Schedule published for CSLIS 13

The C.S. Lewis and Inklings Society is not particularly well known, especially outside the south central part of the United States where it is based, but it really should be. Apart from the importance of its central mission of “uphold[ing] and promot[ing] the advancement of scholarship, teaching, writing, and other professional activities related to the life and works of C.S. Lewis and the Inklings”, the group puts on a wonderful annual conference. I’ve spoken there twice before, and I always hear stimulating papers and make new friends. The gathering also welcomes graduate and undergraduate voices.

This year the conference is in Oklahoma City, a little less than a three-hour drive from where I live in Dallas. It’s too late now to propose a paper (as you will have deduced from the title of this post), but it’s not too late to register to attend. If you live within driving distance of OKC, I highly recommend it. You can learn more about the Society here, and you can register for CSLIS 13 here. The Guests of Honor are Michael Ward, author of Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis; and Diana Glyer, author of the award-winning, The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community.

So, as I have already hinted, the schedule is now up. I’m not going to give the title and presenter of each and every paper below (you can see them for yourself here), but I would like to give you an overview. Since I’ll be speaking at this conference, I will give you details of my own session (bulleted below).

Friday, April 9

Plenary Session. “The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God: C.S. Lewis and the Music of the Spheres, Part One”, Michael Ward

Session I-A. Philosophical Issues: On Fate, Freedom, and Science in C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Session I-B. Lewis and Tolkien on Modernity and Modernism.

Session II-A. Mythopoeia, Content and Form in C.S. Lewis’s, J.R.R. Tolkien’s and G.K. Chesterton’s Works.
Session II-B. Discovering Relationships in Life and Fiction: George MacDonald, J.R.R. Tolkien and Warnie Lewis.

Session III-A. C.S. Lewis, Socrates, and Logic.
Session III-B. Discovering Influences in Lewis’s Writings: Norse Mythology, Dante, and G.K. Chesterton.
Session III-C. Panel Session: Discovering Truths in the Enduring Question About the Problem of Pain.

Session IV-A. The Struggle of Good and Evil in C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

• “Ringwraiths, Dementors, and the Un-man: Evil Incarnate in the Worlds of Tolkien, Rowling, and Lewis”, Jonathan Hall, Oral Roberts University.
• “Dwarves, Spiders, and Murky Woods; J.R.R. Tolkien’s Wonderful Web of Words”, Jason Fisher, Independent Scholar.
• “Return to Spiritual Warfare: The Seven Deadly Sins in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, Emily Redman, Purdue University.

Session IV-B. The Edenic Motifs in the Inklings’ Works.

Conference Banquet.

Keynote Speech. “C.S. Lewis and the Inklings: Discovering Hidden Truth”, Diana Glyer.

Saturday, April 10

Plenary Session. “The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God: C.S. Lewis and the Music of the Spheres, Part Two”, Michael Ward.

Session V-A. Discovering Esoteric Knowledge in C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy.
Session V-B. Issues of Faith: Prayer and Repentance in C.S. Lewis’s Works.

Readers’ Theatre. “The Major and the Missionary: A Script Based upon the Letters of Warnie Lewis”, a one-act play by Diana Glyer. Read by Diana Glyer and Michael Ward.

Panel Session. “Behind the Book: The Creative Writing Process”, with Michael Ward and Diana Glyer.

Session VI-A. The Triune of the Creative Mind and the Romantic Imagination in the Inklings’ Works.
Session VI-B. Discovering Virtue and Magic in C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Session VI-C. Travel, Transcendence, and Transformation in C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy.