Orthodoxy #96 // Why Is Narnia So Important? (ft. Hal Poe & David C. Downing)
In this episode, I got to sit down with the Professor of Faith and Culture at Union University, Dr. Hal Poe, and the Co-Director of the Wade Center in Wheaton, IL, Dr. David C. Downing. We talked about why it’s important for Christians to write fantasy stories, what inspired C.S. Lewis to write the Chronicles of Narnia, and the relationship between intellectual thinkers and creative artists. Dr. Hal Poe is a professor and author to many books including The Inklings of Oxford, Becoming C.S. Lewis, The Making of C.S. Lewis, and The Completion of C.S. Lewis. Dr. Poe served as the President of the Edgar Allan Poe foundation for ten years and the American Scientific Affiliation. He also served as the President of The Academy for Evangelism and Theological Education and The C.S. Lewis Foundation of Redland, CA and Oxford, England. Hal Poe is the Founder of the Inklings Fellowship in which he directs the annual Christianity in the Academy Conference, the Inklings Weekend, and every three years, the Inklings Week in Oxford, England. Dr. David C. Downing is the Co-Director of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL, he is the author of C.S. Lewis: Planets In Peril, The Most Reluctant Convert, and Into The Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Dr. Downing also received the Paul F. Ford Award for Excellence in Lewis Scholarship and Teaching. David Downing added an introduction and over 400 notes to the new edition of The Pilgrims Regress: The Wade Annotated Edition. I did this podcast in partnership with Rocketsled Studios, Rocketsled Studios is run by Greg Silker. Greg is a film maker, producer, and entrepreneur from Minneapolis, MN. I’ve been working with Greg for over a year now and our team has finally gotten a contract signed that will allow us to start working on an adaptation of the Tales of the Kingdom children’s book series written by David and Karen Mains. We’re super excited to be working on this project. This podcast is part of our research and promotion for this project. If you want to learn more about the project, you can go to www.rocketsledstudios.com and check it out.
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Music: "nesting" by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL)