Join Dr. Richard Bergen, Corpus Christi College, and Simon Wipf, TWU M.A. student, as they explore C.S. Lewis’s novel Perelandra.

Richard will discuss how Perelandra beautifully envisions the heavens as a place of fullness and presence, as opposed to a dark and empty abyss, as the “myth of space” assumes it to be. One idea that saturates every chapter of Lewis’s second space trilogy instalment is the notion of spiritual presences inhabiting places. Come listen to more ways that C. S. Lewis can teach us about how the heavens are filled with the glory of God!

Simon will argue that C.S. Lewis considered the Incarnation of Christ to be “the central event in the history of the Earth,” and show how in this novel he explores not only its terrestrial but its cosmic significance. The narrative of the novel hinges on the integration of the material and the spiritual, offering a timely emphasis on the importance of an embodied humanity participating in the divine project of redemption.

All are welcome. To attend online, please email Laura.VanDyke@twu.ca or click on the link below:

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About the Inklings Institute of Canada

The Inklings Institute of Canada (IIC) is one of Trinity Western University's institutes and centres of research. Led by faculty members in the Department of English and Creative Writing, the IIC is an interdisciplinary research effort that formalizes, strengthens and advances Trinity Western’s contribution to international research on the works of the Oxford Inklings group—including C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as friends such as Dorothy L. Sayers, and their literary mentors, earlier writers such as George MacDonald and G.K. Chesterton. 

IIC encourages the advancement of Inklings scholarship through literary criticism and related collaborative research across the disciplines; investigates how these authors critiqued their own cultures and therefore help us to respond to our own historical/cultural context; promotes the publication of research and scholarship in peer-reviewed journals, books, and other suitable venues appropriate to the various disciplines; fosters undergraduate and graduate student involvement in such research and scholarship; seeks funding for Inklings research; contributes to the current return of religious language to public discourse—and does so within the campus, with associated members nationally and internationally, and with the general public. IIC thus recognizes and will continue to promote TWU’s unique leadership in Inklings scholarship in Canada.