA 94621-1428
(510) 635-6892 Phone
(510) 568-6040 Fax
http://www.lewissociety.org

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Please note the following in this issue of the C.S. Lewis Society Update (11/21/07):

1. More Christianity vs. Atheism Debates
2. Next meetings of C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club: The Screwtape Letters
3. New Books for Christmas
4. Other Events

1. More Christianity vs. Atheism Debates:

The new Christianity vs. atheism debates will continue on November 30th when Christian author Dinesh D’Souza and atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett meet on the subject “God is a Manmade Invention,” at 7 p.m. in the Cabot Auditorium at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

On December 5th, D’Souza will then debate Skeptic magazine editor Michael Shermer on “Is Christianity Good for the World?” at 7 p.m. in the Marvin Center at George Washington University, and then again on December 9th at 2 p.m. in the Beckman Auditorium at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.

To date, anti-theist Richard Dawkins has not accepted D’Souza’s offer to debate.

Here are a number of recent article by D’Souza:

“Does the Ghost in the Machine Have a Soul? An Argument for the Spirit Hinges on the Freedom of Choice”

“Atheism, Not Religion, Is the Real Force Behind the Mass Murders”

“The Atheist Who Came In From the Cold”

Dinesh D’Souza is the author of the best-selling new book, What’s So Great About Christianity

2. The next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society Bay Area Book Club will be as follows:

Book for Discussion:

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, by C.S. Lewis:

Wednesday, November 28th, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Frank Green
Wednesday, December 12th, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Frank Green

A best-selling masterpiece of satire and dedicated to his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, this classic book by C.S. Lewis has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of the evil Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to “Our Father Below” who holds an administrative post in the governing bureaucracy (”Lowerarchy”) of Hell. At once comic, deadly serious, and highly original, Lewis gives us the correspondence of the worldly-wise old devil to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man known only as “the Patient.” THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is the most engaging account of temptation — and triumph over it — ever written.

The immense success of the book when it was first published resulted in C.S. Lewis appearing on the cover of Time Magazine. More recently, cartoonist Bill Watterson named the fictional first-grade teacher in his “Calvin and Hobbes” after the devil Wormwood. In the animated video to U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”, a copy of THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is seen falling from Bono’s hand. In the 2006 book The Top Ten, a compilation of “top ten novels” lists by different writers, David Foster Wallace names THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS as the greatest novel in history. A sold-out stage production directed by Jeffrey Fiske was produced in New York City in 2006, and a widely acclaimed revival production by Fiske opened on October 16th.
http://www.fpatheatre.com/

And a film version of the book is now underway, co-produced by Ralph Winter (X-Men, Star Trek, Fantastic Four) and Douglas Gresham (Lewis’s stepson), for release at Christmas 2008.

“Mr. Lewis has contrived to say much that a distracted world greatly requires to hear.”
–Times Literary Supplement

“If wit and wisdom, style and scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, Mr. Lewis will be among the angels.”
–The New Yorker

The meetings will be held at:

11990 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94619 (atop the Oakland hills)
510-482-2906 phone
wine, soft drinks and other refreshments served

Here also are numerous articles and excerpts re THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS:

“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS” by Wikipedia

“Excerpts from THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS”

“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS”, by Will Vaus

“Screwtape: What’s Going On?”, by Bruce Edwards

“Wicked Good: THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS on Page and Stage” by John J. Miller

“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS foreword,” narrated by John Cleese of Monty Python (YouTube)

“THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS Letter 1,” narrated by John Cleese of Monty Python (YouTube)

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is available in paperback.

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is available free online.

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS on CD.

Here also is the schedule of future Lewis Society book club meetings.

Here also is information on C.S. Lewis.

We hope that you and/or others you know will be joining with us! (Please feel free to forward this update to others.)

3. New Books for Christmas:

C. S. Lewis, My Godfather: Letters, Photos and Recollections
By Laurence Harwood

There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
By Antony Flew and Roy Abraham Varghese

Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief
By Rodney Stark

What’s So Great About Christianity
By Dinesh D’Souza

The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul
By Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible
By Robert J. Hutchinson

Acts for Everyone, Part 1
By N.T. (Tom) Wright

The Dawkins Delusion: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine
By Alister McGrath

The Gods of War: Is Religion the Primary Cause of Violent Conflict?
By Meic Pearse

Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
By Richard Bauckham

The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, 2nd Edition
By Craig L. Blomberg

Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit’s Power
By J. P. Moreland

Passionate Conviction: Modern Discourses on Christian Apologetics
Edited by Paul Copan and William Lane Craig

4. Other Events:

“Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Dorothy Sayers”
Sponsored by the Dorothy Sayers Society
St. Anne’s, Soho, England
December 17, 2007
conference@sayers.org.uk

“Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Dorothy Sayers”
Sponsored by the Dorothy Sayers Society
St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey
London, England
January 15, 2008
conference@sayers.org.uk

“C.S. Lewis Conference”
Sponsored by Hope Lutheran Church
Atascadero, CA
January 25-27, 2008
http://www.pseudobook.com/cslewis/?page_id=49

“Sixth Frances Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends”
Sponsored by Taylor University, Upland, IN
May 29-June 1, 2008
http://www.taylor.edu/academics/supportservices/cslewis/colloquium/

“Charles Williams and His Contemporaries”
Sponsored by The Charles Williams Society
Sr. Hilda’s College, Oxford, England
July 4-6, 2008
http://www.geocities.com/charles_wms_soc/events.html

“Oxbridge 2008: The Self and the Search for Meaning”
Sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation
Oxford University, July 28 – August 2, 2008
Cambridge University, August 3-8, 2008
http://www.cslewis.org/programs/oxbridge/2008/index.html

Please advise me with any questions.

Best regards,

David

David J. Theroux
Founder and President
C. S. Lewis Society of California

http://www.lewissociety.org

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Hey, Narnia Fans! Welcome to “Behind the Wardrobe” an Interview Series with Douglas Gresham. Join me as we find out about CS Lewis, Narnia and more in this interview series.

Special thanks to Paul Martin (The Webmaster for NarniaFans) and to Mr. Douglas Gresham himself for this amazing opportunity. And an even bigger thanks to Mr. Gresham for putting up with a few of my impossible questions. Thanks for being such a great sport about it!

For this week: On The Narnia Film Project.

JS: Why did it take so long for films of Narnia to be made?

DG: My theory? The Holy Spirit of God held them off until the time was right.

JS: Do you think the film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series helped Hollywood realized there was an opening for Narnia?

DG: Not really, we had a film deal in place long before they ever started on those two projects, It came to nothing in the end, but we had to wait until the
rights were free before we could move on.

JS: The time certainly was right for the Narnia films in terms of the technology to bring them to life as well as the fact that general film going audiences (beyond just the fans of Jack’s books) wanting more fantasy films. That was pretty much what you were waiting for, correct?

DG: No not really, I had already been trying to get good films made for many years before we actually got the first one done. It was in fact the Holy Spirit of God that held things up all those years until the time was absolutely right for LWW to appear before the public. It is true enough that we could not have made the movie that we did as little as a year earlier than we did, and indeed our teams pushed the available technology right to the edges of its performance envelope in making the movie. It is also true that to some extent Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings series and the advent of J.K.Rowlings work did call attention to fantasy in film, but this was a market that I had already seen to be existent years before. In fact years before Peter made LOTR, and years before Rowlings even wrote her first book! I was all fired up and enthusiastic long before the time was right, and God had to yank my reins pretty hard to slow things down. For me, to be told to just shut up and wait, is one of His hardest instructions to obey.:-)

JS: Yes, I’m familiar with the early ideas for the Narnia film (the modernized version set in LA, with Edmund being tempted with a burger and milk shake instead of Turkish Delight). I take it that it is a case of “the less that is said about it”, the better?

DG: Absolutely. Looking back now though, it is rather gratifying to have been proven to be right to stick to my guns, through considerable pressure, on how the LWW movie should be written and made.

JS: Though I must say I don’t think that version could have even been done. Mostly for their reason all the names are too British to pass off as American. (I’ve never meet any one in the states with the name Edmund, Digory or Eustace)

DG: Interestingly, the US is the only place today where I do occasionally run into such names, the exception being Digory, but just wait till we make The Magician’s Nephew.

JS: Have you ever seen the old BBC mini-series versions of the Narnia books?

DG:Yes.

JS:What is your opinion on them(and please be honest)?

DG:With the budget they had and the technology available at the time they did a pretty good job other than the monumental miscasting of one or two of the characters.

JS:Why did they never do the other three books in the series?

DG: I have no idea.

JS: I’ve heard rumors they didn’t do The Last Battle or The Magician’s Nephew as of the seven books they were the most “Christian”. Are the rumors this true?

DG: Obviously not because they aren’t.

JS: I know that both Jack and Tolkien had very low opinions of what Disney had done with various fairy tales. … How do you think Jack would have felt about Disney releasing the new films?

DG: To straighten things out, Disney is the Distributor of the films, and they have actually (so far anyway) been extraordinarily good to work with. Disney have the best distribution network in the world and they are good at it, so I hope Jack would have no qualms about them distributing the movies.

JS: On the note of Disney, what are your feelings on seeing Aslan next to such characters as Mickey Mouse and Kermit the Frog on Disney websites and at stores?

DG: I don’t really feel anything about it as I have never seen it. I think Jack would have rather like Kermit, I know I do.

JS:I know a lot of fans were concerned about Disney releasing the films, primarily that the themes would stay intact, do you think their concerns were valid?

DG: As I said above Disney only distribute the films. A lot of people got their knickers in a knot over it all but you tell me, were their concerns valid (I am presuming that you have seen the movie)?

JS: I did see the movie of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I don’t think the concerns were valid. Just a case of reading way to much on the internet. I had the feeling though that the films would be accurate to the books and contain the same imagery and themes simply because it would have been impossible to tell the Narnia stories with out those aspects. ( That and you were co-producing and serving as creative consultant. I didn’t think you’d let them work around those parts).

DG: Part of my responsibility is to try to ensure that no matter how much the stories are changed to fit into film format (and major changes can be vital) the essential theme of the original book always remains the theme of the movie.

JS: How did you feel about Disney releasing them? Were you concerned at all about it?

DG: I had a good talk with Dick Cook and Mark Zoradi about it and decided that it was the right thing to do.

JS: What did you think about the merchandise?

DG: Well as co-producer it was (and is) one of the things I am in charge of so I really had better not comment other than to say that I think our team did a pretty good job.

JS: I do think the merchandising was handled well. Not too much, and not to little. I was quiet glad to finally have Narnia action figures to reenact my favorite parts with (or just to display Aslan next to my Gandalf from LOTR on the top of my book shelf where I keep my books by JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis.) I must commend you all for handling it so well.

DG: Thank you, but I was disappointed at how the merchandise was distributed and marketed and have to accept that I was something of a neophyte at that stage (to be perfectly honest I had very little knowledge of what I was doing) but I have learnt a lot and I hope to do better with Prince Caspian.

JS: What’s your opinion of having Narnia characters and various things about the world at Disney theme parks?

DG: As that is another of my areas of responsibility I am obviously for it.

JS: Filmgoers and fans compared the Narnia films with the Lord of the Rings adaptations in terms of quality, do you think this was a fair comparison?

DG: I think we did better than they did—obviously. But really that is a bit like comparing bulldogs with ballerinas.

JS: It’s been confirmed that all seven books will become films. What’s your opinion on this?

DG: That really is a silly question, almost everybody knows that my ambition has been for a long time to make all seven Narnian Chronicles, Jack’s Science Fiction Trilogy and Till we Have Faces into great movies.

JS: I knew full well you wanted to do all seven Narnian Chronicles as films, I’ve only just heard about Screwtape, but I never knew anything about wanting to do the Space Trilogy or Till We Have Faces as movies! ( Note to readers: this is what happens when you trust in WIKIPEDIA.) That’s awesome! I take it you have no word on how those projects are going yet?

DG: Screwtape is in pre-production and we have a very talented young writer wrestling manfully with the screenplay (a very difficult one to write). We have the core of the team in place and are progressing slowly. The Cosmic Trilogy and Till We Have Faces are as yet merely dreams and hopes in my mind, but if you know anybody who has a few hundred million dollars to spare and a real desire to make some great films, please give him or her my email address.

JS: Wait. What about The Great Divorce or Pilgrim’s Regress. Are there any intentions with those ones for film adaptations?

DG: I have had some talks about The Great Divorce, but nothing has come of that yet, and Pilgrim’s Regress is way down on the priority list.

JS: I guess I (and some other NarniaFans as well) will have to reserve spaces on DVD shelves to put the films inspired by Jack’s novels next to the LOTR Extended Editions!

DG: Its a nice thought.

Come back next week when we discuss the film of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe!

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