The C.S. Lewis podcast

What if everything we think we know about reality is only part of the story? Could the stories we dismiss as fantasy actually reveal something true about the world? And have we become so accustomed to seeing life in a particular way that we're missing something extraordinary?

C.S. Lewis scholar Alister McGrath joins Ruth Jackson to explore why Lewis believed stories could challenge our assumptions about reality, break the spell of a purely materialist worldview and help us see the world in a completely different way.

From ordinary children discovering an extraordinary world to Lewis' conviction that our lives are part of a much bigger story, they explore why imagination can sometimes communicate things that arguments alone cannot.

Plus, with Greta Gerwig bringing The Magician's Nephew to the screen, what happens when a beloved book becomes a film? How much can a filmmaker change before the original story loses something essential? And why do Lewis' stories continue to capture our imaginations more than 70 years later?

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Aslan picture credit: Lloyd Kinsley

Just because we can do something, does that mean we should? What happens when our technology advances faster than our ability to control it? And have we created things we may no longer be able to stop?

C.S. Lewis scholar Alister McGrath joins Ruth Jackson to explore the striking warnings about science, power and unintended consequences hidden within The Magician's Nephew and what they might have to say to a world grappling with AI and rapidly advancing technology.

But Lewis' story also confronts a much older problem: suffering. Drawing on the devastating loss of his mother as a child, Lewis knew that pain couldn't simply be explained away. So why does Aslan weep? Can suffering ever be understood? And what kind of hope is possible when there isn't an easy answer?

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Can something – or someone – be beautiful, charismatic and deeply dangerous at the same time? And why is the world so rarely as simple as “good people” and “bad people”?

With Greta Gerwig bringing The Magician's Nephew to the screen, C.S. Lewis scholar Alister McGrath joins Ruth Jackson to explore the surprisingly grown-up questions hiding inside one of Lewis' children's stories.

From a world literally sung into existence to a beautiful but terrifying villain, they explore why Lewis believed imagination and beauty can reveal things that reason alone cannot. And why beauty should never be confused with goodness.

Plus, why are Lewis' most dangerous characters often his most charismatic? And what can Narnia teach us about our own vulnerability to power, temptation and people who aren't quite what they seem?

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Can becoming an atheist ever be a step towards God? What if walking away from religion is sometimes more honest than pretending to believe? Are reason and evidence really enough to explain why we change our minds?

In Early Prose Joy, Lewis wrote: "It is time, for religion’s sake, to hymn the joys of atheism.” For him, rejecting shallow, superstitious or half-hearted religion could sometimes be an intellectually honest step towards discovering something deeper. But, what eventually changed Lewis’ mind?

C.S. Lewis scholar and Episcopal priest Andrew Lazo joins Ruth Jackson to explore how reason, imagination, longing and experience came together in Lewis’ journey from atheism to Christianity and why changing his beliefs ultimately changed the way he lived.

Plus, what might Lewis make of today’s spiritually curious generation? Could our hunger for beauty, nature, relationships, music and meaning be clues pointing towards something more?

For Early Prose Joy: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48599470

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What can Lewis' journey from atheism to belief tell us about how and why we change our minds?

C.S. Lewis famously described himself as “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England”. But an unpublished manuscript appears to reveal something extraordinary: Lewis may have misremembered when his conversion actually happened.

Lewis scholar and Episcopal priest Andrew Lazo joins Ruth Jackson to tell the remarkable story of Early Prose Joy - Lewis’ previously unpublished account of his journey from atheism to belief - and the moment he realised: “Lewis got it wrong!”

Yet, this is about much more than correcting a date. What really caused Lewis to abandon atheism? What role did grief, reason and desire play? Why did he keep rewriting the story of his conversion? And did Lewis eventually discover that what he had been searching for all along wasn’t actually joy, but love?

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