The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis
How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind
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Narrated by:
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Simon Vance
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By:
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Jason M Baxter
About this listen
C. S. Lewis had one of the great minds of the 20th century. Many know Lewis as an author of fiction and fantasy literature, including the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. Others know him for his books in apologetics, including Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain. But few know him for his scholarly work as a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature. What shaped the mind of this great thinker? Jason Baxter argues that Lewis was deeply formed not only by the words of Scripture and his love of ancient mythology, but also by medieval literature. For this undeniably modern Christian, authors like Dante and Boethius provided a worldview that was relevant to the challenges of the contemporary world. Here, listeners will encounter an unknown figure to guide them in their own journey: C. S. Lewis the medievalist.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2022 Jason M Baxter (P)2022 Oasis AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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At the beginning of his career, Joseph Campbell developed a lasting fascination with the cultures of the Far East, and explorations of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy later became recurring motifs in his vast body of work. However, Campbell had to wait until middle age to visit the lands that inspired him so deeply. In 1954, he took a sabbatical from his teaching position and embarked on a year-long voyage through India, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and finally Japan.
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What a journey!
- By Anonymous User on 08-11-18
By: Joseph Campbell
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The Western Canon
- The Books and School of the Ages
- By: Harold Bloom
- Narrated by: James Armstrong
- Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Harold Bloom explores our Western literary tradition by concentrating on the works of twenty-six authors central to the Canon. He argues against ideology in literary criticism; he laments the loss of intellectual and aesthetic standards; he deplores multiculturalism, Marxism, feminism, neoconservatism, Afrocentrism, and the New Historicism. Insisting instead upon "the autonomy of aesthetic," Bloom places Shakespeare at the center of the Western Canon.....
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A personal and opinionated book on the Canon
- By Steffen on 07-23-12
By: Harold Bloom
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The Renaissance
- Studies in Art and Poetry
- By: Walter Pater
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Published to great acclaim in 1873, Walter Pater’s compendium of idiosyncratic, impressionistic essays on the Renaissance gained him a reputation as a daring modern philosopher. Oscar Wilde called it the “holy writ of beauty.” It was Pater’s cry of “art for art’s sake” that became the manifesto for the aesthetic movement. He believed that art should be sensual and that beauty should rank as the highest ideal. Marked by elegant fluency, Pater’s essays discuss Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and other artists who, for him, embodied the spirit of the Renaissance.
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Wanda McCaddon and Pater = 😍
- By Tyler on 02-01-21
By: Walter Pater
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My Bright Abyss
- Meditation of a Modern Believer
- By: Christian Wiman
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Seven years ago, Christian Wiman, a well-known poet and the editor of Poetry magazine, wrote a now-famous essay about having faith in the face of death. My Bright Abyss, composed in the difficult years since and completed in the wake of a bone marrow transplant, is a moving meditation on what a viable contemporary faith - responsive not only to modern thought and science but also to religious tradition - might look like.
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Meditative Poetry in Prose
- By Marianne Murphy Zarzana on 07-21-19
By: Christian Wiman
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Letters to a Young Poet
- By: Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell - translator
- Narrated by: Stephen Mitchell
- Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Ranier Maria Rilke challenges you, "...to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answers." Rilke's ability to combine the sensual and the spiritual into an inspired vision of the art of living is brought to vivid life in his letters. Through his eyes, the everyday difficulties of love, sex, solitude, sadness, and doubt are seen as the archetypal elements of the drama called life.
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Priceless Recordings of Intense Feeling
- By David on 10-08-04
By: Rainer Maria Rilke, and others
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Emerson
- The Mind on Fire
- By: Robert D. Richardson
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie
- Length: 26 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord.
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Finally!
- By Douglas on 08-15-14
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If I Had Lunch with C. S. Lewis
- Exploring the Ideas of C. S. Lewis on the Meaning of Life
- By: Alister McGrath
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Have you ever wondered…whether God exists? whether life has meaning? Whether pain and suffering have a purpose? This audiobook is my invitation to sit down with C. S. Lewis and me to think about some of the persistent questions and dilemmas every person faces in life. We’ll explore Lewis’s thoughts on everything from friendships to heaven, from the reasons for faith to the power of stories.
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A great overview
- By Kevin on 12-31-14
By: Alister McGrath
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All Things Shining
- Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular World
- By: Hubert Dreyfus, Sean Dorrance Kelly
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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The religious turn to their faith to find meaning. But what about the many people who lead secular lives and are also hungry for meaning? What guides, what approaches are available to them? Distinguished philosophers Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly explain that a secular life charged with meaning is indeed within reach.
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Excellent Book that refreshes the classics
- By Tod on 06-14-11
By: Hubert Dreyfus, and others
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The Secret History of the World
- By: Jonathan Black
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
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Here, for the first time, is a complete history of the world based on the beliefs and writings of secret societies, researched with the help of an initiate of more than one secret society.
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Not for beginners
- By Being of Light on 09-13-12
By: Jonathan Black
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50 Spiritual Classics
- By: Tom Butler-Bowdon
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Discover the books that have already changed the lives of millions. This unabridged guide to the literature of the spirit surveys 50 of the all-time classics, giving you their key ideas, insights, and applications - everything you need to know to start benefiting from these legendary works.
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useful as review or starting point
- By connie on 01-03-09
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This brief, accessibly written volume introduces key figures, texts, and themes of the mystical tradition and shows how and why the mystics can speak to the church today. Jason Baxter, an expert educator and storyteller, explains that the mystical tradition offers a more robust understanding of God than our current shallow conceptions.
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typical non mystic analysis of mysticism.
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In Tending the Heart of Virtue, Vigen Guroian illuminates the power of classic tales and their impact on the moral imagination. He demonstrates how these stories teach the virtues through vivid depictions of the struggle between good and evil, while he also unveils components of the good, the true, and the beautiful in plot and character. With clarity and elegance, Guroian reads deeply into the classic stories.
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So many wonderful suggestions for parents
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George MacDonald, described by W.H. Auden as "one of the most remarkable writers of the 19th century", was valued in his own time as an original thinker and spiritual guide. Of all his writing, it is the fairy tales that have retained their fascination, and this collection includes all 11 stories. The fairy tales feature the stock characters of traditional tales—fairies both good and bad, and children undertaking precarious journeys. Often adopting paradox and nonsense as Lewis Carroll did, the stories invite adults to deploy the same open-mindedness as children.
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The greatest author OAT
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The Faerie Queene
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This remarkable poem, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, was Spenser's finest achievement. The first epic poem in modern English, The Faerie Queene combines dramatic narratives of chivalrous adventure with exquisite and picturesque episodes of pageantry. At the same time, Spenser is expounding a deeply-felt allegory of the eternal struggle between Truth and Error....
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High Fantasy from the Renaissance
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A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
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"A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys" is a children's book by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which retells several Greek myths. The frame story is that a Williams College student, Eustace Bright, is telling these tales to a group of children. All the tales are modified from the original myths.
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wonderful stories and narrator
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Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians
- Finding Authentic Faith in a Forgotten Age with C.S. Lewis
- By: Chris R. Armstrong
- Narrated by: Jon Gauger
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
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Many Christians today tend to view the story of medieval faith as a cautionary tale. Too often, they dismiss the Middle Ages as a period of corruption and decay in the church. They seem to assume that the church apostatized from true Christianity after it gained cultural influence in the time of Constantine, and that the faith was only later recovered by the 16th-century Reformers or even the 18th-century revivalists. As a result, the riches and wisdom of the medieval period have remained largely inaccessible to modern Protestants.
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A splendid introduction to Medieval faith from an Evangelical perspective
- By Daniel on 03-07-20
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An Introduction to Christian Mysticism
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This brief, accessibly written volume introduces key figures, texts, and themes of the mystical tradition and shows how and why the mystics can speak to the church today. Jason Baxter, an expert educator and storyteller, explains that the mystical tradition offers a more robust understanding of God than our current shallow conceptions.
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typical non mystic analysis of mysticism.
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In Tending the Heart of Virtue, Vigen Guroian illuminates the power of classic tales and their impact on the moral imagination. He demonstrates how these stories teach the virtues through vivid depictions of the struggle between good and evil, while he also unveils components of the good, the true, and the beautiful in plot and character. With clarity and elegance, Guroian reads deeply into the classic stories.
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So many wonderful suggestions for parents
- By Adrienne p on 11-08-23
By: Vigen Guroian
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Fairy Tales
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George MacDonald, described by W.H. Auden as "one of the most remarkable writers of the 19th century", was valued in his own time as an original thinker and spiritual guide. Of all his writing, it is the fairy tales that have retained their fascination, and this collection includes all 11 stories. The fairy tales feature the stock characters of traditional tales—fairies both good and bad, and children undertaking precarious journeys. Often adopting paradox and nonsense as Lewis Carroll did, the stories invite adults to deploy the same open-mindedness as children.
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The greatest author OAT
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The Faerie Queene
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This remarkable poem, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, was Spenser's finest achievement. The first epic poem in modern English, The Faerie Queene combines dramatic narratives of chivalrous adventure with exquisite and picturesque episodes of pageantry. At the same time, Spenser is expounding a deeply-felt allegory of the eternal struggle between Truth and Error....
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High Fantasy from the Renaissance
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A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
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- Narrated by: James Joy
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"A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys" is a children's book by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which retells several Greek myths. The frame story is that a Williams College student, Eustace Bright, is telling these tales to a group of children. All the tales are modified from the original myths.
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wonderful stories and narrator
- By Travis Fentiman on 02-05-20
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Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians
- Finding Authentic Faith in a Forgotten Age with C.S. Lewis
- By: Chris R. Armstrong
- Narrated by: Jon Gauger
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Many Christians today tend to view the story of medieval faith as a cautionary tale. Too often, they dismiss the Middle Ages as a period of corruption and decay in the church. They seem to assume that the church apostatized from true Christianity after it gained cultural influence in the time of Constantine, and that the faith was only later recovered by the 16th-century Reformers or even the 18th-century revivalists. As a result, the riches and wisdom of the medieval period have remained largely inaccessible to modern Protestants.
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A splendid introduction to Medieval faith from an Evangelical perspective
- By Daniel on 03-07-20
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The Fellowship
- The Literary LIves of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
- By: Philip Zaleski, Carol Zaleski
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C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J. R. R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis' Oxford rooms and a nearby pub. They read aloud from works in progress, argued about anything that caught their fancy, and gave one another invaluable companionship, inspiration, and criticism.
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If You Love Literature...
- By Ray M on 07-14-16
By: Philip Zaleski, and others
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The Discarded Image
- An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
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- Narrated by: Richard Elwood
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The Discarded Image paints a lucid picture of the medieval worldview, providing the historical and cultural background to the literature of the middle ages and renaissance. It describes the 'image' discarded by later years as "the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science, and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe". This, Lewis' last book, has been hailed as "the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind".
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I hope more of Lewis's scholastic stuff is coming
- By James on 04-01-21
By: C. S. Lewis
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Phantastes
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Written by George MacDonald in 1858, Phantastes is acknowledged as the first modern fantasy novel for adults, inspiring Lewis Carroll, C.S.Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and David Lindsay amongst others.
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Come for the GMD, Stay for the ... David Bowie?
- By James on 04-19-24
By: George MacDonald
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The Roots of Western Civilization
- The Ancient World From Gilgamesh to Augustine
- By: Anthony Esolen Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Anthony Esolen Ph.D.
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Original Recording
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In this course, Prof. Anthony Esolen will examine ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome and Israel, seeing the disappointment and Messianic longing in the pagan Roman poet Virgil, and the fulfilled Messianic longing among the prophets and the inspired authors of the Old Testament. You will discover the ways in which the fulfillment of the person of Jesus Christ never ceases to surprise mankind, because it never ceases to contradict what fallen man accepts as great.
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Great content but...
- By C.J. Destefani on 02-06-20
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English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Excluding Drama)
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 25 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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C. S. Lewis offers a magisterial take on the literature and poetry of one of the most consequential periods in world history, providing deep insight into some of the greatest writers of the age, including Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, William Tyndale, John Knox, Dr. Johnson, Richard Hooker, Hugh Latimer, Christopher Marlowe, John Donne, and Thomas Cranmer.
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Treasure
- By James on 08-25-22
By: C. S. Lewis
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Phantastes
- A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
- By: George MacDonald
- Narrated by: Rebecca K. Reynolds
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The classic fantasy that influenced C. S. Lewis and Tolkien, considered one of George MacDonald's most important works, is the story of the young man, Anodos, and his adventures in fairyland which ultimately reveal the human condition. "I write, not for children," wrote George MacDonald, "but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or 50, or 75." All-at-once written with an innocent whimsy and soulful yearning, the heart of Anodos' journey through fairyland reveals a spiritual quest that requires a surrender of the self.
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Finally
- By Aaron Elrod on 04-12-21
By: George MacDonald
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The Narnian
- The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis
- By: Alan Jacobs
- Narrated by: Alan Jacobs
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Abridged
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The White Witch, Aslan, fauns and talking beasts, centaurs and epic battles between good and evil: these have become a part of our collective imagination through the classic volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia. Yet who was the man who created this world? This audiobook attempts to unearth the making of the first Narnian, C. S. Lewis himself.
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The Narnian
- By Stephie on 10-21-05
By: Alan Jacobs
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Home for Christmas
- Stories for Young and Old
- By: Miriam LeBlanc, Henry Van Dyke, Pearl S. Buck, and others
- Narrated by: Heather Corrigan, Boyd Gaines, Mara DeMay, and others
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- Unabridged
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For listeners who are tired of Christmas commercialism, or who feel that Santa Claus and reindeer don’t tell the whole story, these classic gems provide a winning alternative. Selected for their insightfulness, spiritual value, and literary quality (nothing moralistic here) they project the spirit of the season in a fresh, compelling manner that will resonate with listeners of all ages - from children too young to read to themselves, to parents and grandparents who enjoy listening to stories, as well.
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A few good tales.
- By E. Onaya on 12-15-23
By: Miriam LeBlanc, and others
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Bandersnatch
- C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings
- By: Diana Pavlac Glyer
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C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Inklings met each week to read and discuss each other's work-in-progress, offering both encouragement and blistering critique. How did these conversations shape the books they were writing? How does creative collaboration enhance individual talent? And what can we learn from their example? Bandersnatch offers an inside look at the Inklings of Oxford, and a seat at their table at the Eagle and Child pub.
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The Inklings and the Creative Process Opened Up
- By JCurtis on 06-15-17
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Phantastes
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- Narrated by: Brad Powers
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- Unabridged
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A young man named Anodos experiences dream like adventures in Fairy Land, where he meets tree spirits, endures the presence of the overwhelming shadow, journeys to the palace of the fairy queen, and searches for the spirit of the earth. The story conveys a profound sadness and a poignant longing for death.
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THIS IS LIBRIVOX'S FREE RECORDING
- By C. M. W. on 12-24-18
By: George MacDonald
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Devotedly
- The Personal Letters and Love Story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot
- By: Valerie Elliot Shepard
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Many know the heroic story of Jim Elliot’s violent death in 1956, killed by a primitive Ecuadorian tribe he was seeking to reach. Many also know the prolific legacy of Elisabeth Elliot, whose influence on generations of believers through print and broadcast testimony continues to resonate. What many don’t know is the remarkable story of how these two stalwart personalities - single-mindedly devoted to pursuing God’s will for their young lives, certain their future callings would require them to sacrifice forever the blessings of marriage - found their hearts intertwined.
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Such a beautiful story!
- By Verified Customer on 03-31-21
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Thomas Wingfold, Curate, Volume 1
- By: George MacDonald
- Narrated by: Simon Bubb
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The first installment of an incredible novel by George Macdonald, this volume introduces the main character of this three part journey, Thomas Wingfold. His dutiful demeanor and routine religious position are reflected in his faith, which has become stagnant and rote. Throughout Volume 1, Thomas begins to wrestle with certain aspects of his beliefs and encounters several individuals with unique perspectives that eventually spark sincere reflection in this quiet figure.
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misleading description.
- By Amazon Customer on 11-11-24
By: George MacDonald
What listeners say about The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Timothy
- 07-13-22
Loved it.
Loved Narnia. Love Lewis. Loved this book. Insightful. Deep. Listening again very soon. Narrator was great.
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- andrew wilson smith
- 03-08-22
Excellent
An excellent recording of a fascinating analysis of CS Lewis and his literary influences. Dr. Baxter writes in a fluid and engaging style which is augmented my Vance's sonorous reading.
Any fan of Lewis will find this recording a must-have addition to their collection.
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5 people found this helpful
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- stephen
- 07-15-22
Fantastic
This exploration of “C.S. Lewis the medievalist” is so brilliantly done. It’s primarily it’s the tour through Lewis’s favorite literature and the demonstration that medieval cosmology and poetry was constantly in the mind and writings of Lewis that you learn just how much a “dinosaur” (in the best possible way) he was.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Neil
- 12-20-22
Beautifully Written
A must read if you want to dive into the mind of the great C.S. Lewis.
Narration is expertly done.
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- Truths to Inspire
- 02-03-23
Outstanding description that brings the reader into the brilliant and fantastical mind of Lewis
Loved listening to Baxter retell why Lewis so loved nostalgia and the great minds of those who saw the world and humanity’s place in it so differently than the modern view. Filled with hope and beautiful poetic language that grips the mind to think.
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2 people found this helpful
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- James Staples
- 12-30-22
The Third Lewis
Baxter provides fascinating insights into a little explored side to Lewis. His professional interest and personal passion for medieval literature reveals a greater appreciation for an understanding of the universe and of being that has largely been lost to us since the advent of modernity. What does medieval cosmology have to teach us in a post Copernican age? How did his long-standing love of Dante's epic poetry inform Lewis' classic, The Great Divorce? What literary antecedents inspired his depiction of the heavens in Our of the Silent Planet? Read (or listen) to find out. Vance, as always, is a delight to listen to in his narration of Baxter's book. Highly recommended, though I think I will now have to get a copy of the paperback, as well, for further study!
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- Adam Shields
- 12-05-24
Helpfully makes connections to understand Lewis
Summary: Discussion of how understanding the Medieval world and its books help to understand CS Lewis.
Over the years, I have read an enormous amount by or about CS Lewis. I am not Lewis scholar, I have not been systemically enough and I certainly haven’t read enough to know what the academy thinks of Lewis, but I have read read about 25-30 books by or about Lewis since starting this blog.
One of my complaints about the biographies of Lewis is that they say very little about Lewis’ discipleship, including Devin Brown’s which is about the spiritual life of Lewis. Part of what Baxter is doing in The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis is suggesting that a significant part of Lewis’ discipleship was the result of reading old books. That makes sense to me, although I do think that Lewis’ work with a spiritual director likely mattered to making that real.
What is helpful about The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis is the explanations of the references that are missed when we don’t know about them. I have read a bit of Dante, but I don’t know Dante well. I have never read Boethius and many others referenced here. What I love about reading young adult writer, KB Hoyle, is that she always has references and hints in her books. You can read her books without knowing any of the references and you get a good story. But as an adult reading her books, I get a lot more because I get the references. There is depth to the stories and the depth encourages rereading. That just isn’t the case for a lot of current pop fiction. A lot of pop fiction assumes that the reader isn’t paying attention, doesn’t care about reference and is simply looking for an escape. Reading for escape isn’t bad, I read for escape all the time. But I don’t want to always read for escape. (It is not surprising that KB Hoyle taught at a Classical school before becoming a full time writer and publisher.)
I found The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis very helpful and if you like CS Lewis and want to understand more, you likely will like it as well. But I do have a concern, not about the book as much as the way that classical education is sometimes used. Recently a number of atheist or agnostics have been calling themselves cultural Christians, this trend seems to not be about Christianity as much as it is about shared culture. I get very wary of arguments for shared culture. I think there is real value in retelling fairy tales and old stories and finding traditional archetypes in those stories. That is part of what a good education should include.
But too often that encouragement to understanding western classics is not about understanding history, but to encourage a particular view of western cultural superiority. Doug Wilson is one of the biggest proponents of the Christian Classical school movement and the publishing company that he started and which publishes a good bit of curriculum for the Christian Classical School movement also published Stephen Wolfe’s The Case for Christian Nationalism. Wilson and Wolfe and many others have been strongly influenced by Rushdooney (Christian Reconstructionist movement) and Robert Lewis Dabney (a proponent of white racial superiority as a requirement for being Christian.) The Christian Classical School movement does not need to promote western superiority, and people like Jessica Hooten Wilson (first link in this paragraph) are actively trying to promote a vision for Christian classical schools that is not rooted in western cultural superiority. But people like Thomas Achord are common in the Christian Classical School movement.
My second concern with the way that understanding references to classics goes wrong is when they are stripped of their history and context. Jordan Peterson’s new book, We Who Wrestle With God, was reviewed by Rowan Williams and Brad East. I have not read Peterson’s books so I am relying on their reviews for context. Peterson’s book is about reading the Torah. But his Torah reading is about finding the archetypal stories and reinterpreting them for meaning. East’s review suggests that he does that by stripping them of their Jewish context and interplay, which even as a non-christian, ends up promoting a type of supersessionism. Rowan Williams (retired Archbishop of Canterbury), mentions similar concerns, but is more concerned about the way that divinity is stripped from the stories. God is simply a concept for Peterson, not a being. That makes sense since Peterson does not claim to be a Christian or Jewish. However, the result of that is that it is simply stories which we place meaning on. And that meaning is limited by our perspective. Williams’ central critique is
“there is a risk of losing the specificity of the narratives, of ironing out aspects that don’t fit the template. Every story gets pushed towards a set of Petersonian morals – single-minded individual rectitude, tough love, clear demarcations between the different kinds of moral excellence that men and women are called to embody, and so on.”
I do not think that Rowan Williams is as wary of the natural law as I am, but I do think what he is pointing out with Peterson is exactly why I am wary of natural law. Natural law can end up being reduced to our feelings about how things are and finding reasons for why things are the way they are. Peterson, unsurprisingly to anyone paying attention, find archetypal reasons for preserving patriarchy in the story of Adam and Eve. And Doug Wilson has previously found similar natural law arguments for Christianity being rooted in patriarchy and hierarchy (“every biblical Christian holds to patriarchy.”)
I do not think that understanding classical influences on Christianity is inherently supporting western superiority or supersessionism. But it can lead to that. I think part of how we avoid that is by paying attention not just to classical influences on Christianity but reading eastern Christian tradition as well. And reading modern authors like Nnedi Okorafor, who are referencing African mythology in similar ways to how Lewis was referencing Greek and Norse mythology. It will take work to keep ourselves aware of ways that we can go wrong, but it is worth it.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Rachel Burkholder
- 03-27-24
Dante, myth, revelation and revealing in the beauty of the divine
I have always loved Lewis; he brings difficult concepts in the light via story and imagery. Discovering how his ability to do so is rooted in his love of the Medieval poet brought clarity and insight into his writings I had not understood before. I’m inspired to reread Dante with Lewis’s mindset. Also after listening to this book I want to reread and listen again to grasp all the intricacies.
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- J.M.
- 04-24-24
A wonderful introduction Lewis's influences.
I loved hearing about the books that influenced Lewis. I have so many more books to read now.
The narrator did a beautiful job reading the book.
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- Steve De Pangher
- 08-12-24
Too often neglected
An excellent book focusing on Lewis's scholarly work, especially regarding the "Medieval Model" - the specific subject of Lewis's Discarded Image. But this short book is far more, integrating into its insights various Lewis essays, his love for Dante, all of his fiction, and more. Lewis as a kind of modern Boethius was an intriguing insight! Very well done.
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