The Undiscovered C.S. Lewis Conference
In Review
It has been one week since I came home from the Undiscovered C.S. Lewis Conference held by the C.S. Lewis Initiative at George Fox University, lead by Dr. Jason Lepojärvi. For me, this was my first academic conference in nearly five years. And it was a delight. The spirit was convivial and collegial, the keynote presentations were top notch, and the people were kind and generous without falling into simple mutual admiration whether for one another’s papers or for Lewis.
As all good conferences, this one was packed with parallel sessions, filled with undergrads, graduate and doctoral students, established professors, and independent scholars. In all, there were over 90 papers presented over the four days of the conference. The topics ranged from a kind of textual criticism to the historical, philosophical, and theological importance and application of Lewis’s writings. But for me, it was, in addition to the friendships made, the keynote presentations that made this conference so very special. Here research and information about Lewis was presented for the first (or nearly for the first) time to a public audience. Three in particular stand out for me (this is to say nothing against the other three, only that these three warrant special note from me).
The first came from Dr. Simon Horobin who currenlty holds Lewis’s old job at Magdalene College, Oxford. He presented to us previously unpublished poems written by Lewis about the philologist H.C. Wyld, whom Lewis often referred to as the Cad. These poems contained biting, one might even say petty, critiques of Wyld both as a philologist more generally and as an Oxford lecturer specifically. They were hysterical. Dr. Horobin has already published some and there are hints that more poems by Lewis might exist, written in the margins or on the back pages of books written by Wyld.
The second was from Dr. Jadhiel Perez. Dr. Perez, a theologian, uncovered something equally hilarious. While researching in England, he came across the Vice President’s book from Magdalene College. In this book, the vice president is expected to write a report concerning the year that passed. Lewis did this when it was his turn as vice president, but he did not write a simple, dry report. Instead, Lewis wrote a tragicomic play, casting himself as the inept Lewis the Bald, and, borrowing various lines from Shakespeare, wrote a semifictional semihistorical record in verse. Dr. Perez’s main point in this was to unveil the potential importance of the tragicomic to Lewis’s theology, but admittedly, what I loved most was the play itself. Sadly, we could hear selections and the whole is not currently available for publication, but I hope it soon will be.
But the real stand out keynote, the only one which received a universal standing ovation, was by Dr. Holly Ordway. What Dr. Ordway has done will shape the future of Lewis Studies, Tolkien Studies, and Inklings Studies in general. Doing the expert detective work of a researcher, she showed, in a way that I think conclusive, that Tolkien’s “hatred” of the Narnia series has been greatly exagerrated. I cannot, and will not, here rehearse her entire argument. Some of it can be found in her book, Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography. Speaking with her afterwards, I hope also that a version of her talk will appear in Sensuhct or one of the other academic journals dedicated to Lewis, Tolkien, and the Inklings. But the main thread of it was this: Humphrey Carpenter took what scant information there was, particularly from Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper’s biography of Lewis, and began to editorialize. All the earliest information tells us is that Tolkien had, in the early days, only ever read the first two chapters of Narnia and disliked them, that he would later say they fell outside of his sympathies, and that he kept copies at home when his grandchildren would come to visit so they could read them. Not only does this upend the common myth that Tolkien hated Narnia, but also that somehow Narnia had caused a rupture in Lewis and Tolkien’s friendship. I wait eagerly for Dr. Ordway to make her arguments more widely known.
The other three keynote presentations, Dr. Stephanie Derrick’s on why evangelicals may have come to appreciate C.S. Lewis; Dr. Steven A. Beebe’s on C.S. Lewis as expert communicator, complete with an enviable collection of first editions of Lewis’s work; and Dr. Michael Ward’s on the possible origin of the name Narnia, were all thought provoking and interesting as well. Dr. Ward’s, in particular, leaves open plenty of room for more research.
Truly this conference was an embarrassment of riches, complete with theatrical productions, documentary sneek peaks, lively conversations, excellent vendors and sponsors, and the generosity of our host, George Fox University. Dr. Lepojärvi is to be much congratulated on putting together, with his team, an spectacular conference. If you’re wondering, as we all were before the conference ended, whether this was simply the first conference, you need wonder no more. The plan is, to my understanding, already underway to have the second biennial Undiscovered C.S. Lewis Conference in 2026. So get thinking about your papers, and start saving because this is a conference worth attending.