Wade Center

Our dear friends and co-hosts of the podcast, Drs. Crystal & David C. Downing, are retiring as co-directors of the Wade Center in June. Professor of English, Dr. Jim Beitler will serve as the Wade Center's new director starting in July. To bid the Downings a fond farewell and pass the baton to our new director, we decided to share some of our favorite Wade author quotes. If you would like to tell the Downings how much the podcast has meant to you, send them an email at wade@wheaton.edu and we'll pass it along. Despair not, faithful listeners! Dr. Beitler and Producer Aaron Hill will return with new episodes, a new format, and new topics in September. To tide you over until we re-launch, we will be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes, starting next week with Dr. Beitler's episode on "The Rhetoric of Lewis and Sayers" from July 2019.

Through his writings, C.S. Lewis emphasized the importance of travel and learning for through these two activities we gain the needed perspective to see life through the lens of "many places" and "many times." In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with author's Dr. Alan Snyder and Jamin Metcalf to discuss their recently published book on C.S. Lewis and history, Many Times & Many Places (2023). Does history have a plot or a coherent storyline? Can we read and interpret history? Is every good event attributable to God and every evil event attributable to the sins of men? What is the value of studying history in an age that is enamored with progress and infected with chronological snobbery?

In the first half of the 20th century, England elites like T.S. Eliot were trying to devalue John Milton and elevate John Donne—exchanging one 17th-century English poet for another. At the height of World War II, C.S. Lewis took up arms against these oppressors and defended Milton in a series of lectures that would later be published as A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942). Since then, every aspiring scholar has had to grapple with Lewis, the lion in the path of Milton studies. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Dr. David Urban (Professor of English at Calvin University) to discuss how Paradise Lost and Lewis's Preface to it serves as a crucial lens through which to read and interpret Lewis's fiction and non-fiction works.

While he never visited America, C.S. Lewis and his works have greatly impacted the American religious landscape. While many general readers associate Lewis primarily with The Chronicles of Narnia (1950), before his appearance on the cover of Time in 1947 Americans viewed C.S. Lewis quite differently. In this week's episode Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down to interview Dr. Mark A. Noll about his new book C.S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935–1947 (2024). Stay tuned until the end to learn how you can get a discounted (and signed) copy of Dr. Noll's book.

In many ways, C.S. Lewis was both a man ahead of and behind the times. His approach to science and theology was based upon his professorial comprehension of the Medieval world and what he called "The Model." In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss Lewis's last non-fiction book, The Discarded Image (1964). Based on a series of lectures and published posthumously, David, Crystal, and Aaron discuss how the treasures and insights contained within this often overlooked book by C.S. Lewis on the cosmology and worldview constructed by great thinkers and writers of the Middle Ages.

From C.S. Lewis's childhood wardrobe, to Tolkien's desk, to countless unpublished letters and manuscripts, The Marion E. Wade Center is full of many wonderful things. To celebrate the January 2024 launch of our new "Wonders of the Wade" video series on YouTube, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing, along with Producer Aaron Hill, sit down with Chloe DuBois and Elise Peterson, two student workers at the Wade, to discuss some of our most amazing finds and wonderful discoveries.

J.R.R. Tolkien loved Beowulf, as evidenced by his landmark lecture, “The Monsters and the Critics,” his posthumously published prose translation (released in 2014), and his inclusion of Anglo-Saxon themes and words throughout The Lord of the Rings. In this week’s episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Dr. Ben Weber, Associate Professor of English at Wheaton College and specialist in Medieval literature to discuss the significance of Beowulf itself as literature, Tolkien’s fascination with the poem, as well as how reading this Old English heroic poem can help modern minds grapple with death and forces of chaos beyond our control.

Archived at the Wade Center are a set of letters between Warren Lewis and a missionary named Blanche Biggs. After the death of his brother, C.S. Lewis, Warren received a letter out of the blue from Blanche, who was serving as a missionary in Papua New Guinea. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Diana Glyer to discuss her new book The Major and the Missionary, which collects and examines this set of letters that reveal not only a new side of Warren but the deep and intimate friendship he fostered with Blanche. You can order a copy of Diana's book now over at the Rabbit Room.

Philip Yancey, critically acclaimed author, discusses his new book 'Undone' which renders 17th century poet John Donne's meditations on suffering into modern English. The podcast explores topics such as the impact of Wade authors on Yancey's writing, the concept of being undone in the midst of a pandemic, different perspectives on suffering in Christianity, and the paradox of suffering and grace. Yancey also discusses his upcoming publication and the artistic movement called Hutchmooch in Nashville.

A discussion on G.K. Chesterton's novel Manalive, exploring its critique of conventionality and its impact on Christianity. The podcast delves into the unique character descriptions and atmospheric prose in Chesterton's writing. The meaning behind the phrase 'Man of Life' is explored, along with the strange actions of Innocent Smith. The chapter also includes a personal story about newfound appreciation for life.