CS LEWIS CLASS

Mike Woodruff | Class Overview

o   Pre-Class Lecture: Jerry Root

o   Jan 30th | Class 1 | Biography: Lewis' life through his conversion; 

o   Feb 6th | Class 2 | Biography: Lewis' life after conversion, paying special attention to his major literary works; 

o   Feb 13th | Class 3 | Mere Christianity; 

o   Feb 20th | Class 4 | The Abolition of Man; 

o   Mar 5th | Class 5 | Question and Answer - includes video interview w/ Dr. Jerry Root

C. S. Lewis & Imagination with Dr. Jerry Root

Pre-Class Lecture

Class 1 | January 30th

Class 2 | February 6th

Class 3 | February 13th

Class 4 | February 20th

Class 5 | March 5th

This is the final class and is organized as a Question/Response with Mike Woodruff so no formal outline was distributed.

CLASS NOTES

Mike Woodruff | Class 1 Notes (Jan 30, 2024)

CLASS 1 | January 30, 2024

I.     Introduction

II.    The Happy Childhood

III.   The Unhappy Adolescence

A. The Death of his Mom 

B.  The Distance from his Father

C.  Boarding School – and his friendship with Arthur Graves

IV.   The Great Knock

A.  An Inspiring Tutor

V.    World War I (the Great War)

A.  Paddy Moore and his Mother

B.   The Two Camps

C.  Life with ‘D’

VI.   The Oxford Years

A. Lewis The Student

B.   Lewis The Professor

C.   Lewis The Friend

VII.   Conversion

A.   Conversion as a Concept

B.    Books and Friends

C.    From Atheist to Theist

D.    From Theist to Christian

VIII.  Q & A 

IX.     Closing Reading

Mike Woodruff | Class 2 Notes (Feb 6, 2024)

The Wit and Wisdom of C.S. Lewis - #2 Conversion through Death

I.     Intro & Review

II.    Lewis’s 30’s (1928-1938)

a.     Tutor in English Literature at Magdalen

b.     Christian growth and devotion

c.     The Pilgrim’s Regress (1933) and its career consequences; The Allegory of Love (1936)

d.     Out Of The Silent Planet (1938)

e.     The Inklings

f.      An Unquiet Home

III.           Lewis’s 40’s (1938-1948)

a.     WWII: The Problem of Pain (1940), Radio Talks which lead to Mere Christianity

b.     The Productive Period

                 i.     The Weight of Glory (1941)

                 ii.     Preface to Paradise Lost (1942)

                 iii.     The Screwtape Letters, Perelandra, The Abolition of Man (1943)

                 iv.     That Hideous Strength (1945); The Great Divorce (1946)

c.     Lewis the Celebrity: Money & Criticism

IV.           Lewis’s 50’s (1948-1958)

a.     Mrs. Moore’s decline

b.     The Chronicles of Narnia

c.     Cambridge Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English

d.     Joy Davidman

e.     Books: English Literature in the 16th Century Excluding Drama (1954), Surprised by Joy (1955), Till We Have Faces (1956), and more

V.             Lewis’s 60’s (1958-1963)

a.     Key Works: Reflections on the Psalms (1958), The Four Loves (1960), Studies in Words (1960), An Experiment in Criticism (1961)

b.     Joy Davidman’s death and A Grief Observed (1961)

c.     Lewis’s death on November 22, 1963

VI.           Q&A

VII.         Bedtime Story: The Horse and His Boy

Mike Woodruff | Class 3 Notes (Feb 13, 2024)

The Wit and Wisdom of C.S. Lewis - #3 Mere Christianity

I.            Letters from Lewis

A.   Father Don Giovanni Galbria

B.    Warnie

C.    Children.

II.             Mere Christianity, Introduced

III.           Historical context:

A.   The War

B.   The Blitz

C.   The BBC

D.   From Talks to Books

E.    An Enduring Classic  

IV.           Content

V.             Questions and Answers

A.     Why is it so successful?           

1.    Motivated and massive Audience

2.     Prioritize what’s True over what’s new

3.     Vintage Lewis

B.    What’s wrong with it?

1.     Not everyone likes it

2.     The infamous Trilemma

VI.           Book One

VII.         Bedtime Story – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Mike Woodruff | Class 4 Notes (Feb 20, 2024)

The Wit and Wisdom of C.S. Lewis - #4 Abolition of Man

I.               Review and more Lewis Letters

II.             Context

A.             3 Academic Lectures at Durham

B.             The Oxford Don in the waning years of WWII

C.             Rationality-based argument

D.            An Aggressive Approach

III.           Message

A.             Culture and Education are misleading

1.              Subjectivism vs The Tao

2.              Technical & Scientific vs Virtuous & Moral

B.             Men Without Chests

1.              Modernity divorces Reason from Feeling

2.              Men without Chests

3.              Solution: Right Sentiments, Ordered Loves

C.             The Way

1.              No Objective moral Values —> No Meaning & Purpose to Life

2.              A World without Objective Moral Values is Self-Contradictory

3.              A Shared Moral Code —> Transcendent Truth

D.            The Abolition of Man

1.              Moral Relativism and Subjectivism creates a world of control without restraint.

2.              “Conditioners”

3.              Humans will become animals once again.

E.             The Argument

1.              There is a moral law.

2.              Lewis cannot prove it.

3.              The West has done its best to embody that law.

4.              Defying Natural Law ultimately leads to failure.

5.              The West is heading down that path of defiance.

6.              Education is the front lines of the future.

IV.           Reception

A.             Mixed

B.             A Disappointment for Lewis

C.             Contemporary Re-appreciation

D.            A Look at 2023

V.             Q&A & Bedtime Story

For more on C.S. Lewis, read one of our articles or check out our GoodReads

For more from Mike Woodruff, listen to his podcast or read his book.