C.S. Lewis: the man and his message

by Andrew C. Skinner, Robert L. Millet

Papers from a conference held ant Brigham Young University on Dec 4-5, 1998, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of C.S. Lewis.

Genres: Biography, Religion, Nonfiction, Lds, History, Christianity, Spirituality

185 pages

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Andrew C. Skinner was born and raised in Colorado. He attended the University of Colorado where he earned his B.A. degree in history. He then earned an M.A. degree from the Iliff School of Theology in Jewish Studies and a Th.M. degree from Harvard in Biblical Hebrew. He did graduate work at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. His Ph.D. was awarded from the University of Denver in Near Eastern and European History, specializing in Judaism.

Brother Skinner taught four years at Ricks College, and has filled three assignments at the BYU Jerusalem Center where he served as a faculty member and taught Near Eastern Studies. Since September 2000 he has served as the Dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University. Prior to his current appointment, he served as chair of the department of Ancient Scripture at BYU. He is the author or co-author of over 100 publications including Jerusalem: The Eternal City; New Testament Apostles Testify of Christ; Discoveries in the Judaean Desert: The Unidentified Fragments from Qumran Cave 4 (which is an analysis of all the unidentified Hebrew and Aramaic Dead Sea Scroll texts); Scriptural Parables for the Latter Days, and Gethsemane.

He served a full time mission for the LDS Church from 1970-72 in the California Central Mission and served as Branch President at the Missionary Training Center in Provo. He has also served as a bishop in Colorado and Utah and currently serves as a member of the Correlation Evaluation Committee of the Church.

He and his wife Janet Corbridge reside in Lindon, Utah, and they are the parents of six children.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this years ago and enjoyed it a lot. Being LDS, I have always appreciated how C.S. Lewis's philosophy ties so well with what I believe.

[LINDSEY M]

Very insightful. I learned a lot about C. S. Lewis.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book of a Latter Day perspective on CS Lewis. Since that's part of my perspective, too, I appreciate this approach at understanding the author. It is a collection of writings about Lewis by various Mormon scholars, presented at a conference at BYU celebrating what would have been Lewis' 100th birthday- which would have been Nov. 29, 1998. Anytime I read anything about or by Lewis, it always makes me want to read more of his work. So far, besides the Chronicles of Narnia and his sci-fi trilogy, I've only read The Great Divorce (many years ago) and A Grief Observed (about a year ago.) I actually think I would enjoy rereading any of these as much as picking up something of his I haven't read. A great writer and Christian philosopher.

[Melanie Olson]

C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors. This book is the compilation of writings from a conference about C.S. Lewis held at Brigham Young University. Notable LDS authors and speakers such as Neal A. Maxwell, Andrew Skinner, and Robert Millet discuss various C.S. Lewis writings and themes as viewed from an LDS perspective. This is truly one of my favorite books, as can be seen by the dozens of tabs, markers, and dog-eared pages. This is a must-read for any LDS C.S. Lewis fan.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I had read this before, but I guess not. This is a book of addresses made at a symposium put on at BYU regarding the life and works of C. S. Lewis. Many of the essays discuss his religious beliefs and conversion to Christianity. At the end of the book is a biographical outline of the major events in his life. It's a deep read and stretched my understanding. I loved reading it.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the talks that were collected to create this book. I will say, however, that I was less interested in the two discussions about Lewis' work from a literary perspective. I preferred the others that talked about the Christian lessons to be gained from Lewis' writings. This is definitely going to be a re-reader for me. I found it inspiring. It made me want to be a better person.

[Jana Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason I give this 4 stars is because a couple of the chapters weren't totally interesting to me personally. The rest of the book was excellent and gave some great insights into an increcible man and his teachings, he was truly a genius. I highly recommend this one!

[Heather]

I read the first talks in this book and had a hard time getting into it. Maybe later I will pick it up again.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

The chater by Brent Slife is one of my favorites (p. 20-37, also available in .pdf at http://brentdslife.com/article/index.... ).

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the essay style. Easy to pick up and put down, and reflect on his life.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Notes on every page!