Dr. Devin Brown came on the show to discuss the biography he wrote about C.S. Lewis, “A Life Observed”.
S4E66: “After Hours” with Dr. Devin Brown (Download)
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Timestamps
00:00:00 – Entering “The Eagle & Child”…
00:00:11 – Welcome
00:00:39 – Dr. Devin Brown
00:01:58 – Till We Have Better Opinions
00:05:29 – Quote-of-the-week
00:06:24 – Drink-of-the-week
00:08:20 – Discussion: History with Lewis
00:13:30 – Discussion: Book Endorsements
00:24:17 – Discussion: Biographical Motivations
00:27:07 – Discussion: Perils, Pitfalls, and Pleasures
00:31:47 – Discussion: Joy/Sehnsucht
00:35:34 – Discussion: Suppressed By Jack
00:38:01 – Discussion: Key Moments
00:40:45 – Discussion: Schooling
00:46:01 – Discussion: The Great War
00:49:46 – Discussion: Understanding of Death
00:53:30 – Discussion: Paul McCusker and Annotated C.S. Lewis
00:57:32 – Discussion: Other Projects
01:02:01 – “Last Call” Bell and More Information
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After Show Skype Session
No Skype Session today!
Show Notes
Biographical Information
Dr. Devin Brown is a Lilly Scholar and Professor of English at Asbury University where, in addition to other literature classes, he teaches a course on Lewis and Tolkien. He was born and grew up on Chicago’s south side and is a recipient of The Frances White Ewbank Award, Asbury’s highest honor for teaching. He has a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina and a Master’s degree from the University of Florida. Dr. Brown is an award-winning author and a frequent speaker at conferences and college campuses. In 2008, he was invited to teach one of the Summer Seminars held at The Kilns, and so for a week he slept in C. S. Lewis’s bedroom – the one thing he has done that really impressed his mother! Dr. Brown is on record as holding the opinion that, despite the author’s own words on the subject, Till We Have Faces is not Lewis’s best book, a claim that some see as courageous and others see as just plain nuts. Lastly, Dr. Brown is the author of a book which we’ll be talking about today, A Life Observed: A Spiritual Biography of C. S. Lewis.
Biographical information for Dr. Devin Brown
Chit-Chat
- Dr. Brown doesn’t think that Till We Have Faces is not Lewis’ finest work – why is that?
Quote-of-the-week
- Today’s quotation comes from a Lewis work which I don’t think we’ve ever quoted on the show before, A Preface to Paradise Lost…
The first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship, from a corkscrew to a cathedral, is to know what it is, what it was intended to do, and how it is meant to be used. After that has been discovered, the temperance reformer may decide that the corkscrew was made for a bad purpose, and the communist may think the same about the cathedral. But such questions come later. The first thing is to understand the object before you: as long as you think the corkscrew was meant for opening tins or the cathedral for entertaining tourists you can say nothing to the purpose about them.
C.S. Lewis, Preface to Paradise Lost
Drink-of-the-week
- The drink-of-the-week for me is [drink]. Dr. Brown was drinking [drink].
Discussion Outline
Biography
- Dr. Brown shared his background with C.S. Lewis. He quoted this scene from the movie, The Mask of Zorro:
The Book Endorsements
- Dr. Brown spoke about the various people who endorsed his book, A Life Observed: A Spiritual Biography of C. S. Lewis.
- The Forward was written by Lewis’ stepson, Douglas Gresham
- Two endorsements on the back cover were from Walter Hooper and Michael Flaherty, co-founder and President of Walden Media
- He mentioned the Alister McGrath books, C.S. Lewis – A Life and The Intellectual World of C.S. Lewis.
The Book
- I chose the quotation from A Preface to Paradise Lost because whenever we talk about biographies, it’s crucial to know the book’s intended goal. I asked Dr. Brown what his motivation in writing this biography.
- We discussed an article which Dr. Brown sent in anticipation of the interview: The Perils, Pitfalls, and Pleasures of Writing a New Biography of Lewis.
- We discussed the research process he went through in preparing for his book.
Jack’s Life
- We spoke about Joy/Sehnsuct.
- The treatment length of different subjects varies considerably in Surprised By Joy – we spoke about why that might be.
- We discussed the comment from fellow Inkling, Dr. Robert E. Havard, who said that Surprised By Joy shouldn’t have been called Surprised By Joy, but “Suppressed by Jack”, because of all the things which Lewis didn’t talk about in his autobiography.
- We concluded this section by speaking about the key moments in Lewis’ life which really shaped his spiritual development?
- Next up, we spoke about Lewis’ schooling.
- Then we spoke about Lewis’ involvement inThe Great War (WW1).
- Dr. Brown outlined Lewis’ changing understanding and view of death over time.
The Screwtape Letters
- Dr. Brown explained his involvement as Editorial Assistant on The Annotated Screwtape Letters with Paul McCusker.
Previous Books
- We spoke about other Inklings-related books Dr. Brown has written:
Latest Projects
- We wrapped up by talking about Dr. Brown’s upcoming projects:
- Keynote Speaker for “An Inklings Weekend,” Montreat College, July 9-11, 2021. Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Mere Christianity (released July 7, 1952).
- A Chapter on Providence in TLOR for Theology & Tolkien – part of the Theology and Culture series published by Lexington Books / Fortress Academic and
- Helping to Edit “Further Up and Further In” for C. S. Lewis on Stage, Max McLean’s and FPA’s next production
