Wade Center

Between writing best-selling books, C.S. Lewis published hundreds of essays. Many of them were collected and published after Lewis's death as God in the Dock in 1970. Over the next several episodes, the Wade Center Podcast is going to explore Lewis's wonderful insights about the challenges of maintaining and sharing your faith in the modern world. To kick off this series, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sat down with the beloved Dr. Jerry Root to unpack two powerful essays: "Dogma and the Universe" and "Christian Apologetics."

To tide you over until we return from vacation, enjoy this re-released episode on George MacDonald from the Wade Center archives. Most Inklings fans see George MacDonald through the lens of C.S. Lewis. Others enter MacDonald's novels through diverse doorways. In this week's episode Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss this 19th century Scots author. Why was George MacDonald so important to Lewis? Why is he considered controversial? Are his writings still relevant today?

C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle, and Neil Gaiman are praised for penning imaginative worlds and inspiring stories. But did you know that all these writers were inspired by George MacDonald? In particular, they were inspired by two of his fantasy novels written for children called The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal Downing and David C. Downing discuss these mythopoeic stories that, as Colin Manlove notes, use "the imagination to heal the soul."

"My own debt to [Unspoken Sermons] is almost as great as one man can owe to another." With these words, C.S. Lewis acknowledged the role the George MacDonald's spiritual writings (as well as his novels) played in his own faith journey and theology. In this week's episode Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing, along with Producer Aaron Hill, explore a volume of MacDonald quotes collected and edited by C.S. Lewis called George MacDonald: An Anthology. Explore literary and theological parallels between Lewis and MacDonald, the theological themes that marked MacDonalds life and spiritual writings, and the ongoing relevance of MacDonald's writings for Christians living in the 21st century.

"It is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality, unless they are prepared to take their stand on the fundamentals of Christian theology." Few Christian authors can cut straight to the heart of our problems like Sayers. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing continue to discuss a series of incredibly relevant essays written by Sayers on "The Over Six Deadly Sins," "Strong Meat," and the eponymous "Creed or Chaos."

Words like dogma and theology have for a long time been viewed as "dull" and irrelevant, but in a series of essays written in the late 1930s Dorothy L. Sayers argues quite the opposite: "The Christian faith is the most exciting drama ... and the dogma is the drama." In this week's episode Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing discuss three of Sayers's famous essays—"The Greatest Drama Ever Staged," "The Triumph of Easter," and "The Dogma is the Drama"—compiled in a book titled Creed or Chaos, with an eye toward how they apply to the Church and Christian faith today.

"As long as you are governed by that desire you will never get what you want. ... Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain." In C.S. Lewis's essays—"The Inner Ring" and "Membership"—he unpacks two dangerous social forces that threaten both the church and the morality of Christians: individualism and cliques. This week Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing continue their examination of Lewis's powerful essays and sermons published as The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses in 1948. How does our desire to belong, to be considered meaningful to others, warp and distort not only our heart but our actions. How do they so easily turn good people into "scoundrels?" And what can we do to overcome these temptations?

"We always have to answer the question: How can you be so frivolous and selfish to think of anything by the salvation of human souls?" During World War II, C.S. Lewis preached three sermons which were eventually packaged and published along with six others in 1949 as The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing discuss the spiritual significance and application of "The Weight of Glory," "Learning in War-Time," and "Transpositions," as well as how they apply to our war-plagued world today.

Upon completion of The Lord of the Rings, new readers often turn to The Silmarillion. But J.R.R. Tolkien's epic collection of mythopoeic stories—covering everything from the creation of Eä (the Ainulindalë), the Valar and Mayar, the creation of the Elves as well as the events of the First and Second Ages of Middle-earth—can be overwhelming. Thankfully, Laura Schmidt, Wade Center Archivist, joins Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing to walk us through to the larger themes and storylines of this amazing volume of stories.

Who or what deserves our allegiance? Our heart? An external morality handed down by our parents or Christendom? Our intellect or science? In one of his most challenging books, The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis addresses many of the assumptions about morality, theology, and philosophy that are baked into the fabric of our modern world. Join Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing in this week's episode as they explore the context and message of Lewis's book as well as its proper application to our modern world—viz., how can we avoid becoming "Men Without Chests."