C. S. Lewis and the Inklings: Discovering Hidden Truth
Editor: Salwa Khoddam and Mark R. Hall with Jason Fisher
Date Of Publication: Oct 2012
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-4093-4
Isbn: 1-4438-4093-9
This volume offers essays on a variety of aspects of the inter-related topics of “hiddenness” and “discovery”: literary, biographical, philosophical, and source study. The Inklings that are examined in this anthology are C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield, with two of their literary predecessors and influences that are included under the term “Inklings” in this anthology: G. K. Chesterton and George MacDonald. Readers will find new territory for further exploration of C. S. Lewis and the Inklings in the areas of 1) creative collaboration among the Inklings; 2) genres (for example, the penny dreadful, Christian liturgical poetry); 3) literary influences (H. G. Wells, Dante); 4) linguistics (Tolkien’s “web of words”); and 5) the convergence of literature and theology. Other areas, which readers would find interesting, are medieval cosmology, classical mythology and Nordic mythology in Lewis’s and Tolkien’s works (the pagan mythology of the Greeks and Romans, and the Nordic myth of Ragnarök). Consequently, Lewis’s A Discarded Image was studied by several contributors to substantiate his knowledge on the medieval cosmos.

Dr Salwa Khoddam was educated at the University of Kansas and at Oklahoma State University, where she received her doctorate in Early British Literature. She was Professor of English at Oklahoma City University (OCU) for 25 years, where she taught courses in early British literature, Western literature, and C. S. Lewis. She has published several articles and book reviews on C. S. Lewis and co-edited an anthology on the Inklings, entitled Truths Breathed Through Silver: The Inklings’ Moral and Mythopoeic Legacy (Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), to which she contributed an essay. She has also authored a book on Lewis titled Mythopoeic Narnia: Memory, Metaphor, and Metamorphoses in The Chronicles of Narnia (Hamden, CT: Winged Lion Press, 2011). She directed the first conference on C. S. Lewis in Oklahoma in 1998 at OCU. Dr Khoddam founded, with the help of other faculty members, the C. S. Lewis and the Inklings Society (CSLIS) in 2004, was its first President and is the chair of its Executive Board. She directed conferences on Lewis again at OCU in 2004 and in 2010. She also co-founded an Inklings Reading Group in Oklahoma City.

Dr Mark R. Hall received his doctorate from the University of Tulsa, specializing in British literature from Beowulf to the Twentieth Century. He has been an English Professor at Oral Roberts University for almost 25 years, teaching courses in Medieval, Romantic and Victorian British literature as well as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and science fiction. Playing a major role in the governance of the C. S. Lewis and Inklings Society (CSLIS) since 1998, Dr Hall has served as the organization’s President and hosted the annual conferences at Oral Roberts University in 1999, 2005, and 2011. His interests include C. S. Lewis and his connection to science and science fiction, especially H. G. Wells, and he has presented on subjects including “Presupposition and Scientific Methodology: A Critique of C. S. Lewis’s Views of Christianity, Evolution, and Intelligent Design,” “Science and the Lewisian Imagination: Superstring Theory and the Great Dance,” “Dancing with the Dinosaur: C. S. Lewis as a Twenty-first Century Prophet,” and “The Intertextuality of C. S. Lewis and H. G. Wells: A Journey into the Imagination.” Dr Hall has also given presentations on J. R. R. Tolkien and language – “Language as Invention: Treebeard as the Voice of Landscape and Community” and “Language as Identity: The Force of Community in the Lord of the Rings” – as well as on Arthurian elements in Tolkien’s works – “Aragorn and Arthur, Merlin and Gandalf: Tolkien’s Transmogrification of the Arthurian Tradition and Its Use as a Palimpsest for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.”

Jason Fisher is an Independent Scholar specializing in J. R. R. Tolkien and the Inklings, fantasy literature, and linguistics. His most recent book is Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays (McFarland, 2011). Other publications include entries in the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment (Routledge, 2006); contributions to numerous books; essays in Tolkien Studies, Mythlore, The Year’s Work in Medievalism, Beyond Bree, North Wind, Renaissance; and many, many book reviews. Jason is also the editor of Mythprint, the monthly publication of the Mythopoeic Society (http://www.mythprint.org). He blogs at Lingwë – Musings of a Fish (http://lingwe.blogspot.com/), where he has been discussing J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling, and related topics since 2007.

“This sparkling collection of essays has arisen out of a desire to understand and also to take forward the writings, vision and concerns of the Inklings. It includes several scholars who have inspired many, and whose insights are taken up by others in some of the essays. The contributions focus a great deal on C. S. Lewis, but also on Owen Barfield and J. R. R. Tolkien. They furthermore pull in the intellectual milieu – literary and theological and more – of the Inklings, including its ancestry in the likes of G. K. Chesterton as well as George MacDonald, the Romantic tradition, and the Bible, including the Book of Revelation. As well as opening up new ways of seeing, the collection points to rich areas for further exploration.”

– Colin Duriez, author of Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship, The Inklings Handbook, The C. S. Lewis Chronicles, and J. R. R. Tolkien: The Making of a Legend

“[The] editors . . . have done Inklings students everywhere a demonstrable favor by bringing together the fifteen artfully nuanced, richly researched essays that comprise C. S. Lewis and the Inklings: Discovering Hidden Truth. This is a delightfully diverse anthology featuring both veteran Inklings scholars like Diana Glyer and Michael Ward at their best, as well as new voices who offer new and inspiring insights into these beloved authors and their works.”

– Dr Bruce L. Edwards, editor of C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, Legacy

“I believe this collection of essays will be interesting to both scholars and general readers of the Inklings. The themes of hiddenness and discovery invite readers to look anew at familiar works by C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and J. R. R. Tolkien, including the Chronicles of Narnia, The Man Who Was Thursday, and The Hobbit. Moreover, by organizing the essays around the five areas of literary and divine hiddenness, relationships, literary craft, philosophical issues, and literary influences, the editors ensure that readers will have a rich selection of cutting-edge scholarship from which to draw. Including essays by notable Inkling scholars Michael Ward, Diana Glyer, David Neuhouser, Donald Williams, Joe R. Christopher, as well as the editors themselves, adds to the scholarly appeal of the manuscript.”

– Don W. King, PhD, Professor of English; editor of Christian Scholar’s Review

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