In case you haven’t heard yet, the C.S. Lewis Foundation, along with corporate sponsor Hobby Lobby, is opening the C.S. Lewis College on the campus of Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts. Plans are currently underway for the college to begin classes in Fall 2012 pending accreditation. The vision for the college, according to the official website, is that it will “be a fully accredited Christian institution of Great Books and Visual and Performing Arts.” The college hopes to attract “mere Christians” of various backgrounds to study and advance scholarship on Lewis and his fields of interest.
I am really looking forward to seeing what the course of study will be like at the C.S. Lewis college. My poor students tolerate all my Lewis references, and one dear creature suggested I make my Milton, Spenser, and the Chronicles of Narnia required reading in ENG 111 (shudder! I had a colleague who tried using The Abolition of Man in a Freshman Orientation class, with predictably dismal results), but I am intrigued to see what courses and texts the college will use.
And, in a world where academe is constantly struggling to retain relevance, I wonder what a person will do with a degree from this college, which sounds just delightful, but not terribly practical. (In The Magician’s Nephew, Lewis wrote that witches are “terribly practical”; guilty as charged, I suppose, lead me to the stake. I’ve spent years helping students to enjoy writing but also showing them that it is a practical skill as they study to be nurses or law enforcement officers.)
I’ve also begun wondering what Jack himself would think of this new institution, considering that his own education ( at least the positive bits) was largely an individual journey.
Finally, I wonder what schools would look like based on other authors and their work. This is especially fun to ponder with the future. Will students in the next century attend the J.K. Rowling College (probably, if she leaves all that money to education)? Or the University of Stephen King (with nice Gothic architecture, of course)?
Is anyone considering visiting, or perhaps even taking classes at the new C.S. Lewis College? What are your thoughts?
Will Jack still be wondering what they teach them in these schools?
Professor Elizabeth,
I would love to attend classes delving into Lewis and his interest. What a brilliant and under appreciated man. Will they offer online courses?
If you were forced at gun-point to recommend one book on Lewis criticism, what would it be?
Gunpoint, eh? Actually, my delay in responding was due to that very thing: I was at a Civil War re-enactment all weekend!
No way will there be just one, of course, but I like collections of essays by different authors because they give you so much variety and insight in one package. I particularly enjoy Reading the Classics with C.S. Lewis (edited by Thomas L. Martin) and The Taste of the Pineapple (edited by Bruce Edwards), but I must say first place in my heart is probably held by Paul Ford’s Companion to Narnia simply because it was the first work of literary criticism I ever bought and devoured (I think I was 15), so it protected me from thinking that writing about literature was boring or tedious!
I also love using Lewis on Lewis, and my favorite of his critical work is An Experiment in Criticism (actaully, probably my favorite literary criticism, period).
Sorry, long answer to a short question! I’d like to know what others think, too!
Professor Elizabeth,
A Civil War re-enactment? Thank you, Lord, there is hope for academia yet! You are definitetly my idea of a “cool” professor. Where were you when I was suffering through sixteen weeks of Women’s Literature and the course’s mantra, “If It Has a White P_ _ _s, Kill It!”?
Were you a Yankee or a Confederate? If you were a Confederate, I hope you found the opportunity to put a mini-ball right through the heart of General Sherman. Failing that, better luck next time. If you were a Yankee, I still say you are cool, just not as cool as you would be wearing grey and shooting at Sherman.
Alas, your recommendations come too late, for I have just ordered Micheal Ward’s Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis (Tell me what you think) and Shippey’s The Road to Middle Earth (I know. Not Lewis. But I love Tolkien too), but I will forgive you this time seeing that you were involved in some serious historical bloodletting.
I will, however, make a list of your recommendations, and when my wife gives me permission, I will give Amazon another visit.
By the way, my wife is still mad at John for all the money he forced me to spend on his books and the many books he recommended. So, if you get a call or a letter from a Mrs. Splendidus, just ignore it. She formally took leave of her senses years ago when she decided to major in science.
Mentis,
If I were angry at my husband the Civil War author for every book he bought, I would be angry all the time!
He normally plays Confederate, but gamely puts on the blue from time to time when his friends need someone to shoot at! I am merely a civilian, usually pulling my daughter along in the wagon where she is photographed more than the Queen. We particularly like living history programs where we really get to teach and talk to folks.
Planet Narnia is wonderful, but I haven’t gotten all the way through yet, so I shouldn’t formally endorse it yet (though the concept alone sold me), and I’d get just about anything with Shippey’s name on it after his Tolkien: Author of the Century!
I’d like think I was in high school when you were in THAT class, but alas, I was probably just here on the side of my mountain. I am definitely not THAT professor, though the poor souls who suffer my green pen might not agree that I’m cool.
Oh well, performing arts is just very interesting for me.;..
Let me clear up a misconception. I just returned from Northfield, and speak at Foundation events, though the following is NOT OFFICIAL in ANY way, but informational from someone who’s been nearby.
The CSLC will be a GREAT BOOKS curriculum (this part IS set in stone), something akin to St. John’s: http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/
It will NOT be a college ON CSL, but rather inspired by the enormous learning he had and heartily recommended. Seminar-tyle classes will be led by faculty also reading, and all faculty will read all the book–like Kepler, Plato, Aquinas, Euclid, Lucretius, Copernicus, Augustine, etc. A truly classic Western education is what I BELIEVE is planned–I haven’t seen a curriculum, but know about the spirit of the thing.
Also, I believe any interested student will be eligible for admittance
Also, I’d have to disagree with this statement: “his own education ( at least the positive bits) was largely an individual journey”, for three Firsts at Oxford was not an individual journey–though he certainly continued learning on his own throughout his life–his enormous reading shows that.
By the way, I VERY much look forward to delving into your book, EBH.
Thanks for the intel, Andrew! One of the possible topics for students to argue in an essay for my ENG 113 is the great books curriculum, and I love seeing what they unearth.
Yes, Lewis’s later education was very positive, for the most part. I should have clarified that I was thinking of his younger years, particularly what one sees in Surprised by Joy and the Arthur Greeves (and other) letters.
I hope you enjoy the book, I look forward to your feedback!
I’m looking forward to visiting the campus and I’m on their mailing list. Mount Herman was founded by D.L. Moody and the pictures I’ve seen are lovely.
I have a friend, a descendant of Moody, whose son graduated from Mount Herman; and my friend is most distressed. I think he fears a comforting cultural monument is threatened.
I’m more pragmatic. Seldom does any institution retain the vision of it’s founders for more than a generation or two. Look at what happened to that small East Coast seminary Harvard as an example. With CS Lewis college at least the central focus will still be a personal relationship with God.
Moody might have taken exception with Lewis being a Catholic — but now is presumably surprised at how much they agree.
Couple things here, Allan, if I may…
First, I’m so glad you’re on the mailing list and keeping track–I hope to see you there.
Second, Mr. Moody DID found Mt. Hermon not long after Northfield.
I wonder what your friend means “a comforting cultural monument is threatened.” On the one hand, I believe the CSLC will continue in the very best traditions of NMH by offering the best intellectual challenge it can to its students. On the other, it will eschew the secular tone more recently adopted and will offer a faculty of fully-believing mere Christians of many communions to students regardless of their own faith tradition or lack thereof. You need not be a Christian to attend, but you need understand your teachers and founders etc. all are and are working for the glory of God with all their might.
In some ways, while I believe the college wants to inherit Mr. Moody’s vision in practice, in training there look to be vast differences–a Great Books curriculum won’t have a specifically ministry training component, as I believe Northfield did. Believing Christians will teach Western classics and train whoever comes to think, read, write, and discuss. I don’t understand the focus of the college to necessarily be one’s relationship with God, though faith will be modeled and lived, and there will, I believe, be regular chapel services. Still, it’s not as I understand it a Christian school so much as a school run by Christians teaching Great Books to whoever comes.
Some of Lewis’ former students were surprised to discover he was a great popular apologist, so committed he was to his calling simply to teach his subject well. I imagine this may serve as a model…not hiding a light under a bushel, but not a college designed to create ministers. In some ways very similar to Mr. Moody’s vision, but not so overtly ministry-oriented.
Lewis was of course Anglican, not Catholic, and I’m sure, as you so truly say, we’ll all be surprised when we see Him and our differences resolve into being His glorious Body. And Lewis himself was eager for unity, and even reunion on earth as it shall be in Heaven.
In the meantime, if you pray, would you please keep the College close to your prayers? It’s a crucial time, I understand.
Thanks,
Andrew
Thank you for your corrections. I will indeed pray, for guidance as well as blessings.
For all accounts. I am a newcomer of C.S. Lewis’s writings. My impression of Mr. Lewis is a man dedicated to encouraging people to think. To find one’s own journey to capturing the truth of his existence. He did it so well, because people prefer to be entertained, not think. I was glad to read comment on goals set for college, to have students be challenged to seek inner wisdom. If you want wisdom, there is no getting away from seeking answers from the Holy Bible. Prayer is wisdom. To be able to express one’s creativity through the arts is a winning combination for the College.
Note: Correction in name:
For all accounts. I am a newcomer of C.S. Lewis’s writings. My impression of Mr. Lewis is a man dedicated to encouraging people to think. To find one’s own journey to capturing the truth of his existence. He did it so well, because people prefer to be entertained, not think. I was glad to read comment on goals set for college, to have students be challenged to seek inner wisdom. If you want wisdom, there is no getting away from seeking answers from the Holy Bible. Prayer is wisdom. To be able to express one’s creativity through the arts is a winning combination for the College.