Events Archive
N.B. We currently do not have details for all events before Michaelmas 2015.
If you have termcards covering missing events in the archive, please let us know.
TRINITY TERM 2024 EVENTS
1st Week (April 23)
Dr John Nelson
“Missing the Leaves for the Wood: C.S. Lewis on the Gospels and their Critics.”
2nd Week (April 30)
Dr Michael Ward
“Dunked in Mercury: The Horse and His Boy Seventy Years On.”
3rd Week (May 7)
Revd David Beckmann
“Letters to Malcolm - Revisited.”
4th Week (May 14)
Revd Dr Robert MacSwain OGS
“Austin Farrer’s Baptism in the Church of England on 14 May 1924.”
5th Week (May 21)
Prof. Paul Anderson
“On Fern-Seed, Elephants, Bultmann, and Lewis.”
6th Week (May 28)
Clinton Collister
"E.L. Mascall and The Great Divorce."
7th Week (June 4)
Dr Jeffrey Riley
“Toward an Ethic of C. S. Lewis: Ordinary Means and Extraordinary End.”
8th Week (June 11)
Walk to The Perch
HILARY TERM 2024 EVENTS
1st Week (January 16)
Revd Dr Laura Biron-Scott
“Miracles and the ‘Book of Nature’.”
2nd Week (January 23)
Revd Dr David Pickering
“Chesterton, Lewis, and the Shadow of Newman: A Study in Method.”
3rd Week (January 30)
Revd Anthony Buckley
“Why Agatha Christie Might Matter to the C.S. Lewis Society.”
4th Week (February 6)
Prof. Alister McGrath
“Further up and further in to faith: C.S. Lewis on Storytelling, the Imagination, and Spirituality.”
5th Week (February 13)
Dr Holly Ordway
“He could ‘recapture the glamour of “the word”’: Tolkien's Engagement with the Bible.”
6th Week (February 20)
Dr Michael Ward
“Selling the Well and the Wood: That Hideous Strength and the Abolition of Matrimony.”
7th Week (February 27)
David Bernabé
“Companions of Myth: The Tree of Gernika and its kinship with Tolkien's White Tree of Gondor.”
8th Week (March 5)
Jack Nicholson
“C.S. Lewis on History.”
MICHAELMAS TERM 2023 EVENTS
1st Week (October 10)
Prof. Paul Fiddes
“Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis: Arthurian Poetry and the Image of Co-inherence”
2nd Week (October 17)
Elena Vermeer
“Tolkien’s ‘Sellic Spell’: Old English Poetics, the Artist, and the Critic”
3rd Week (October 24)
Charlie Reeder
“‘Sing About the Hidden Country’: C. S. Lewis and the Condition of Longing”
4th Week (October 31)
Dr. Michael Ward
“The Silver Chair: Lewis and Lunacy Seventy Years On.”
5th Week (November 7)
Dr. Jahdiel Perez
"An Amateur of Genius: C. S. Lewis on Professional Theology"
6th Week (November 14)
Dr. Michael Ward
“C. S. Lewis and Sermons”
7th Week (November 21)
Graham Shea
“Tolkien as Allegory: A Study in Smith of Wootton Major”
8th Week (November 28)
Christmas Party at The Kilns
TRINITY TERM 2023 EVENTS
1st Week (April 25)
Dr Simon Horobin
Stealing past watchful dragons in The Hobbit and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
2nd Week (May 2)
Dr Steven Beebe
Exploring C. S. Lewis’s Role as Editor of Nelson’s Medieval and Renaissance Library Series
3rd Week (May 9)
Dr Michael Ward
The Most Elusive Convert: How Lewis concludes Surprised by Joy
4th Week (May 16)
Clinton Collister
The Last Things in the elegies of John Heath-Stubbs: Echoes of Charles Williams and C.S. Lewis
5th Week (May 23)
Dr Paul Copan
Lewis, Aquinas, et al. on Conscience — with Discussion on the Moral Law and the State
6th Week (May 30)
Dr Matthew Carey Jordan
That Was New: Speculations on the Content of C. S. Lewis's Hegemony of Moral Values
7th Week (June 6)
Fr Paolo Prosperi
Melkor’s subcreative fall: Tolkien and the mysterium iniquitatis
8th Week (June 13)
Walk to The Perch pub from Pusey House
HILARY TERM 2023 EVENTS
1st Week (January 17)
Rev Anthony Buckley
Facing the challenges of new term, thoughts from Narnia
2nd Week (January 24)
Bring a Book
3rd Week (January 31)
Dr Michael Ward
‘Love is Tears’: C.S. Lewis on the Beauty of the Gospel
4th Week (February 7)
Eduardo Gutiérrez González
Tolkien, Cosmopoiesis, and the Imagination with a Thousand Faces
5th Week (February 14)
Dr Holly Ordway
Iron Sharpening Iron: Tolkien and Lewis’s Ecumenical Friendship and Mutual Influence
6th Week (February 21)
Lewis or Tolkien?
A Balloon Debate between Dr Michael Ward and Dr Holly Ordway
7th Week (February 28)
Dr Charles Taliaferro
A Narnian Vision of the Atonement; A Defense of the Ransom Theory
8th Week (March 7)
Benjamin Sharkey
C. S. Lewis, Narnia and Scythia
MICHAELMAS TERM 2022 EVENTS
1st Week (October 11)
Dr Michael Ward
“The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on its Platinum Jubilee”
2nd Week (October 18)
David Bates
Pints With Jack podcast
3rd Week (October 25)
Dr Jason Lepojärvi
“Misreading C.S. Lewis on Friendship: The Charges of Sexism, Secrecy, and Snobbery”
4th Week (November 1)
Bring a book
5th Week (November 8)
Ravi Jain
6th Week (November 15)
Dr David Pickering
7th Week (November 22)
Fr Michael Halsall
8th Week (November 29)
Christmas Party at The Kilns
TRINITY TERM 2022 EVENTS
1st Week (April 26)
Dr Joy Clarkson
“Final Participation in Piranesi: Owen Barfield's Evolution of Consciousness in Susannah Clarke's Literary Imagination”
2nd Week (May 3)
Professor Guiseppe Pezzini
“Not ‘About’ Anything but Itself: Tolkien and the Purpose of Gratuitous Art”
3rd Week (May 10)
Jim Pennell:
“The Anscombe-Lewis Debate: A Model for Christian Truth-Seeking”
4th Week (May 17)
Dr Michael Ward
“Reflections on Mere Christianity on its Platinum Jubilee”
5th Week ( May 24)
Dr Paul Copan
“The Imprecations Are Staggering: CS Lewis and the Psalms of Severity”
6th Week (May 31)
Walk to the Perch Pub from Pusey House - starting at 7.15pm
7th Week (June 7)
Dr JE Gefenstette
“Owen Barfield on the Incarnation and the Poetic Imagination”
8th Week (June 14)
40th Anniversary Celebration at the Magdalen Arms
HILARY TERM 2022 EVENTS
1st Week (January 18)
Rev. Dr. Michael Ward
“Secret Fire: The Hidden Climax of The Lord of the Rings”
2nd Week (January 25)
(Meeting cancelled due to illness)
3rd Week (February 1)
Dr Nick Swarbrick
“Hedges and a Gate”
4th Week (February 8)
“Bring a book”
5th Week (February 15)
Max Jones
“The Pilgrim’s Regress: C. S. Lewis and the Misappropriation of Christian ritual in Fascist Dictatorships”
6th Week (February 22)
Clinton Collister
“Modernist Problems: C.S. Lewis’ Case for Realism and Long Narrative Poetry”
7th Week (March 1)
Dr. Holly Ordway
“St. Philip Neri and Middle-earth: The Oratorian Influence on Tolkien’s Spirituality and Writings”
8th Week (March 8)
Gabriel Calvo
“How to End a Christian Story: A Defense of Lewis’s Endings”
MICHAELMAS TERM 2021 EVENTS
1st Week (October 12th)
Rev. Dr. Michael Ward
The Abolition of Man:
Lewis’s Most Philosophical Work, But Is It Christian?
2nd Week (October 19th)
Prof. Alister McGrath
C. S. Lewis: How I discovered him, and what I found in him. Reflections of a Theologian and Apologist
3rd Week (October 26th)
Please Bring a Book: Please bring your favourite passage from C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, any of the Inklings, their predecessors, or related writers. We will enjoy the art of reading aloud as well as a lively discussion about the selected passages.
4th Week (November 2nd)
Dr. David Pickering
G.K. Chesterton and Natural Theology as a Medium of Communication
5th Week (November 9th)
Dr. Stuart Lee
A Close Reading of J.R.R. Tolkien
6th Week (November 16th)
Sarah Selden
‘What Do They Teach Them in These Schools?’ An Ecocritical Reading of The Chronicles of Narnia
7th Week (November 23rd)
Owen A. Barfield:
What Owen Barfield Taught His Fellow Inklings
8th Week (November 30th)
Christmas at the Kilns
TRINITY TERM 2021 EVENTS
1st Week (April 27)
Prof. John Lennox
Interview
2nd Week (May 4)
Book Launch:
‘From Spare Oom to War Drobe: Travels in Narnia with My Nine Year-Old Self ’
by Katherine Langrish
3rd Week (May 11)
Dr. Steven Beebe
‘How to Communicate Like C.S. Lewis’
4th Week (May 18)
Dr. Jason Lepojärvi
‘Love and the Winter War: C.S. Lewis on Loving Your Enemy’
5th Week (May 25)
Rowan Williams (The Lord Williams of Oystermouth)
‘Making Worlds: The Logic of Fantasy’
6th Week (June 1)
Max McLean
‘Being C.S. Lewis’
7th Week (June 8)
Prof. Simon Horobin
‘C.S. Lewis and The Wind in the Willows’
8th Week (June 15)
Book Launch:
‘After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man’
by Michael Ward
HILARY TERM 2021 EVENTS
1st Week (January 16)
Walter Hooper: In Memoriam
2nd Week (February 2)
Dr. Holly Ordway
Book launch: ‘Tolkien’s Modern Readings’
3rd Week (February 16)
Dr. Michael Ward
‘Prince Caspian and Planet Narnia’
4th Week (March 2)
Andrew Lazo
‘Sehnsucht as Signpost: The Autobiographical Impulse of C. S. Lewis.’
[Due to pandemic restrictions, no meetings took place during
Trinity and Michaelmas terms in 2020.]
HILARY TERM 2020 EVENTS
1st Week (January 21)
Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing
‘Truth, Story and Pattern in the works of Dorothy L. Sayers’
2nd Week (January 28)
Revd. Dr. Malcolm Guite
‘Poetry and Prayer: Some poetic reflections and responses to C.S.Lewis and George Herbert’
3rd Week (February 4)
Dr. Michael Ward
‘C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and the Seven Heavens’
4th Week (February 11)
Rev. Anthony Buckley
‘The Lord of the Rings - Why it matters’
5th Week (February 18)
Ms. Amanda Vernon
‘Reading with George MacDonald’
6th Week (February 25)
Rev. Charlie Cleverly
‘Myth and True Myth in the writings and conversations of C.S.Lewis’
7th Week (March 3)
Mr. David Bennett
‘Ascesis and Ecstasy: The Apologetics of Desire in C.S. Lewis and Sarah Coakley’
8th Week (March 10)
Dr. Don King
‘Warren Lewis and Mrs. Janie Moore: An Unhappy Acquaintance’
MICHAELMAS TERM 2019 EVENTS
1st Week (October 15)
Mr. Jahdiel Perez
‘Irresistible Hilarity: The Theological Humor of C.S. Lewis’
2nd Week (October 22)
Dr. Josephine Gabelman
‘The Living Unmasked: Divine Fraud in Lewis’ Theology’
3rd Week (October 29)
Dr. Mark Vernon
‘Christianity and Consciousness’
4th Week (November 5)
Mr. Colin Duriez
‘The friendship of C.S. Lewis and Dorothy L. Sayers’
5th Week (November 12)
Mr. Stephen Eyre
‘Thoughts about C. S. Lewis; Chiefly on Prayer’
6th Week (November 19)
Mr. Bond West
‘Wandering with the Wise: Etymological Reflections on JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings’
7th Week (November 26)
Dr. Michael Ward
‘One Hundred Years of Poetry: Marking the Centenary of Lewis’s First Publication’
8th Week (December 3)
Christmas Party at the Kilns
TRINITY TERM 2019 EVENTS
1st Week (April 30)
Dr. Michael Ward
‘What has Anscombe to do with Narnia? Did the debate about Miracles lead to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?’
2nd Week (May 7)
Dr. Marc LiVecche
‘The Odious Necessity: C.S. Lewis on War’
3rd Week (May 14)
Mr. Owen Barfield
‘Owen Barfield: Philosopher and Friend’
4th Week (May 21)
Dr. Jason Baxter
‘The Medieval Model and the Christian Future’
5th Week (May 28)
Dr. Stewart Goetz
‘C. S. Lewis's Argument from Desire’
6th Week (June 4)
Dr. Myk Habets
‘ "You Have Never Met A Mere Mortal" – C.S. Lewis’s Vision of Salvation’
7th Week (June 11)
Mr. Jahdiel Perez
‘C.S. Lewis on the Perils of Professional Theology’
8th Week (June 18)
Pub Walk to the Perch at Port Meadow
HILARY TERM 2019 EVENTS
1st Week (January 15)
Mr. David Williams
‘Mere Evolution, Mere Christianity’
2nd Week (January 22)
Mr. John Garth
‘Tolkien’s Creation’
3rd Week (January 29)
Dr. Holly Ordway
‘Tolkien's Modern Sources: Dunsany, Shorthouse, and a Mythology for England’
4th Week (February 5)
Mr. Paul Shakeshaft
‘CS Lewis and Natural Law’
5th Week (February 12)
Dr. Michael Ward
‘Philip Pullman on CS Lewis: What’s Wrong with Him?’
6th Week (February 19)
Ms. Robin Landrith
‘Creation and Incarnation in Bonaventure and Lewis’
7th Week (February 26)
Dr. Max Baker-Hytch
‘Lewis’s Argument from Reason’
8th Week (March 5)
Dr. Piers Worth
‘Learning from C.S. Lewis’s Life’
MICHAELMAS TERM 2018 EVENTS
1st Week (October 9)
Dr. Michael Ward
“Imagine There's no Heaven: C.S. Lewis on Making Space for Faith”
2nd Week (October 16)
Alister McGrath
“C.S. Lewis: A Model of the Intellectual Life”
3rd Week (October 23)
Brenton Dickieson
“Dive: The Shape of the Cross in C.S. Lewis' Writing”
4th Week (October 30)
Joy Clarkson
“Breaking the Spell: Fairy Stories in the Secular Age”
5th Week (November 6)
Marc Barnes
“Should Christians use Smartphones?”
6th Week (November 13)
Eric Tippin
“G.K. Chesterton as Stylist”
7th Week (November 20)
Rev. Dr. Jonathan Brant
“The Professor and the Padre: C.S. Lewis in light of the life and writings of G.A. Studdert-Kennedy”
8th Week ( November 27)
Christmas Party at the Kilns
TRINITY TERM 2018 EVENTS
1st Week (24 April)
Dr Michael Ward
“After Ten Years: Return to Planet Narnia”
2nd Week (1 May)
Mr. Jahdiel Perez
“Between Joy and Jokes: C.S. Lewis's Theology of Laughter”
3rd Week (8 May)
Dr Sarah Maple
Title TBA; Subject: MacDonald’s Baptismal Imagery
4th Week (15 May)
Professor Michael Tomko
“Tolkien, Tragedy, and the Gift of Beauty”
5th Week (22 May)
Professor Steve Beebe
“C.S. Lewis and The Screwtape Letters: A Devil's Guide to Communication”
6th Week (29 May)
Professor Stewart Goetz
“C. S. Lewis on the Soul”
7th Week (5 June)
Professor Vigen Guroian
Title TBA; Subject: MacDonald’s “The Wise Woman”
8th Week (12 June)
Annual Pub Crawl
HILARY TERM 2018 EVENTS
1st Week (16 January)
Dr. Holly Ordway
“Hidden in Plain Sight: Tolkien's Influences from Children's Literature and Popular Fiction”
2nd Week (23 January)
Professor John Finnis
“C.S. Lewis’s Critique of 20th Century Critical Scholarship on the Gospels”
3rd Week (30 January)
Father Jerome Bertram
“Will Bombadil fall?”
4th Week (6 February)
Mr. Brian Lapsa
“Revelation by Disguise: G.K. Chesterton, Ingmar Bergman, and the War on Disenchantment”
5th Week (13 February)
Rev. Dr. Rowan Williams
“Beyond Left and Right: Lewis as Cultural Critic”
6th Week (20 February)
Dr. James Orr
“C.S. Lewis and Christian Platonism”
7th Week (27 February)
Father John Hunwicke
“The Cutting Edge of Biblical Scholarship”
8th Week (6 March)
Professor Simon Horobin
“The Lion, The Witch and the Bookcase: C.S. Lewis and his books”
MICHAELMAS TERM 2017 EVENTS
1st Week (10 October)
“The Abolition of Man: Lewis’s Most Prophetic Work, But Is It Christian?”
Dr. Michael Ward
Author of Planet Narnia and a new critical edition of The Abolition of Man
2nd Week (17 October)
“Education and Free-Will: Lewis’s Idea of a University”
Dr. Melinda Nielsen
Associate Professor of Great Texts, Baylor University
3rd Week (24 October)
“Those Who Knew Chesterton”
Aidan Mackey
Foremost Scholar on G.K. Chesterton
4th Week (31 October)
"Language and Beauty"
A talk by Dr. Peter Kreeft on Tolkien and Lewis's use of language
To be presented by Caisen Mirassou
Treasurer, Oxford C.S.Lewis Society
5th Week (7 November)
“Lewis and the Eucharist”
Jacob Fareed Imam
President, C.S. Lewis Society
6th Week (14 November)
Walter Hooper
Former Personal Secretary of Lewis and Literary Executor of the CSL Estate
7th Week (21 November)
“Alcasan and Baphomet: That Hideous Strength, the Trial of the Templars, and a Tradition of Christian Anxiety”
Dr. Gregory Lippiatt
History Fellow, University of East Anglia
8th Week (28 November)
Kilns Christmas Party
TRINITY TERM 2017 EVENTS
First Week (25 April)
“Tolkien—Faith and Fiction”
Lord Alton
Second Week (2 May)
“Lewis, Happiness, and Rome”
Dr Stewart Goetz
Third Week (9 May)
“Spirits in Bondage: Pagan Passions in Lewis’ First Book”
Dr Jonathan Kirkpatrick
Fourth Week (16 May)
“Enchantment and the Weight of Glory: What Dante
Taught Lewis about Poetry”
Dr Jason Baxter
Fifth Week (23 May)
“ ‘Needles of Eternal Light’:
The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
in the Works of C. S. Lewis”
Revd Dr Malcolm Guite
Sixth Week (30 May)
“C.S. Lewis and Contraception”
Dr Michael Ward
Seventh Week (6 June)
“G.K. Chesterton, Zombies, and Revolution”
David Baird
Eighth Week (13 June)
Annual Pub Walk
HILARY TERM 2017 EVENTS
First Week (17th January)
Atlantis and Mars: New Light on Tolkien,
Lewis and their Science-Fiction Pact
John Garth
Second Week (24th January)
Between the Study and the Smoke-filled Room:
C.S. Lewis as Political Thinker
Dr Micah J. Watson
Associate Professor, Calvin College
Third Week (31st January)
Walking with Frodo
Benigno Blanco
Former Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Spain
Fourth Week (7th February)
C.S. Lewis and the Doctrine of the Fall
The Most Reverend Kallistos Ware
Greek Orthodox Metropolitan
and Professor Emeritus of
Eastern Orthodox Studies, University of Oxford
Fifth Week (14th February)
A recording of C.S.Lewis
reading from the chapter on Eros
in his book "The Four Loves"
followed by an extended Q&A with Michael Ward
Sixth Week (21st February)
‘The Last Trace of Something’: That Hideous Strength
and C.S. Lewis’s Intellectual Biography
Jonathan Pike, MSt, University of Oxford
Seventh Week (28th February)
Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Man Born to be King
Katy Wehr
PhD Candidate, University of St Andrews
Eighth Week (7th March)
CS Lewis and Music
Professor Dimitri Conomos
Professor of Byzantine Musicology,
St Cross College, University of Oxford
MICHAELMAS TERM 2016 EVENTS
First Week (11 October)
‘Fifty Years with C.S. Lewis’
Walter Hooper
Second Week (18 October)
‘C.S. Lewis and the Word of God:
Til We Have Faces Sixty Years On’
Michael Ward
Third Week (25 October)
‘A Star Above the Mast:
Tolkien, Faerie and The Great Escape’
Anna Thayer
Fourth Week (1 November)
‘The Poetics of Desire
in Thomas Traherne and C.S. Lewis’
Paul Fiddes
Fifth Week (8 November)
‘Dante, Lewis, and the Reordering of (the four) Love(s).’
Brian Williams
Sixth Week (15 November)
“Are we Restless for Heaven? Defending Lewis's Argument from Desire”
Peter S. Williams
Seventh Week (22 November)
‘Lewis and Newman: Comparing Oxford Converts’
Fr. Ian Ker
Eighth Week (29 November)
Kilns Christmas Party
TRINITY TERM 2016 EVENTS
First Week (26th April)
‘The Last Battle Sixty Years On’
Michael Ward
Second Week (3rd May)
A recording of CS Lewis
reading chapter IV, "Friendship"
from The Four Loves,
followed by a discussion
Third Week (10th May)
'Finding Meaning in the White Spaces'
Lancia Smith
Fourth Week (17th May)
‘C. S. Lewis - the Children's Literature Context’
Peter Hunt
Fifth Week (24th May)
‘C. S. Lewis: Chronicles of a Master Communicator’
Steve Beebe
Sixth Week (31st May)
'Slow-Kindled Courage: A Study of Tolkien's Heroes'
Anna Thayer
Seventh Week (7th June)
‘C.S. Lewis at Poet’s Corner’
Book Launch Event with
Michael Ward and Peter S. Williams
8th Week (14th June)
Evening Walk and Dinner
Rickety Press Pub
67 Cranham St, Oxford OX2 6DE
HILARY 2016 EVENTS
First Week (19th January)
‘Tolkien's Modern (!) Sources: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages’
Holly Ordway
Second Week (26th January)
‘Finrod, Job, and ‘estel’: the Roots of Hope in Tolkien’
Simon BerryFirst Week (13 October)
Third Week (2nd February)
‘What Did C.S.Lewis Think of Himself?’
Walter Hooper
Fourth Week (9th February)
‘C.S. Lewis and the Battle Between Classicism and Romanticism’
Jonathan Kirkpatrick
Fifth Week (16th February)
‘The Air of Narnia: Stories and True Adulthood in Prince Caspian’
Anna Thayer
Sixth Week (23rd February)
‘Horrid Red Things: Why Magic, and the Death of Magic,
Are Essential to Mere Humanity’
Mark Stafford
Seventh Week (1st March)
'C.S. Lewis and King Arthur'
Gabriel Schenk
8th Week (8th March)
Read Aloud & Nibbles
MICHAELMAS 2015 EVENTS
First Week (13 October)
Lame and Unconvincing? Surprised by Joy Sixty Years On
Michael Ward
Second Week (20 October)
C.S. Lewis & His Circle
Roger White and Brendan & Judith Wolfe
Third Week (27 October)
An evening with Douglas Gresham: the only man alive who lived with C.S. Lewis
Douglas Gresham
Fourth Week (3 November)
The Narnian Virtues: C.S. Lewis as Character Educator
Mark Pike
Fifth Week (10 November)
Lewis in Post-War Oxford
Walter Hooper for Tony Cockshut
Sixth Week (17 November)
The Seven Heavens: a special musical performance
James Whitbourn with Michael Ward
Location: St. John the Evangelist, Iffley Road
Seventh Week (24 November)
C.S. Lewis’s Understanding of Islam
Max Imam
Eighth Week (1st December)
Kilns Christmas Party
Location: The Kilns, Headington
N.B. We currently do not have details for all events before Michaelmas 2015.
If you have termcards covering missing events in the archive, please let us know.
HILARY 2015 EVENTS
First Week (20 January)
The Magician’s Nephew Sixty Years On
Michael Ward
Second Week (27 January)
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Christianity: An Overview of the Arguments
Paul E. Kerry
MICHAELMAS 2014 EVENTS
Third Week (28 October)
The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis
Alister McGrath
TRINITY 2013 EVENTS
First Week:
Mr Douglas Gresham,
An Evening With Douglas Gresham
Second Week:
Prof Peter Hunt,
Lewis's Roots and Rivals - the Children's Literature Context
Third Week:
Prof Alister McGrath,
On Writing a Biography of C. S. Lewis
followed by our A. G. M.
Fourth Week:
Prof Jon Fennell,
A Polanyian Perspective on Lewis's The Abolition of Man
Fifth Week:
Dr Heather O'Donoghue,
'Touching Greatness': Lewis's Early Poetry and Old Norse Myth
Sixth Week:
Dr Jonathan Kirkpatrick,
Bacchus in Narnia: C. S. Lewis and the Classics
Seventh Week:
Dr Anna Caughey,
First Responses to Tolkien's 'The Fall of Arthur'
Eighth Week:
Society Pub Walk to Littleworth
HILARY TERM 2011 EVENTS
First Week (January 18th)
Catholicism in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
by Stratford Caldecott
Second Week (January 25th)
Abysmally Bright: Chesterton on Chaucer, Greatness, and Poetry
By David Baird
Third Week (February 1st)
C.S. Lewis and the Psalms
By Dr Francis Warner
Fourth Week (February 8th)
Last Things: C.S. Lewis on Hell and Heaven
By Bp Kallistos Ware
Fifth Week (February 15th)
Letting In and Shutting Out:
The Theme of Doors in Lewis's Theology
By Dr Meriel Patrick
Sixth Week (February 22nd)
Original Sin in Sayers' Plays and Novels
By Margaret Hunt
Seventh Week (March 1st).
Theology of Love: C.S. Lewis and St. Augustine in Dialogue
By Jason Lepojarvi
Eighth Week (March 8th)
Book Launch of C.S. Lewis and the Church: Essays in Honour of Walter Hooper (T&T Clark)
and Celebration of Walter Hooper's 80th Birthday
MICHAELMAS 2010 EVENTS
First Week (Tue. Oct 12th)
“C.S. Lewis and Historic Evangelicalism”
By Dr. Chris Mitchell
Second Week (Tue. Oct 19th)
“C.S. Lewis and Gender”
By Prof. Ann Loades
Third Week (Tue. Oct 26th)
Devilry in C.S. Lewis & The Inklings in the Context of War
By Colin Duriez
Fourth Week (Tue. Nov 2nd)
“Joy Davidman: Girl Communist”
By Abby Santamaria
Fifth Week (Tue. Nov 9th)
“My Godfather, C.S. Lewis”
By Laurence Harwood
Sixth Week (Tue. Nov 16th)
"Lewis and the Cowley Fathers"
By Will Vaus
Seventh Week (Tue. Nov 23rd)
“The Brightest Heaven of Invention: Solar Power in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader”
By Dr. Michael Ward
Eighth Week (Tue. Nov 30th)
Christmas Party at the Kilns
HILARY TERM 2009 EVENTS
First Week (Tue. Jan. 20th)
Life on Other Planets in English Theology Before Lewis
by Dr Mark Edwards
Lecturer in Patristics, University of Oxford
Second Week (Tue. Jan. 27th)
Place: Balliol College, Lecture Hall XXIII
Sub-Creation and Imagination in Lewis and Tolkien
by Prof. Ian Storey
Classics, Trent University, Ontario
Third Week (Tue. Feb. 3rd)
Herbert and the Temple
by Dr Beatrice Groves
Wolfson College, Oxford
Fourth Week (Tue. Feb. 10th)
C. S. Lewis' Mediaevalism
by Dr Santha Bhattacharji
St. Benet's Hall
Fifth Week (Tue. Feb. 17th)
Warren Hamilton Lewis and His 'American Lady'
Dr Diana Pavlac Glyer
Azusa Pacific University
Sixth Week (Tue. Feb. 24th)
What C. S. Lewis Really Did to Chaucer's Troilus & Criseyde
by Dr Simon Horobin
Magdalen College
Seventh Week (Tue. Mar. 3rd)
Christian Narrative: Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling
by Matthew Hunter
Former Secretary of the Society
Eighth Week (Tue. Mar. 10th)
Special General Meeting
Agenda: constitutional ratification, project committees
Eighth Week (Thu. Mar. 12th)
Note this added Thursday meeting!
Music, Myth, and Literary Depth
in the 'Land Without Music'
by Gregory Martin
Former Member of the Society
MICHAELMAS TERM 2008 EVENTS
First Week (Oct. 14th)
The Re-invention of the Christian Myth
Rev. Hugh Rayment-Pickard
Author: The Devil's Account: Philip Pullman and Christianity
Second Week (Oct. 21st)
Audio and Discussion from C. S. Lewis Reading from The Four Loves
Third Week (Oct. 28th)
J. R. R. Tolkien and the Wanderer
Dr Stuart Lee
Director, OUCS; Author: The Keys to Middle Earth
Fourth Week (Nov. 4th)
G. K. Chesterton: Faith, Imagination, Literature
Rev. Torbjorn Holt
Rector, Norwegian Church in London
Fifth Week (Nov. 11th)
C. S. Lewis and Theological Controversy
Rev. Dr. Gerald Bray
Director of Research, The Latimer Trust
Sixth Week (Nov. 18th)
Documentary: C. S. Lewis, dreamer of Narnia
Featuring Society Treasurer, Peter Cousins
Seventh Week (Nov. 25th)
C. S. Lewis on Petitionary Prayer
Dr Tim Mawson
Tutor in Philosophy, St Peter's College
Eighth Week (Dec. 2nd)
Christmas Party at the Kilns
TRINITY TERM 2008 EVENTS
First Week (Tue 22 April)
Faerie in J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: Escape vs. Recovery
by John Robinson
Visiting Student
Second Week (Tue 29 April)
A Fertile Friendship: C.S. Lewis and Austin Farrer
by Revd Robert MacSwain
Ramsey Fellow and College Chaplain, St Chad's College, University of Durham
Third Week (Tue 6 May)
Tutored Ale Tasting at The Turf Tavern
Fourth Week (Tue 13 May)
Dr Who and I
by Paul Cornell
Author, "Dr Who"
Fifth Week (Tue 20 May)
Audio and Discussion of C. S. Lewis Reading from the Four Loves
Sixth Week (Tue 27 May)
C.S. Lewis and the Psalms
by Dr Francis Warner
Lord White Fellow (now Emeritus) and Tutor in English Literature at St Peter's College, Oxford; C.S. Lewis' last graduate student
Seventh Week (Tue 3 June)
Donald Swann, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis
by Leon Berger
Administrator, Donald Swann Archives
Eighth Week (Tue 10 June)
Annual Pub Walk
HILARY TERM 2008 EVENTS
First Week
The Abolition of Man and the Problem of Gender
by Dr Joe Ricke
Professor of English, Taylor University
Second Week
J.R.R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, and the Cauldron of Story
by Catherine Barnett
Student at Taylor University
Third Week
Charles Williams, Iris Murdoch, and the Flight from the Enchanter
by Timothy Pitt-Payne
Barrister
Fourth Week
If Religion is Dangerous, What Should Happen to Believers?: The Dawkins Debate
by John Cornwell
Author of Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Riposte to The God Delusion
Fifth Week
Tour of the Kilns (Lewis' Home)
Sixth Week
Slide Show with Original Photographs relating to C.S. Lewis' Life and Work
Seventh Week
Charles Williams: Alchemy and Integration
by Revd Dr Gavin Ashenden
Senior Chaplain and Lecturer in the Psychology of Religion, Sussex University
Eighth Week
Book Launch: PLANET NARNIA by Michael Ward
MICHAELMAS TERM 2007 EVENTS
First Week (Tue 9 October)
President's Introduction followed by a Drinks Reception
Second Week (Tue 16 October)
Owen Barfield: His Work and Literary Estate
by Owen Barfield
Grandson of Owen Barfield
Third Week (Tue 23 October)
Tolkien's Legendarium: Which is the most Authoritative Expression?
by Richard Jeffery
Fourth Week (Tue 30 October)
Insights from C. S. Lewis for Christian Apologetics Today
by Joe Martin
Independent scholar
Fifth Week (Tue 6 November)
Reflections on My Work as C. S. Lewis’ Editor
by Walter Hooper
Friend, Biographer and Editor of C. S. Lewis
Sixth Week (13 November)
On Charges of Racism against C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien
by Joshua Roberts
Seventh Week (Tue 20 November)
Advent readings from the Inklings at the Kilns (C. S. Lewis’ home)
Eighth Week (Tue 27 November)
Christmas in the ‘Oxford School’ of Children's Literature
by Maria Cecire
DPhil student in English Literature, Keble College
TRINITY TERM 2007 EVENTS
First Week (24 April):
'Laughing at Satan: Humorous Representations of the Devil in Early Medieval Literature'
by Leon Pickering
Second Week (1 May):
Richard Jeffrey
Third Week (8 May):
‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Cricket Ball: C. S. Lewis and Old Norse Mythology’
Professor Heather O'Donoghue
Tutor in English, Oxford University
Fourth Week (15 May, 7.00 p.m.):
'Tracing the Inklings: A Guided Tour through Lewis's Oxford', beginning at the Eagle & Child Pub
Rev Dr Jeanette Sears
Fifth Week (22 May):
‘Reflections on a Friendship: C. S. Lewis and Sheldon Vanauken’
John Holloway and Nathan Grills
Sixth Week (29 May):
‘Lewis as a Writer of Christian Doctrine’
Rev Professor Paul Fiddes
Principal of Regent's Park College
Seventh Week (5 June):
Annual walk to The Trout -- a favourite walk of Lewis and the Inklings
HILARY TERM 2007 EVENTS
First Week, 16 January:
Selections from Dorothy Sayers’s The Man Born to Be King:
A Dramatic Reading by Students from Taylor University
Second Week, 23 January:
Author Colin Duriez,
‘Myth, Fact, and Incarnation: The Quest for the Real in C. S. Lewis’
Fourth Week, 6 February:
Joe Martin,
‘Insights from Lewis for Christian Apologetics Today’ [postponed]
Fifth Week, 13 February:
Romy Cerratti,
‘"Are you with me?" "To the death!": Fellowship in the Works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien’
Seventh Week, 27 February:
Dinner and tour at The Kilns
Eighth Week, 6 March:
Rev. Dr. Michael Ward,
‘What The Heck Does It Matter If We Don't Cotton On To The Complex Patterns In Lewis's Poetry?’
MICHAELMAS TERM 2006 EVENTS
First Week (10 October):
'The Completion of Volume III of Lewis's Collected Correspondence: An Evening of Questions and Answers with Editor Walter Hooper'
Second Week (17 October):
Dr. Judith Priestman,
'John Betjeman and C. S. Lewis: The Dilettante and the Don'
(NOTE change of venue and time. This is a special meeting at 2.15 p.m.
at the Bodleian Library's Betjeman exhibition.
Dr. Priestman's tour will feature unseen Lewis material
and other items relating to Oxford undergraduate life in the 1920s.)
Third Week (24 October):
Professor Ian Storey,
'Classical Allusions in C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces'
Fourth Week (31 October):
Aidan Mackey,
'The Moral Imagination: George Macdonald, G. K. Chesterton, and C. S. Lewis'
Fifth Week (7 November):
Richard Jeffery,
'Boxen: The Imagination of Young C. S. Lewis'
Sixth Week (14 November):
Brendan Wolfe,
'Philology in Lewis and Tolkien'
Seventh Week (21 November):
Leslie Marsh,
'The Historical Jesus: Was Lewis Right?'
Eighth Week (28 November):
Bring a Book to The Kilns: Favourite Christmas-Themed Readings from The Inklings
TRINITY 1998 EVENTS
Fourth Week(?) (19 May)
Facing the Foreign: C. S. Lewis on Toleration
Paul E. Kerry
HILARY 1996 EVENTS
Third Week(?) (30 January)
German Romanticism and C. S. Lewis’s Narrative Poems
Paul E. Kerry