C.S. Lewis: Surprised by Joy | In Person (Closed)

Course Description:

Best known for his "Chronicles of Narnia" and popular writings on Christianity, C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was a poet, science fiction writer, critic, and professor of medieval and renaissance literature at Cambridge. Originally a philosophy tutor at University College, Oxford, Lewis developed a critique of contemporary culture that blended classical philosophy and theology, romanticism, and British idealism. Alongside figures like J.R.R. Tolkien and T.S. Eliot, Lewis was in the last generation of writers who spoke for intellectual traditions that were swept aside after the war as logical positivism and analytical philosophy carried the field. We will read Lewis’ spiritual autobiography "Surprised by Joy" and examine his debate with Elizabeth Anscombe at the Socratic Club in 1948 when she criticized his argument for the supernatural.