Lewis Festival Scholar Series

Dr. Root continues his theme from his keynote address including what he feels is man’s greatest sin.  (And it’s not what Lewis felt was man’s greatest sin!). You decide.  

As part of this growing podcast series we’re taking a look at the CS Lewis Festival last September in Petoskey, Michigan. Over 1,200 people attended a variety of cultural, religious, and educational events along the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan. For this year’s festival in September please visit us at cslewisfestival.org for events and registration.  

Lewis wrote personal letters to everyone who wrote him but he held Anglican Bishop Arthur Greeves in high esteem. Why did he write over 300 letters over 50 years to Greeves? Find out in this deeply personal reflection on Lewis by emeritus professor of Wheaton College,  Dr. Wayne Martindale.  

Professor Don W. King gives us remarkable insights into the life and mind of Warren's famous brother, C. S. Lewis.  In his much anticipated new biography on Warnie, Professor King provides an illuminating window into the events, personalities, and culture of 20th-century England.

How do you define friendship? And why was friendship, in all walks of life,  central to C. S. Lewis’s life?  Esteemed author, professor, and speaker Dr. Jerry Root takes a deep dive in an area of Lewis’s life that is revealing and timely. 

Today’s podcast features Festival Co-Founder Sarah Arthur. Sarah is the author of a dozen nonfiction books on the intersection of faith and great literature. She shares a profound, multifaceted talk on her love of Lewis and her argument with him based on the Festival’s 2022 theme, “Women and C.S. Lewis.” For more information on the annual C.S. Lewis Festival that takes place every September, please visit us at cslewisfestival.org.  

Ann Voskamp was the featured speaker in 2022 at the annual C.S. Lewis Festival in Petoskey, Michigan. Her talk, Reflections and Women and C.S. Lewis, took place at the Saturday Seminar at Great Lakes Center for the Arts. It is a story of women, C.S. Lewis, and a story that moves far beyond the walls of the world. For more information on the annual C.S. Lewis Festival that takes place every September, please visit us at cslewisfestival.org.  

The C.S. Lewis Festival welcomed best-selling author Ann Voskamp as keynote speaker in 2022. At a sold-out event at Great Lakes Center for the Arts, Ann talked about the joy combined with the profound struggles she went through in writing her latest book WAYMAKER: Finding the way to the life you’ve always dreamed of. It is a deeply personal and moving talk and includes a poignant sit-down discussion with Festival Co-Founder Sarah Arthur. For more information on the annual C.S. Lewis Festival that takes place every September, please visit us at cslewisfestival.org.  

This episode features Kristen Johnson, Professor of Theology and Christian Formation at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. In 2018, Kristen was named as one of the "New Female Theologians Worth Knowing" by Christianity Today. This recording is of her lecture "The Inner Ring: How C.S. Lewis can help us Engage Friendship, Community and our Deep Differences." Many writers and thinkers are asking questions about how we can navigate the deep differences of our age.  In a memorable lecture delivered in 1944, C.S. Lewis probed what he believed to be a permanent aspect of human existence, namely our desire to be on the inside
of the "inner ring" and our terror at the prospect of being left on the outside. Kristen explores this in a very engaging and profoundly enlightening talk.

Hear Trygve Johnson share on a deeply personal and profound topic, Providential Friendship: How God used a simple friendship to inspire the imagination of the Christian faith. His talk delves into the concept of providence in friendships and the  specific, God-inspired friendship of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.

David Crouse sits down with Philip at the majestic Great Lakes
Center for the Arts in Bay Harbor, Michigan. Over 300 attended in what turned out to be a deeply personal interview with Philip on the cusp of the launch of, what Philip said, is the most important book he’s ever written, his auto-biography, Where the Light Fell. Publishers Weekly calls it “a gripping memoir”.