Gregory Rummo has offered several reviews to ESN on books by C.S. Lewis. Here he summarizes the life of Lewis, based on a recent "spiritual biography" by Devin Brown (Brazos Press, 2013), and offers his own reflections on the life of this man, who for so many of us exemplifies what it means to be a scholar Christian. SUMMARY Infant and Child (1898 - 1908) Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland on November 29, 1898, at the end of the Victorian era into a world that “resembled the world of the Middle … [Read more...] about Summary and Reflection: A Life Observed
Book Review/Discussion
Book Review: The Problem of Pain
Gregory Rummo recently shared a review with us of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. He is back this week with another of Lewis's works, The Problem of Pain. SUMMARY The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis is an attempt to explain, intellectually, why a good and all-powerful God allows pain in the world. He writes, “If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty, He would be able to do what he wished. But creatures are not happy. Therefore, God lacks goodness or power or … [Read more...] about Book Review: The Problem of Pain
Book Review: The Great Divorce
ESN has a long history of book reviews of significant works that help us think Christianly about the world. We so appreciate this review from Gregory Rummo of a C.S. Lewis classic, that makes a great summer read! SUMMARY The Great Divorce – A Dream,[1] is a fantasy “with an intended moral.” It is an allegory about Heaven and Hell. Whether inspired by or written in response to William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,[2] The Great Divorce dispels the notion that a person can get to Heaven while still clinging … [Read more...] about Book Review: The Great Divorce
A Call for Book Reviews
Summer is approaching and it is a great time to kick back with a good book. Over the years, ESN has included reviews of books broadly focusing on the intersection of Christian faith and academic life. If you are reading or have read something that fits that, we'd love to post your review to let other Emerging Scholars members know about the book. Here's what we suggest: We like to work with an upper limit of 1500 words, so this would not be the kind of in-depth review you would submit to a journal. Generally, we … [Read more...] about A Call for Book Reviews
Science Corner: Dawn – A Proton’s Tale of All that Came to Be
Stop me if you've heard this one: a biophysicist, a writer, a theologian walk into a bar. OK, so that's not actually how Dawn was written, but the diverse backgrounds of the three co-writers--Cees Dekker, Corien Oranje, and Gijsbert van den Brink respectively--do sound more like résumés for the cast of a niche joke than for collaborators on a novel. And not just any novel, but one that spans 14 billion years--from the instants after the Big Bang until the moment the manuscript was sent to the printers (or so it seems, … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Dawn – A Proton’s Tale of All that Came to Be