The Abolition of Man C.S. Lewis
The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius
After Virtue Peter Kreeft
Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis
Orthodoxy G.K. Chesterton
The Divine Comedy: Inferno Dante Alighieri
Riddell Memorial Lectures – Each year New Castle College hosts a lecture series called the “Riddell Memorial Lecture.” The 1943-1944 Lecture was delivered by C.S. Lewis and the Abolition of Man was his topic. In 2019-2020, Lucy Winkett (Anglican Priest) delivered a lecture entitled, “Good News in an Age of Fake News? The Place of Mercy in a Post-Truth Society.” In his lecture Lewis warned of the dangers of subjectivism and just a few years later we are living in a “post-truth” society. The warning issued by Lewis was clearly ignored.
Dante’s Inferno – At one point in the discussion the point was made that adopting subjectivism was madness, the ultimate reduction to absurdity. It was compared to being frozen in a lake of ice at the bottom of Dante’s Inferno, flapping your wings making the situation worse. In Dante’s Inferno Satan is enslaved at the bottom of hell, but instead of fire his lower half is ensconced in ice. He has three heads and six wings that he flaps incessantly which produces three cold winds. Thus, the more he flaps the more certain it becomes that he cannot escape.