Will Vaus

As it says in the sub-title, C. S. Lewis & His Circle  offers a collection of Essays and Memoirs from the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society. As one might expect from Oxford University Press, this book is top notch, both in its content and in its presentation. The book is edited by Judith and Brendan Wolfe who it has been my delight to meet upon more than one occasion when visiting and speaking to the Oxford Society. The third editor, Roger White of Azusa Pacific University, it is also my privilege to know. They have done a superb job of selecting and editing the essays and memoirs for this book out of the many presentations given to the Oxford Society over the past 30 plus years. Part I contains two sections. The first has essays on philosophy and theology. The second contains essays on literature. Many of the authors in this section will be well known to Lewis fans and scholars: Alister McGrath, Elizabeth Anscombe, Kallistos Ware, Rowan Williams, and Walter Hooper among them. ...

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to study in Oxford, England? Or maybe you have dreamed of being a writer. Or wondered what Christians mean when they talk about God "calling" them to do something. If you feel any of these statements might apply to you, then I think you will enjoy reading Ryan Pemberton's book, Called: My Journey to C. S. Lewis's House and Back Again .  Called  is the story of Ryan and Jen, two twenty somethings who give up a secure life (with Ryan working for a marketing firm) to travel thousands of miles around the world and study theology at Oxford. At turns this book is reminiscent of Bruce Feiler's Looking for Class: Days and Nights at Oxford and Cambridge , Carolyn Weber's  Surprised by Oxford, or even Sheldon Vanauken's A Severe Mercy . The reason I associate Pemberton's first outing as a writer with some of these classic books is because the man is a wordsmith who loves, as he says, "stringing words togethe...

I received a nice review in the mail today of one of my books which is always a pleasant happening.... Will Vaus is a pastor and has produced a fine volume on Acts. His forty-one chapters covers well the twenty-eight chapters of Acts.... Keys to Growth  is fresh; following the Acts narrative, Vaus enhances the familiar story with stories of his own. Loads of them. He is a practical expositor. Each chapter is laced not only with good exposition, but simple anointed applications. For any one, especially younger pastors, wanting to get at the heart of Acts for an extended series, Keys to Growth  will be a reliable home base to operate from.... Whether it be for mere inspirational reading, sermon ideas or assistance in teaching through Acts, Keys to Growth  will be a valuable resource. It would make an excellent follow up book for a new Christian.  John F. Sills, Ph.D., General Superintendent Emeritus, The Evangelical Church To learn more about the book and/...

I am often asked what my favorite C. S. Lewis book is. It is such a difficult question to answer. Therefore, I often say, “Whatever C. S. Lewis book I happen to be reading at the time.” However, The Great Divorce has to be in my top five favorite Lewis books. I enjoy the story for Lewis’ picture of heaven, for the vignettes that reveal so much about our choices in this life, and for what Lewis teaches through this tale about Christ’s descent into hell. Because Lewis is such a favorite author of mine, Lewis illustrations naturally find their way into my sermons, perhaps too often for the taste of some in various congregations I have served. However, for others, these little tit-bits from Lewis have encouraged them to read Lewis for the first time. I remember one parishioner who started reading The Great Divorce because of my frequent references to Lewis. However, I think she gave up part way through her reading because she was put off by certain phrases and references she cou...

When The Screwtape Letters first began appearing in The Guardian , a now-defunct Anglican newspaper, C. S. Lewis was approached by an Oxford undergraduate who asked: “How many letters are there to be in the end?” Lewis’ response was quick and to the point: “Thirty-one. Something diabolical for each day of the month.” Now, on the seventieth anniversary of the publication of The Screwtape Letters in book form, thirty-one additional, diabolical letters are about to appear. Sadly, these are not lost letters from Screwtape to Wormwood, penned by C. S. Lewis. However, they are, perhaps, the next best. Walter Hooper, Lewis’ secretary for a brief period in 1963, says of the book, As One Devil to Another , “It reads as if C. S. Lewis himself had written it.” As much as I admire and trust Walter Hooper, I could hardly believe such praise until I read this collection of letters from Slashreap to Scardagger for myself. This is indeed a collection of letters, not emails. One might...

Through the Wardrobe is a new collection of essays by young adult fiction writers about their adventures entering "through the wardrobe" into C. S. Lewis' Narnia books. You may read my review of this essay collection at the HarperCollins C. S. Lewis Blog here: http://booksbycslewis.blogspot.com/2011/01/through-wardrobe.html

Mark Sommer has given a good review of The Hidden Story of Narnia at http://live.hollywoodjesus.com/?p=6103 . Check it out!

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

My review of The Illustrated Screwtape Letters has been posted on the C. S. Lewis Blog here: http://booksbycslewis.blogspot.com/2009/12/illustrated-screwtape.html

For many readers of C. S. Lewis this blog will be old news. Furthermore, this is a blog I never before planned to write. That is not because I lack an opinion about the book pictured above, Planet Narnia, but simply because I saw no point in adding my voice to the many others in the world who have already commented far more intelligently than I could about this book. So why am I writing this blog? First of all, as I travel around and speak about Lewis and his work in various places around the United States I have started to have people ask me my opinion about Planet Narnia. Secondly, I read a blog about Planet Narnia today, written by C. S. Lewis scholar Dr. Devin Brown, that got me thinking about writing my own blog. (You can read that other blog here: http://booksbycslewis.blogspot.com/2009/05/planet-narnia-spin-spun.html .) At first I was just going to comment about Dr. Brown's blog post, but then I realized my comments were too long to be contained in a blog comment. ...

C. S. Lewis, imagining what the resurrection might be like, once wrote to his fictitious correspondent Malcolm, "I can now communicate to you the fields of my boyhood--they are building-estates today--only imperfectly, by words. Perhaps the day is coming when I can take you for a walk through them" (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, Letter XXII). In Conversations with C. S. Lewis, Robert Velarde takes us on just such an imaginative journey with C. S. Lewis, not only to the fields of Lewis's boyhood, but throughout the major scenes of Lewis's unparalleled life. What C. S. Lewis fan hasn't longed, and dreamed of what it would be like, to actually sit down with Lewis and ask him questions about his life and thought? With this book Velarde momentarily quenches a thirst which most Lewis fans thought only a heavenly Lewisian conversation would ever satisfy. However, that is not all. Conversations with C. S. Lewis is a creative apologetic unequaled since Peter Kr...

At long last The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III is now in print and I am devouring every page. I'm a bit of a slow reader so I am only on page 375 of this 1810 page book! I have been reading the letters of C. S. Lewis in dribs and drabs for ages. I think I started with Letters to an American Lady back in the 70's, followed by the spiritually nutritious letters to Sheldon Vanauken reprinted in A Severe Mercy . Then I received Letters to Children as a college graduation gift from a close friend. Years later I plowed through The Letters of C. S. Lewis as edited by Warren Lewis and later revised by Walter Hooper. Maybe a dozen years ago I retraced the steps of Lewis's lifelong friendship with Arthur Greeves as I read that collection of letters, originally entitled: They Stand Together. Then came the Latin Letters to Don Giovanni Calabria displaying, not only Lewis's great skill at writing fresh letters in a dead language, but Lewis's heart f...