Seminars

OX-08 and CAM-08 ~ “Lewis and the Heavens: The Search for Meaning in the Sky” with Michael Ward

Lewis’s fascination with the heavens was lifelong and deep.  Most of his readers know that the planets play a large part in his Ransom Trilogy, but much of his other writing on this subject has received little attention.  He described the seven heavens of the medieval cosmos as ‘spiritual symbols of permanent value’ which are ‘especially worthwhile in our own generation.'  Why did he think this?  Was his imaginative embrace of medieval astrology consistent with his Christian faith?  What kind of meaning did he find in the night-sky?  And is it possible that the seven heavens provided him with the imaginative raw materials of his most famous works, the seven Chronicles of Narnia?

Michael Ward is an Anglican clergyman and author of Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (Oxford University Press, 2008).  Chaplain of Peterhouse in the University of Cambridge 2004-2007, he is now a freelance lecturer and writer.  He read English at Oxford, Theology at Cambridge, and completed his doctoral research at the University of St Andrews. A former President of the Oxford Lewis Society, Dr. Ward lived at The Kilns 1996-1999, looking after the property on behalf of the C.S. Lewis Foundation.

 

 

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