Walking Into Wonder

Our plenary speaker on the 25th will be Dr. Ralph Wood, Baylor University

On January 25th, Dr. Ralph Wood of Baylor University will be our featured speaker. Dr. Wood has long been considered an expert in the world of fantasy literature, often lecturing on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles. He spoke recently in Dallas as a part of Borders Bookstores' "Narnia On Tour" series. He has written several books, and he is most recently recognized for his work The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth. He has also written on one of my favorite writers, Flannery O'Conner.

Here is a link to Dr. Woods' Website:
Dr. Woods' personal website

Click the link above to view some of Dr. Woods writings as well as more information on Dr. Woods, the person.

Jeff

Meet Dr. Louis Markos, our speaker on Jan. 18th

On January 18th, Dr. Louis Markos of Houston Baptist University will be our featured speaker. When Oxford and Cambridge put on the Oxbridge Symposium on CS Lewis last Summer, they invited Dr. Markos to give a plenary address and three other seminars. Dr. Markos is also featured by The Teaching Company (a great resource that provides all sorts of courses from some of the best scholars in various fields of study) for his course on C. S. Lewis - http://www.teach12.com/ttc/assets/coursedescriptions/297.asp?pc=Search . He has also published a book on C. S. Lewis, titled Lewis Agonistes: Wrestling with the Modern and Postmodern World (Broadman & Holman, 2003).

Here is a link to Dr. Markos' Website on CSL:
Dr. Markos' website

Click the link above for more information on Dr. Markos, his writings, his courses, and some of his writings.

Have you bought your tickets yet?

Jeff

Introducing our speakers...

Our January Series is coming together, and we are pumped about our lineup of plenary and breakout speakers. Our plenary speakers are truly some of the world's leading scholars on CS Lewis. Over the next few days, I'll be posting new material on each of the speakers so that you can get to know them. I'll also post links to their websites as well as links to their writings on the web.

Each night, our series will feature one plenary speaker (while experiencing a taste of Narnia) followed by a selection of breakout sessions (loosely grouped in "tracks" of theology/spirituality, creativity/arts and family/parenting) from which you can choose.

On January 11th, Dr. Bruce Edwards of Bowling Green State University will be our featured speaker. The week of the movie release, I know that he did interviews with USA Today, The Washington Post and two television shows. Dr. Edwards' book, Further Up and Further In: Understanding C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Broadman & Holman, 2005) was recently listed by Christianity Today as one of the best new books on Lewis and Narnia. Needless to say, he considered one of the world's experts on CS Lewis. I can't wait to hear him on the 11th.

Here is a link to Dr. Edwards Website on CSL:
Dr. Edwards' website on CS Lewis and the Inklings

Click the link above, and you'll find lots of info on Dr. Edwards, his writings, and a great deal of information about CS Lewis and Narnia.

Enjoy yourself!
Jeff

Movie Premiere Night @ NBC

Friday, Dec 9th, NBC rented one of the theaters at the AMC Grand for opening night. It was fun to see 450 or so from our church family "go to the movies" together. We had some giveaways and door prizes for the Narnia trivia experts before the show. Kids and adults alike were screaming out the answers in hopes of scoring a prize. Then, we introduced our annual Churchwide January Series for 2006 (which is coming together very well!).

The movie was very well-done, I think, and it remained close to the story of the book. Lewis wrote the books for children, and the movie especially succeeded on that level. The creatures came to life as they hopped/crept/flew/waddled onto the scene (Mr. Tumnus and Beaver stole the show). The makers of the movie truly created a new world for us to enter. My only hesitation was that Aslan seemed less mysterious, less ferocious and less destined (I'm not sure that makes sense, but here is what I mean: I lost the sense that Aslan was bearing the grand eschatological destiny of the world) than I experienced in my reading of the book. Of course, when has any work of art (or preacher, for that matter) captured the full sense of the divine? Overall, I loved the movie, and I loved the applause that broke out from the NBCers on Friday night as the credits began to roll.

Some of the second-level reading was lost in translation, so I missed some of the lessons in spirituality, but we'll be sure to point those out in our January Series!! You can buy tickets starting this Sunday. Be sure to mark your calendars now for the last three Wednesday evenings in January.

For Narnia and for Aslan,
Jeff

Welcome to the Narnia Series Blog

Hello everyone.  Welcome to the NBC January Series "Narnia"