The Blog
Bonus content from the authors
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Get to know the Cosmic Colloquy
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Events, publication updates, and more
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Bonus content from the authors
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Get to know the Cosmic Colloquy
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Events, publication updates, and more
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We've Done It!After several months of edits, fact-checking, re-citing, and more, we've finally handed over our finished manuscript to Square Halo! It seems like such a small moment when you fit it into one sentence, but the amount of hours, hard work, back-and-forth, and research speaks to how much we want this book to be something helpful, inspiring, and God-honoring. It's amazing all the small details that turn out to be more important than you would have ever imagined: footnotes or end notes? when we talk about Perelandra, is it the planet (in regular type) or the book (in italics)? what translation of scripture are we using? But at the end of a season of long nights, we are genuinely excited for the finished product. Now, we wait. It will take several months for the publisher to clean up the manuscript on their end, get everything laid out and designed, communicate with the printer, and finally receive final copies. But during this time, we will be hard at work on the next phase of this book's life: promotion. And this is where you come in. How You Can HelpIt truly takes a village to get the word out about any project, and we would love your help as we tell our communities about what we've created. We need people to drop our book title in online forum chats, share our social media posts with their followers, invite their book clubs to our upcoming events, post reviews on booksellers' sites, pour us a cup of coffee, tell their moms about this project, and more. If you're interested in helping us out, please let us know by contacting us directly (if you know us already) or emailing us at [email protected]. Release Date: September 1, 2021Finally, we want to let you know that our release date has been changed to September 1, 2021! Mark your calendars now, but as always, keep an eye on our social media for any changes. If you'd like to preorder your copy, check with your local independent bookstore, Amazon, or Bookshop.org!
Thank you for your support, and we look forward to sharing printed copies of this book with you soon! Julianne Johnson is the author of chapter one, “More Than Myth,” which examines how story and truth are connected throughout the Ransom Trilogy. She calls herself “a creative, an adventure-seeker, and a mostly-normal human.” After graduating from Azusa Pacific University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Humanities and a minor in Graphic Design, she moved to Monrovia, California. She currently works as a publishing assistant at a small book publishing company and as a contributor with Bookswell, an LA-focused literary organization that helps authors and readers connect. Her dream is to write stories that will inspire children and young adults to become who God created them to be. When she’s not reading or writing, she’s probably ice skating, drawing, or exploring the outdoors.
Tell us about what you are writing right now. I’ve started doing some serious writing for a story idea that I’ve thought about since I was in elementary school. It’s about kids with superhuman abilities like manipulating light, camouflage, and altering dreams. Basically, any kind of powers your favorite superhero might have. How has reading and studying Lewis’s works affected your approach to writing and story? I didn’t really consider the importance of prayer until writing for this project. Reading Lewis’s writing helped, but what made the most difference was simply the process of trying to communicate something meaningful and truthful through writing. I had to start and restart and reconsider what I was writing so much until I finally reached the end of my own ability. It was only when I reached the end of myself and reached out to God that I started writing content that was “good enough.” I don’t think it was a coincidence. What are you reading now? Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet, Lewis’s The Problem of Pain, and Elizabeth Acevedo’s With the Fire on High. What is your favorite movie? I think I watch Howl’s Moving Castle at least once a month. I’m a sucker for beautiful animation, fantasy, and fun characters! When did you start reading Lewis? I read a few of the Narnia books when I was in middle school, but for some reason I never finished the whole set. I didn’t pick up Lewis again until college. When Dr. Glyer offered a class on the life and works of C. S. Lewis, I immediately found a way to fit the class into my schedule because I knew studying his works with other classmates and a Lewis expert would be a rich experience that I should take advantage of. It was so good that a few months later, I signed up to spend a year writing what would become Warnings from Outer Space. Now, I’m trying to read all his works chronologically. I’m hooked. Democracy and Objectivity The American Founders asserted that, “[A]ll men are created equal [and] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Not only did this claim justify the American War for Independence, but it also unified the colonies around a principle common to all men at all times—a principle worth living and dying for. The ideas laid forth in the Declaration of Independence are part of a broader concept, which C.S. Lewis called the “Tao: ” objective principles that unify humanity. Lewis argued in The Abolition of Man that stepping outside of the Tao would ultimately lead to his treatise’s title: the abolition of man. If individuals lose—or abandon—the ability to reason to objective conclusions, they also abandon the unifying ideas that hold democracies like America together. While some might argue that a distinction between the public and private can separate the two spheres completely and so ensure the survival of democracy, this is not the case: the two spheres are inseparable, and rejection of objectivity will at best result in democratic tyranny, which is not democracy at all, or at worst result in the dictatorship by “dehumanized Conditioners” akin to poets bending language to their will and their will alone. Community in Commonality Democracies only exist because the rulers and the ruled hold the same principles in common. G. K. Chesterton writes in Orthodoxy, “This is the first principle of democracy: that the essential things in men are the things they hold in common, not the things they hold separately.” In order for the self-governance of a group of people to be successful, that group must hold something in common. During the founding of the early colonies in North America, religion was the object held in common among groups of people. For example, the first colonial governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop, laid out his ideas for a Christian community in his sermon entitled “A Model for Christian Charity.” However, because many of the religious beliefs varied amongst the colonists, the American Founders appealed to something broader than religion, yet which all could agree upon: reason. The “self-evident truths” they declared in their independence are an example of Lewis’s Tao, “the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are.” It was their agreement about the fundamental rights of mankind that provided the Founders with, “[A] common human law of action which [would] over-arch rulers and ruled alike.” Without adhering to the Tao, the early American colonies would have had no reason to unite and revolt against the crown of Great Britain. Conditioning for Tyranny Without the unifying force of objective principles, democracies become nothing less than tyranny. Some philosophers argue that the public and private life can be separated so that while individuals are free to create meaning for themselves apart from the burden of objectivity in their private lives, they can also stand in solidarity with others publicly because of shared subjective values. However, as C.S. Lewis wrote, “A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.” Without the Tao, every kind of governance—even democracy—becomes tyrannical, the very thing that self-governance is intended to prevent. If one rejects objectivity, then one rejects any kind of absolute standard by which men can be judged and everything becomes permissible. A distinction between private life and public governance cannot be reconciled with the need for objective Truth that applies to all men at all times. When the worth of private matters are left to be determined by subjective standards of measurement, it is only a matter of time before the shared public values are changed by what Lewis called “the Conditioners.” He wrote, “The Conditioners, then, are to choose what kind of artificial Tao they will, for their own good reasons, produce in the Human race.” In a world without objectivity, shared subjective values that might unify a people can be seen only as social constructs, with those who have the most cultural influence being the constructors. Without the Tao, there is no one and nothing to hold the Conditioners to higher standard that spans across all people and all ages; without the Tao, the Conditioners become tyrants over the human race; and without the Tao, minorities in a democracy become the victims trampled by the boot of the tyrannical majority. Democracy Requires Objectivity If we are to preserve democracy for our posterity, we must also preserve the belief in objectivity. The Founders who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence provided us with a tool of utmost importance: the basis for a self-government based on principles that extend beyond time and space, discovered by reason and built on the foundation of ideas of truths recognized by philosophers throughout the ages. The ideas they laid forth are too fundamental to the persistence of democracy to cast aside as social constructions. We now have the responsibility to pass the Truth revealed to us by reason and experience down to the next generations and so ensure an objective standard by which all might be judged properly. Rachel M. Roller is the author of chapter three, “Science on the Silent Planet," which investigates Lewis's attitude towards science and scientism. Ever since her dad read the Chronicles of Narnia aloud to her, Rachel M. Roller has been stepping inside every wardrobe she can find, hoping to get into Narnia. She nearly succeeded last summer when she spent a month studying in Oxford, earning a de Jager award for her research in C. S. Lewis and Science and Religion. Researching Lewis’s insights on science and scientism gave her the unique opportunity to integrate her love of Lewis with her passion for science. She received her Bachelor of Science from Azusa Pacific University, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Notre Dame. When Rachel is not in the lab or the classroom, you could find her devouring books, going on long walks, drinking copious amounts of Earl Grey, playing her violin, or writing about her imaginary worlds.
How did you become interested in Lewis? My dad read stories to my sister and I every night when I was a kid (he still does when I’m home!), and one of the first series he read to us was the Chronicles of Narnia. I promptly fell in love with the land beyond the wardrobe, and as soon as I could read on my own, I made it my goal to read all seven Narnia books at least once every year. When I was a bit older, my dad read the Ransom Trilogy aloud, and I began to delve into some of Lewis’s other works, like Mere Christianity, The Abolition of Man, and The Great Divorce. After several years studying the humanities in the APU Honors College, I returned to Lewis’s writings with a fresh appreciation for the way he takes complex philosophical and theological concepts that the great minds have studied for centuries and translates them into vibrant, winsome words that anyone can understand. Getting to study Lewis in Oxford and work with the Cosmic Colloquy for a year to produce a book on the Ransom Trilogy has only deepened my love for Lewis’s writings. You said you got to study Lewis’s works in Oxford. What was that like? This is going to sound silly, but before I went to Oxford, I subconsciously thought of Lewis as another character in a book, not as a real person. Oxford brought him alive. Strolling along Addison’s Walk, sitting in the pew where Lewis dreamed up The Screwtape Letters, visiting the Eagle and Child, and walking through the Kilns—it was like stepping into Lewis’s life. But I think the real change happened before all of that, on one of my first afternoons in Oxford. I had just traipsed up Headington Hill and sat down to read Surprised by Joy when I got to the passage where Lewis discusses his reluctant conversion to theism on a bus ride up Headington Hill. It came on me like a thunderbolt that Lewis was actually a real person. Getting a glimpse of Lewis the man gave me a whole new perspective on Lewis the author. How has studying Lewis affected the way you do science? If you want my most developed thoughts on Lewis and science, you should read my chapter in Warnings from Outer Space! But in terms of how Lewis’s thought has affected me personally, the most impactful idea is Lewis’s dream of a science that would explain without explaining away. So often in discussions of science and faith, you come across this notion that if science can explain something, there is no longer any room for God, or even for wonder and beauty. Under that paradigm, it’s a little terrifying to be a scientist, because you might discover something that pushes God out or disenchants the wonder of mystery. But Lewis makes it clear that science can explain things on a physical level and still leave room for questions of purpose and truth and wonder. It’s like in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when Ramandu (a star who has retired from the heavens) tells Eustace that stars may be made of flaming gas, but that is not their true essence. Realizing that science can study the flaming gas without reducing the wonder of the stars or stripping the heavens of the presence of God is incredibly freeing for me. What’s on your summer reading list? So many books! I’ve been slowly working through Anna Karenina with a fellow Honors College alum. At the beginning of the summer, I read the Harry Potter books for the first time and enjoyed a fictionalized account of Joy Davidman’s romance with C. S. Lewis called Becoming Mrs. Lewis. I reread the Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings yet again, and I’ve just discovered how much I love George MacDonald’s fairy tales, especially Phantastes and The Golden Key. I recently picked up a YA novel called The Girl from Everywhere solely because the title neatly encapsulates my life. Currently, I’m rereading Madeline L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time Quintet (I’m halfway through A Swiftly Tilting Planet as I write this), and next I will probably dive into some Shakespeare, since the primary item on my bucket list is to read all of the Bard’s plays before I die. What has been your favorite part of working on Warnings from Outer Space? Definitely the collaborative writing process. Before I joined the Cosmic Colloquy to work on this book, I was mostly a lone-wolf sort of writer, hiding somewhere with all my books and research and pounding out drafts on my own. I still enjoy writing in solitude, but working with Dr. Glyer and the other authors of this book introduced me to the joy of creative collaboration throughout the revision process. It’s absolutely terrifying to put your precious draft in front of ten people and ask them for their critiques, but it’s strangely exhilarating when that many minds come together to make a good draft great, and it turns out that late-night editing team sessions are hilariously fun. Daniel Friend is the author of chapter nine, “The Cosmic Tao," which traces the connections between the Ransom Trilogy and the ideas presented in The Abolition of Man, especially subjectivism and Natural Law. Friend was raised in Kansas and New Mexico, and later moved to Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He found his way to California to study political science at Azusa Pacific University. He is fascinated with political philosophy, rhetoric, and their connection with Christianity. After graduation, Friend moved to Austin, TX to work as a journalist for The Texan.
For more information about Friend, visit his website. What is your favorite grammatical device? The Oxford Comma. It's really important to clear communication and there has even been a court case where its absence was the deciding factor for the judge. It should be a legal requirement, in my humble opinion. What is your favorite food? Barbecue. There's nothing as good as a plate full of smoked ribs and sliced brisket. What is your favorite writing of Lewis? It's a little obscure, but my favorite piece would have to be an essay he wrote called “Screwtape Proposes a Toast," published in 1959 in the Saturday Evening Post. It's basically an epilogue he wrote for The Screwtape Letters, though written long after and written with an American audience in mind. I think it does a great job of looking at how society has gotten to the point it's at today. Who inspires you? Two people come to mind for me: film director Christopher Nolan and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse. I think they both set exemplary models of storytelling and political rhetoric, respectively. What is your life motto? Deo Volente—Latin for “God Willing." It's a good reminder to do our best with what God has given us in life and to trust Him in everything that happens. |