Will Vaus

The Hidden Story of Narnia is now available for purchase on Amazon! Just click here to go there: http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Story-Narnia-Book-Book/dp/1936294028/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272660805&sr=8-1 . Of course, if you would like a signed copy, then you can purchase directly from my web site by clicking here: http://www.willvaus.com/inc/sdetail/1768 .

I was at New Covenant Schools in Lynchburg, Virginia on Tuesday, April 27. You may learn more about New Covenant Schools here: www.newcovenantschools.org . My time in the chapel service with middle school and high school students there was most enjoyable. The topic for the day was the spiritual themes in C. S. Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader . The students' deep familiarity with the book was a joy to hear; one could almost argue that they told me more about the book than the other way around! Afterwards I signed copies of my new book, The Hidden Story of Narnia for a number of interested students and faculty. (By the way, the young man in the second row above, with the dark hair and big smile, Travis Elliott, contributed an endorsement which appears on the back cover of my book.) The students on the other side of the room were just as bright and good looking! As you can see below.... If you would like me to come and do a presentation on The Hidden Story of Narnia ...

Last night I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee speaking to the C. S. Lewis Society there and signing copies of my new book, The Hidden Story of Narnia . And no, I did not take the "choo choo" to get there. I just couldn't resist including the picture above. We had a great group last night, meeting at The Camp House (the storefront meeting place of a contemporary Anglican church--way cool!). We had folks travel to the event from as far away as Nashville and Alabama! There was an enthusiastic response to my presentation on the spiritual themes in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader followed by an engaging time of Q&A. We even had some young boys present who are currently reading the Narnia books and are the same age I was when I first stepped through the wardrobe door. That was neat! Here's a picture of me with the dad (Neil) who brought them.... Thanks to all who came and made it such an enjoyable evening, and special thanks to two of the greatest hosts south ...

We had a great beginning to The Hidden Story of Narnia book tour last night in Monterey, Virginia. There was quite a variety of people present from young singles to parents to grandparents. Some were long time fans of the Narnia stories. Others were encouraged by my presentation on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to read the Narnia books for the first time. After my presentation and a wonderful time of Q&A I signed books for a number of folks.... If you would like The Hidden Story of Narnia to come to your area, e-mail me at will@willvaus.com .

There are a number of booksigning events coming up for The Hidden Story of Narnia . I will be at the Highland County Public Library in Monterey, Virginia on Tuesday, April 20 at 7 pm. You can find directions to the library here: http://highlandlibrary.homestead.com/ . On Friday, April 23, I will be speaking to the Chattanooga C. S. Lewis Society and signing books in Chattanooga, Tennessee. You can find out more information on their web site here: http://cslewischatt.blogspot.com/ . And on Tuesday, April 27, I will be speaking in chapel at New Covenant Schools in Lynchburg, Virginia. You may find out more about them here: http://www.newcovenantschools.org . If you would like me to do a presentation on The Hidden Story of Narnia and/or sign books for your book club, bookstore, school, church or other group virtually anywhere in the world I'd love to talk with you. E-mail me at will@willvaus.com .

My review of the new edition of Colin Manlove's book, C. S. Lewis: His Literary Achievement , is now posted on the HarperCollins C. S. Lewis blog. Simply click here to read it: http://booksbycslewis.blogspot.com/2010/04/c-s-lewis-his-literary-achievement.html

The Hidden Story of Narnia is now in print and available to order online from my web site using PayPal. Simply click here to order: www.willvaus.com/store . Here is more information about the book from the back cover: When ten-year-old Anne Waller from Suffolk England wrote to C. S. Lewis in 1961 with a question about The Chronicles of Narnia she never expected to receive a reply. However, not only did Lewis answer her letter, he also outlined the spiritual themes in each of the Narnia books. That letter served as inspiration for Will Vaus to write The Hidden Story of Narnia . Nearly 50 years later, Anne Waller Jenkins has written a preface for The Hidden Story , praising the author's "gift of clarity" and the "sheer joy and merriment" of his style. "This book gives great motivation and inspiration to live out my faith. It is a chance to become a true Narnian. What greater charge than--'To Narnia and the North! For Aslan!' I highly recommend...

"As this qualification suggests, to preach Christianity meant primarily to preach the Resurrection. Thus people who had heard only fragments of St. Paul's teaching at Athens got the impression that he was talking about two new gods, Jesus and Anastasis (i.e. Resurrection) (Acts xvii. 18). The Resurrection is the central theme in every Christian sermon reported in the Acts. The Resurrection, and its consequences, were the 'gospel' or good news which the Christians brought: what we call the 'gospels', the narratives of Our Lord's life and death, were composed later for the benefit of those who had already accepted the gospel . They were in no sense the basis of Christianity: they were written for those already converted. The miracle of the Resurrection, and the theology of that miracle, comes first: the biography comes later as a comment on it. Nothing could be more unhistorical than to pick out selected sayings of Christ from the gospels and to regar...

The Garden Tomb "In the earliest days of Christianity an 'apostle' was first and foremost a man who claimed to be an eye-witness of the Resurrection. Only a few days after the Crucifixion when two candidates were nominated for the vacancy created by the treachery of Judas, their qualification was that they had known Jesus personally both before and after His death and could offer first-hand evidence of the Resurrection in addressing the outer world (Acts i. 22). A few days later St. Peter, preaching the first Christian sermon, makes the same claim--'God raised Jesus, of which we all (we Christians) are witnesses' (Acts ii. 32). In the first Letter to the Corinthians St. Paul bases his claim to apostleship on the same ground--'Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen the Lord Jesus?'" C. S. Lewis, Miracles , London: Geoffrey Bles, 1947, p. 171.

'Only the Greatest of all can make Himself small enough to enter Hell. For the higher a thing is, the lower it can descend--a man can sympathise with a horse but a horse cannot sympathise with a rat. Only One has descended into Hell.' 'And will He ever do so again?' 'It was not once long ago that He did it. Time does not work that way when once ye have left the Earth. All moments that have been or shall be were, or are, present in the moment of His descending. There is no spirit in prison to Whom He did not preach.' 'And some hear him?' 'Aye.' (C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1945, p. 114) "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison ..." 1 Peter 3:18-19

"God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing--or should we say 'seeing'? There are no tenses in God--the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath's sake, hitched up. If I may dare the biological image, God is a 'host' who deliberately creates His own parasites, causes us to be that we may exploit and 'take advantage of' Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves