Will Vaus

I am in the midst of scheduling The Professor of Narnia Book Tour for this Fall and early 2009. The following locations are already on the schedule: Chattanooga, Tennessee Scottsdale, Arizona Harrisonburg, Virginia Frederick, Maryland Monterey, Virginia Indianapolis, Indiana New York City, New York If you or your group would like to host a book signing and talk you may e-mail me to discuss what is involved and to get a place on the schedule ( will@willvaus.com ). To learn more about the book please visit my other blog: http://narniaprof.blogspot.com .

Available in its first reprint since 1965, The Personal Heresy: A Controversy originally published in 1939, comprises the exchange of essays between C. S. Lewis and E. M. W. Tillyard in which the literary critics argue opposing positions on what can or should be gained from the reading of poetry. Bruce Edwards sees in this work a consistent Lewisian theme, “championing as it does the cogency of the doctrine of objective value” (“The Personal Heresy: A Controversy,” in The C. S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia , pp. 318f.). Lewis responds to Tillyard’s assertion in his 1930 publication Milton that “[a]ll poetry is about the poet’s state of mind.” Lewis argues that in poetry we see what the poet sees, not the poet himself. Lewis writes, “When we read poetry as poetry should be read, we have before us no representation which claims to be the poet, and frequently no representation of a man, a character, or a personality at all.” To order your copy, with an Introduction by Dr. Bruce L. Edw...

There was an interesting review in the Telegraph today of Print for Victory by Valerie Holman. The review opens by saying: "The book trade's current convulsions pale beside those of the years between 1939 and 1945, when stock vanished overnight - either from bombs or public demand. Many read for 12 hours a week . . ." Can you imagine people in the USA today reading for twelve hours per week as the British did during WWII? This article paints an intriguing portrait of the time period and the place in which C. S. Lewis rose to prominence as an author. You may read the rest of the story here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/08/23/bohol123.xml

My new book, coming this Fall from Believe Books, now has a newly designed cover. Click here to see it: http://narniaprof.blogspot.com .

Mr. James O'Fee of Northern Ireland has had some interesting blogs on C. S. Lewis lately, including one featuring Yours Truly. http://www.impalapublications.com/blog/index.php?/authors/5-James-OFee Be sure to scroll down to see all the Lewis related blogs going back to Sunday, August 17.

I am now a contributor to the HarperCollins C. S. Lewis Blog. To read my first contribution click here: http://booksbycslewis.blogspot.com/2008/08/lewis-and-stonehenge.html .

Walter Hooper has written a wonderful Foreword to my new book: The Professor of Narnia: The C. S. Lewis Story. To read the Foreword click here: http://narniaprof.blogspot.com .

Pauline Baynes, illustrator of the seven Chronicles of Narnia, died on Friday, August 1, 2008. To read a truly wonderful tribute to her life and work click here: http://briansibleysblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/pauline-baynes-queen-of-narnia-middle.html

The Narnia books continue to have a positive effect for good fifty years after they were penned by C. S. Lewis. Two items in the news have recently made this point. The first item regards the C. S. Lewis and Narnia murals in Northern Ireland. The one pictured above has existed for some time. An article yesterday in the Irish Times noted, "The new housing developments off the Newtownards Road are named after the author C. S. Lewis, who grew up in the area. Many of the murals now depict scenes from his Narnia books instead of paramilitary folklore." Lewis despised the sectarian hatred and warfare in his homeland. How pleased he would be to know that his fairy tales have become symbols of peace in a land once torn apart by religious strife. (You may read the whole story here: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0718/1216073252587.html .) A second story in the news concerns the sale of some first editions of Lewis's books. Lewis first editions, especial...

Could it be that C. S. Lewis and the Bible trump Orwell and Huxley as literary guides? Click on the link to view a must-read tribute to Tony Snow by William Kristol. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/opinion/14kristol.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Some time ago on this blog I posted a photo of a couple sitting in a pew at Holy Trinity Headington Quarry, C. S. Lewis's parish church for over thirty years. I pointed out that the couple thought they were sitting in Lewis's pew when they really weren't. Quite a bit of discussion ensued as to whether this was the correct pew or not. Today I just came across this photo in a box of old photos. This shows Douglas Gresham sitting in the place where Jack sat when Doug attended worship services with him in Headington Quarry. As you will notice, Jack's spot was directly behind a pillar. Jack sat in this location so that the priest could not see Jack's face while the priest was preaching from the pulpit. Jack did not want to display his distaste for some of the vicar's preaching! Notably, Doug is sitting in the pew behind the one marked in the church as the Lewis brothers' pew. Of course, where C. S. Lewis sat is no more important than where ...

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...

Imaginatively speaking I began living in Narnia long before that May morning in 2004. It all began one day in 1972 when my fourth grade public school teacher began reading a story aloud to our class. “Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.” I fell in love with Narnia beginning with that first chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe read by Mrs. Ewing. My parents soon bought for me the boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia and I began to devour every chapter of each book. Prince Caspian was, perhaps, my favorite of all The Chronicles at that time, partly because of the climactic battle scene where a Telmarine head gets walloped off! Every nine year old boy relishes a good sword fight, especially where knights in shining armor are involved. I was no exception to that rule. My own three boys have not been an exception either. During the time we lived in The Narnia Cottage I read all seven of The Chronicles aloud to my sons, who were then ...

I lived in Narnia. Now before you conclude that I am crazy, let me explain. For most of 2004 my family and I lived and worked in Ireland with Douglas Gresham, the step-son of C. S. Lewis and co-producer of the Walt Disney/Walden Media Narnia movies. We lived with Gresham during the time that the first Narnia movie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , was being filmed. Our residence during that season of our lives was a four hundred year old house dubbed The Narnia Cottage by Gresham himself. Furthermore, as anyone who has studied the life and work of C. S. Lewis knows, Lewis patterned the landscape of Narnia after the countryside of his beloved birthplace—Ireland. For example, the Dolmens which dot the terrain of Ireland inspired Lewis’s imaginative creation of the Stone Table in the first Narnia book. Dunluce Castle, perched prettily on a seaside cliff along the Antrim Coast of Ulster, was a place Lewis often visited during his childhood. This ancient but crumbling fortress prov...

Out of the hundreds of letters C. S. Lewis wrote during his lifetime my favorite letters are those which he wrote to children. Lewis's correspondence with one of the young readers of Narnia, and the child's mother, have now been posted online. You can read that correspondence and a bit about the background to these letters by clicking here: http://home.comcast.net/~krieg5208/Lewis/index.htm .

Only 15 more days until Prince Caspian opens in theaters in the United States! My family can't wait. What about you?

I have a new book in the works! To learn more about it click here: http://narniaprof.blogspot.com .

The photo above is of me sitting on the grave of St. Patrick in the lovely city of Downpatrick, Northern Ireland. I don't know if C. S. Lewis ever visited Downpatrick but I imagine he did since it is in his beloved County Down. At any rate, Lewis did have this to say about asking for the prayers of the saints: "There is clearly a theological defence for it; if you can ask for the prayers of the living, why should you not ask for the prayers of the dead? There is clearly also a great danger. In some popular practice we see it leading off into an infinitely silly picture of Heaven as an earthly court where applicants will be wise to pull the right wires, discover the best 'channels,' and attach themselves to the most influential pressure groups. But I have nothing to do with all this. I am not thinking of adopting the practice myself; and who am I to judge the practices of others? I only hope there'll be no scheme for canonisations in the Church of England....

I know, I know. It has been a long time since I posted anything on this blog--six weeks or more! Mea culpa! Well, here is the next installment of discussion questions on Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. S. Lewis . These discussion questions are for chapter 9 on forgiveness: Where are you in terms of "preparing for forgiveness"? What do you think of the definition of forgiveness given in this chapter? Has theoretical belief in God's forgiveness of your sins become a reality for you? Explain. How are you doing at forgiving others? Do you find any of Lewis's suggestions helpful toward that end? What are your thoughts about confessing sins to a spiritual director? I look forward to reading your responses. . . .

Here are the discussion questions for chapter 8 of Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. S. Lewis : Is the person and work of the Holy Spirit somewhat mysterious to you as it was to Lewis? Why or why not? What do you think of Lewis's view that the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is more important than the feeling of his presence? Do you agree with Lewis about speaking in tongues? Why or why not? Do you think God speaks to himself through us, as Lewis suggests in his interpretation of Romans 8:26? Which way of God speaking to us do you think is the most important - Scripture, the church, friends, other books? Why? I look forward to reading your responses. And here is one more question: Why do you think Lewis writes so little about the Holy Spirit?