Today I received an email from Denise Vasiliu. Denise works for the group Agora Christi (Facebook | Instagram) and the email was a notification about an upcoming event…
Event Name: Charles Williams and C.S. Lewis: Friends in Literary Co-Inherence
Date: 22nd of March 2023
Time: 9:30am (Pacific), 11:30am (Central) 12:30pm (Eastern)
5:30pm UK time, 7:30pm Romanian time
In his excellent book, Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis: Friends in Co-Inherence. (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2021), Dr. Fiddes’ study of the literary relationship between Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis argues that William’s concept of “co-inherence” (the idea that human beings can interweave in their relationships just as the triune God does) is at the center of their friendship and a significant influence on the thought of Lewis after 1939. Dr. Fiddes explores how co-inherence can help us understand the theologies and fictional worlds of Williams and Lewis, despite the profound differences between their worldviews.
At the event, ‘Inklings & Kindreds’ scholar Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson will host the dialogue between Dr. Paul Fiddes (Oxford, England), Dr. Otniel Bunaciu (Bucharest, Romania), and Dr. Sørina Higgins (New Hampshire, United States).
Guests
Dr. Paul Stuart Fiddes is an English theologian and novelist. He is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford, Principal Emeritus and Senior Research Fellow of Regent’s Park College, Oxford (where he is director of the Project for the Study of Love in Religion), and a former Chairman of the Oxford Faculty of Theology. He took first class degrees in English Language and Literature (1968) and in Theology (1970) at the University of Oxford (St. Peter’s College), followed by a D.Phil from Oxford (1975), and was awarded the D.D. of the University of Oxford for published work in 2004. He is Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Bucharest, and Honorary Fellow of St. Peter’s College, Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2020.
Dr. Sørina Higgins holds a Ph.D. from Baylor University, where she was a Presidential Scholar, Teacher of Record, Graduate Writing Center Consultant, and English Department Representative to the Graduate Student Association. She is also a faculty member at Signum University. She is a scholar of the Inklings, Arthuriana, and British and Irish Modern Literature. Her ground-breaking blog “The Oddest Inkling,” was devoted to a systematic study of Charles Williams’ works. Her edited collection The Inklings and King Arthur: J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield on the Matter of Britain won the Mythopoeic Society Inklings Scholarship Award in 2018.
Dr. Otniel-Ioan Bunaciu is a Theology Professor, at the Faculty of Baptist Theology of the Bucharest University, where he is also president of the Senate. In 1996 he founded the “Providenta” Foundation which he is the president of. He leads the Research Center of Faith and Culture that is part of the Baptist Theology Institute in Bucharest. Dr. Bunaciu has a rich activity regarding teaching at different superior theological educational institutions abroad: the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Texas, USA; the Palm Beach Atlantic University, Florida, USA; the TCV International Institute, Indiana, USA. He is also an external examinator for doctoral programs at the University of Wales.
Dr. Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson is a George MacDonald scholar who lives in the Ottawa Valley, Canada. She lectures internationally on MacDonald, the 19th century, the Inklings, and Faith & the Arts. Co-editor of Informing the Inklings, she has published many chapters and articles in the field and appears in the documentary The Fantasy Makers (featured at the 2018 Lewis and Friends Colloquium). Currently completing a book on MacDonald, she also authored the Forewords and Afterwords to the Romanian translations of MacDonald’s The Golden Key and Barfield’s The Child & the Giant. She is on the Advisory Board of Inklings Journal VII, a founding Board Member of the C. S. Lewis & Kindreds Society of Eastern & Central Europe, and co-chair of the George MacDonald Society. She directs Linlathen – a Theology & Arts conference and lecture series based in rural Ontario.
