Dr. Louis Markos comes on the show to talk about his latest book, “C.S. Lewis for Beginners”.
S6E3: “C.S. Lewis for Beginners” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Drop-In
Quote-of-the-week
“Read something three times in Aristotle or Augustine or Aquinas, and you will find you have forgotten most of it by next week; read it once in Lewis, and it will stay with you forever”
Dr. Louis Markos, C.S. Lewis for Beginners
Biographical Information
Dr. Louis Markos is a Professor of English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, where he holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities. He teaches courses on film, on the Classics, British Romantic and Victorian Poetry and Prose, as well as on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. He first appeared on Pints With Jack when we were reading The Great Divorce and he spoke to us about the Afterlife in the Western Poetic Tradition and he then returned in Season 4 to talk about his book, Myth Made Fact, about Reading Greek and Roman Mythology through Christian Eyes.
Guest Biographical Information
Toast
- David was drinking Earl Grey Tea.
- Dr. Markos was drinking a nice glass of ice tea.
Discussion
1. “Life Update”
What have you been up to since you were last on the show?
- Myth Made Fact
- From Plato to Christ
- From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics
- Ancient Voices: An Insider’s Look at Ancient Rome
- Ancient Voices: An Insider’s Look at Classical Greece
- Ancient Voices: The Early Church
- C.S. Lewis for Beginners
2. “Classical Education and Dedication”
Before we get to the contents of your book, you dedicated it to three founders of Classical Christian schools. Would you mind just saying a few words about that dedication and, for those who are unfamiliar with classical education, what exactly that is?
- Classical Education
- Dedication
- Douglas Wilson
- The Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin
- Tom Spencer
- Tradition means “handed down”
- Latin: traditio
- Greek: paradosis/παράδοσις
- David’s fantasy book where Tertullian, Origen, St. Thomas Aquinas about reason and religion:
“What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?”
Tertillian, Prescription Against Heretics
- The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What it Means to Be an Educated Human Being edited by Richard Gamble
3. “Target Audience”
So for whom did you write C.S. Lewis for Beginners? Who is the target audience? What age and level of education?
“Somehow what Lewis thought about everything was secretly present in what he said about anything.”
Owen Barfield, The Taste of the Pineapple: Essays on C. S. Lewis as Reader, Writer, and Imaginative Writer
- Lesser Known Lewis
- The Collected Essays Audiobook
- Essay Collections
4. “Chronological Ordering”
You arrange the books in chronological order. Do you recommend reading Lewis’ books in that order?
- See his arc as a writer
- See the productivity in the war years
- Recognize the influence of Joy Davidman
- Refutes the idea that Lewis gave up apologetics after “The Anscombe Incident”
5. “Chapter Contents”
What do you cover in each chapter? How do you structure them?
–
6. “Beginner Graduation”
Once someone has read your book, do they graduate from being regarded as a “beginner”? What would be your recommendations after finishing it?
- From A to Z to Narnia with C.S. Lewis
- Where to begin…
- Wait until later…
- Movies
7. “Out of the Silent Planet”
Since I have you here and we’re reading Out of the Silent Planet this season (and you have a chapter on it in your book), what are a couple of key things which you think we should know about the book before reading, or pay attention to as we work through it this season?
Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.
C.S. Lewis, “Equality”
“THE modern humanitarian can love all opinions, but he cannot love all men; he seems sometimes, in the ecstasy of his humanitarianism, even to hate them all. He can love all opinions, including the opinion that men are unlovable.”
G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to ‘Hard Times’
8. “Final advice”
Any final reading advice?
