The C.S. Lewis Foundation (owners of the Kilns and the folks who run the program “Oxbridge”) have started a new online, peer-reviewed journal: In Pursuit of Truth. The online articles look very helpful.
Here’s an outline of an article by Leland Ryken on bad ways–and good ways–to read Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Bad practice #1 is using The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe instead of receiving it.
Bad practice #2 is to value The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe primarily as a collection of ideas.
Misconception #3 is to assume that when Lewis composed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he started with a set of ideas and then created fictional details to embody them.Good practice #1 is to read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe first as an escape from the real world to an imagined world.
Good practice#2 is to enter into the particulars of the imagined world that a writer creates.
Good practice #3 is to view the far-flung fantasies of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a window to reality and truth.
Good practice #4 is to value the artistry and technique of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a self-rewarding aesthetic experience.
Good practice #5 is to recognize and value the religious and moral viewpoints embodied in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Read the whole thing–and check out the rest of the journal.
(HT: Mere Orthodoxy)