On November 29th, 2024, the Pints With Jack celebrated Jack’s 125th birthday in #CSLewisReadingDay.
The hosts were joined by the hosts of the Lamp-Post Listener, Barrel Aged Faith, Lorehaven, Men with Chests, The Inklings Variety Hour, Lesser-Known Lewis, and Robert Trexler from the New York C.S. Lewis Society.
CS Lewis Reading Day Livestream (East Coast) (Audio Download)
We will be celebrating #CSLewisReadingDay again this year. If you’re not already, please sign up for the mailing list for a chance to win free books that day!
Show Notes
Introduction
Reading Day origin story
Andrew recounted some of the C. S. Lewis Reading Day origin story.
Other events worldwide
David shared some of the messages he had received from other groups around the world.
Discussion
01. “Kyle King: Barrel Aged Faith”
Kyle King introduced himself and his podcast, BarrelAgedFaith.com, mentioning his course, The Altar Above the Worlds.
We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat.
Hebrews 13:10
02. “Stephen Burnett: Lorehaven”
Stephen Burnett introduced himself and his website, Lorehaven.com, it’s Guild, and the Fantastical Truth Podcast.
03. “Robert Trexler: New York C. S. Lewis Society”
Bob Trexler spoke about membership in The New York C. S. Lewis Society, highlighting the books donated by the society for giveaway:
- Branches to Heaven: The Geniuses of C.S. Lewis by James Como
- Why I Believe in Narnia: 33 Reviews & Essays on the Life & Works of C.S. Lewis by James Como
Bob also spoke about the books published by Winged Lion Press:
- C.S Lewis Goes to Heaven: A Reader’s Guide to The Great Divorce
by David G. Clark - C.S. Lewis Goes To Hell: A Companion and Study Guide to The Screwtape Letters by William O’Flaherty
- Joy and Poetic Imagination: Understanding C.S. Lewis’s “Great War with Owen Barfield and its Significance for Lewis’s Conversion and Writings by Stephen Thorson
- Phantastes: Annotated Scholarly Edition with Appendices by George MacDonald
- Mystical Perelandra: My Lifelong Reading of C.S. Lewis and His Favorite Book by James Como
04. “Joseph Weigel: Men With Chests”
Joseph Weigel spoke about his podcast, Men with Chests Podcast, and his love of C. S. Lewis’ books, The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength.
We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics was also briefly mentioned.
05. “Chris Pipkin: The Inklings Variety Hour”
Chris Pipkin is the host of The Inklings Variety Hour Podcast and chief writer of The Inklings Variety Hour Substack.
During the discussion on Charles Williams, Andrew mentioned the book Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis: Friends in Co-inherence by Paul S. Fiddes
06. “Daniel & Phil: The Lamp-post Listener”
Daniel and Phil are hosts of LampPostListener.com.
Matt referenced S7E2 with Dr. Diana Pavlac Glyer.
07. “Sean Stevenson-Douglas: The Lesser-Known Lewis Podcast”
Sean runs The Lesser Known Lewis.com podcast with Jordan Duncan.
08. “Beverages & Toast”
The hosts and guests shared what they were drinking…
- Andrew: Lagavulin 16 and Guiness
- Matt: The MacAllen 12 Sherry Oak Cask
- David: Vat 69
- Kyle: Coffee
- Stephen: Dutch Bros Mocha
- Joseph: Jameson Black Barrel
- Phil: Lemon-Lime Waterloo
- Dan: Black Tea
…and toasted Jack.
09. “Book Giveaway”
David outlined books available for giveaway!
09. “Andrew’s current project”
Andrew shared about his current project reconsidering the Joy Davidman timeline.
10. “Favourite Quotation/What Lewis means to me”
Q. What is your favorite Lewis quotation and why? Alternatively, what does Lewis mean to you?
- C.S. Lewis: A Biography by Walter Hooper and Roger Lancelyn Green
- A Love Observed: Joy Davidman’s Life and Marriage by Lyle W. Dorsett
I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…Come further up, come further in!
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
There is something which unites magic and applied science (technology) while separating them from the “wisdom” of earlier ages. For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique.
C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
- The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Sometimes fairy stories may say best what’s to be said.
C.S. Lewis, Of Other Worlds
- On Living in an Atomic Age by C.S. Lewis
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways.
C.S. Lewis, On Living in an Atomic Age
While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world into some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise.
C.S. Lewis, The Dawn Treader
As the king governs by his executive, so Reason in man must rule the mere appetites by means of the ‘spirited element.’ …The Chest-Magnanimity-Sentiment—these are the indispensable liaison officers between cerebral man and visceral man.
It may even be said that it is by this middle element that man is man: for by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal.
C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
- The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
“Then Hwin, though shaking all over, gave a strange little neigh and trotted across to the Lion.
C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy
“Please,” she said, “you’re so beautiful. You may eat me if you like. I’d sooner be eaten by you than fed by anyone else.”
… I think there are these four ages about nearly everything. Let’s give them names. They are the Unenchanted Age, the Enchanted Age, the Disenchanted Age, and the Re-enchanted Age. As a little child I was Unenchanted about bicycles. Then, when I first learned to ride, I was Enchanted. By sixteen I was Disenchanted and now I am Re-enchanted.
C.S. Lewis, Talking About Bicycles
- Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis
The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.
C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
- Beowulf
- The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
- The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
11. “Alternative reading order”
Daniel shared another potential reading order of the Chronicles.
12. “Favourite lesser-known Lewis work”
Q. What is your favorite lesser-known Lewis recommendation?
- The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis
- “The Trouble With ‘X'” (God in the Dock) by C.S. Lewis
- Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
- “Xmas and Christmas” (God in the Dock) by C.S. Lewis
- “Membership” (The Weight of Glory) by C.S. Lewis
- George MacDonald Anthology by C.S. Lewis
- Studies in Words by C.S. Lewis
- Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature by C.S. Lewis
- Letters of C.S. Lewis by C.S. Lewis
- Poetry and Prose in the Sixteenth Century by C.S. Lewis
- A Preface to Paradise Lost by C.S. Lewis
13. “To Jesus Through Lewis”
Q. How have Lewis’ works brought you closer to Christ?
- The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back? by Jim Davis, Michael Graham, Ryan P. Burge, and Collin Hansen
- C.S. Lewis and the Craft of Communication by Steven A. Beebe
- Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosopy by James K.A. Smith
There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.
C.S. Lewis
- The Chosen TV Series
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Huberman Lab Podcast
