Book Review: Finding God in the Land of Narnia by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware

C. S. Lewis made it clear that the Chronicles of Narnia were not written as, and were never intended to be read as, allegories. Rather, the story grew out of a supposition, an imagination of what another fallen world, its history, and its redemption might look like.

Bruner and Ware, while maintaining an obvious respect for Lewis’s original intent, select brief passages – no more than a sentence or two – from the Narnia books and explore applications to “real life,” drawing connections to holy Scripture, Lewis’s other works, the writings of other great authors, even hymns. Their thoughtful presentation of these themes is simple and easily understood, but leads one to deeper reflection on the ideas brought forth.

Book Review: Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

Synopsis:

Sophie begins receiving enigmatic, anonymous letters addressed to herself, as well as letters directed to Hilde, whom Sophie does not know, from Hilde's father, shortly before her fifteenth birthday. They cause her to start thinking about the "big questions" - who are you, why are you here, etc., and eventually lead her into an unusual relationship with a mysterious older gentleman who becomes something of a mentor.

Comments:

I did learn more from this book about philosophy than I knew before, which was a pitifully negligible amount; perhaps a straightforward philosophy textbook would have suited me better. The "story" vehicle, in my opinion, ranged from stiff, jerky, contrived, and stilted, to downright chaotic and maddening. I kept plugging away at it, hoping to find what had prompted the good reviews I'd seen, but I never did. The most valuable lesson I took away from it was to never again waste time reading a book I can't stand.

Short Story Review: "The Man Born Blind" by C. S. Lewis

Synopsis:

Robin is a man, blind from birth, who has recently had an operation facilitating sight, growing increasingly frustrated with his inability to see Light. On a day when he finds himself free of the company and solicitude of his wife, he spends the morning in the old comfortable habits of blindness, then sets out to find, once and for all, the mysterious thing called Light. His failure to understand that light is what one sees by, rather than a tangible object that one sees, leads to disastrous consequences.

Comments:

Just five pages in length, this story is dense with metaphor and meaning. In his essay “On Stories,” Lewis says, “We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties.” I would modify that a bit and say that “The Man Born Blind” cannot be fully grasped, its depths not fully sounded, at the first reading.

Book Review: Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

Synopsis:

Becca has grown up hearing her grandmother tell the fairy tale of Briar Rose, the Sleeping Beauty, over and over and over. But Gemma’s version varies from the traditional story: in her telling, only the Princess comes awake at the kiss; everyone else remains in death-like sleep.
As she ages, and her mind and body fail, Gemma grows more insistent that she herself is Briar Rose. Most of the family has long since ceased to really listen to the old woman, and only Becca gives her words any weight, promising in her grandmother’s last hours to unravel the mystery. A box of keepsakes discovered in Gemma’s room after her death raises many questions and provides few clues, but Becca’s journalistic instincts and perseverance eventually lead her to the startling truth.

Comments:

Many of the old fairy tales were originally much darker stories than the modern versions with which most of us are familiar. This book harks back to that tradition; much of what Becca discovers is deeply disturbing. Briar Rose strongly demonstrates the power of story to help us survive and overcome horrific evil. I would recommend it only for a quite mature reader.

Thou Shalt Read

"the literary Christian is uniquely equipped to live out the Christian faith and to draw others to it because of a connection between being a faithful reader and a faithful Christian."

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/books/blog/27262-thou-shalt-read

Book Review: The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers

First, the author makes it clear that this book is neither a work of apologetics nor an expression of her personal religious beliefs, but a commentary on particular statements contained in Christian creeds. The specific statements she addresses are those regarding the nature of God, especially in His capacity as Creator. Her intention is to show how these characteristics attributed to God are applicable to the human mind engaged in imaginative creation as well.

Sayers acknowledges that many people find the doctrine of the Trinity difficult to grasp, but explains that Trinitarian structures are, in fact, not foreign to our experience. She cites as examples the trinity of sight: the form seen, the act of vision, and the mental correlation of the two; and the trinity of thought: memory, understanding, and will. The Trinity then becomes the basis for insight into the mind of the maker:

“For every work [or act] of creation is threefold, an earthly trinity to match the heavenly. First…there is the Creative Idea…and this is the image of the Father. Second, there is the Creative Energy…and this is the image of the Word. Third, there is the Creative Power…and this is the image of the indwelling Spirit.

And these three are one, each equally in itself the whole work, whereof none can exist without the other: and this is the image of the Trinity.”

Several chapters are then devoted to further examination of these elements, culminating in an acknowledgement that although the perfect co-equality of the Divine Trinity is represented by an equilateral triangle, the trinity of the human maker is typically scalene, sometimes fantastically irregular. In conclusion, Sayers addresses the question of how man may deal with life creatively, whatever his occupation.

Book Review: The Company They Keep by Diana Pavlac Glyer

Synopsis:

It has been widely and vehemently put forth that the Inklings, a group comprised mainly of writers (including J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams) who met regularly to read their works to each other over the course of more than fifteen years, was simply and solely a social club. Biographers, scholars, and in some cases the Inklings themselves have denied that the members of the group either exerted influence over or were influenced by the others. Ms. Glyer, however, presents a convincing argument that it is a gross error to take such statements at face value.

In The Company They Keep, Ms. Glyer defines and delineates a number of areas in which the various Inklings did indeed have an impact not only on each other’s personal lives as friends, but also on their professional lives and works as colleagues. Exhaustive evidence is provided to support these claims, demonstrating how these men acted and reacted upon each other as resonators, encouragers, sometime opponents, editors, collaborators, and referents.

Comments:

In the course of proving the influence of the Inklings on one another, Ms. Glyer makes a strong case for the importance of community in the life of every writer.