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All other images property of the Wade Center
The Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College is a tribute to the importance of the literary, historical, and Christian heritage of these writers. Together, these seven authors form a school of thought. All seven shared a common nationality. They all valued the life of the mind and the imagination. Each shared Christian convictions and wrote on Christian themes. Through service to those who use its resources and through the words of its seven authors, the Wade Center strives to continue their legacy and influence the world around it.
| | | | | | | | Owen Barfield
November 9, 1898 – December 14, 1997
As a philosopher and author of various works on
language, myth, perception and the evolution of human
consciousness, Owen Barfield has had a noteworthy
impact on a number of influential writers and poets,
including T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Howard Nemerov
(U.S. Poet Laureate), Saul Bellow, J.R.R. Tolkien,
and C.S. Lewis. Barfield's Poetic Diction, A
Study in Meaning , is recognized in literary
fields as a definitive work.
Born
in London , Barfield entered Wadham College, Oxford,
in 1919, where he met C.S. Lewis who was also an
undergraduate. Barfield earned his B.A. in 1921
and began work on his B. Litt., which he received
some time later. He completed his formal studies
at Oxford in 1923 and married Matilda Douie, an expert
in folk and courtly dance. During the next few years,
he published a number of books, including a children's
story, The Silver Trumpet, and two books
on the nature of language - History in English
Words and Poetic Diction . In spite
of this initial success, he became discouraged when
he was unable to find a publisher for his first novel
and decided that he would be unable to support his
family by means of a literary career. As a result,
Barfield joined his father's London law firm in 1929
and earned his Bachelor of Civil Law. During these
years while practicing law, Barfield and his wife
adopted two children and fostered a third; he also
continued writing philosophical essays and articles,
and published Romanticism Comes of Age .
He occasionally attended meetings of the Inklings.
Although Barfield was a quiet and unassuming man,
Tolkien declared that he was "the only man who can
tackle C.S.L. [Lewis - in a verbal exchange]." Barfield
retired from the law in 1959, and returned to scholarship
full time. Over the next four decades, he produced
some of his most important works. In particular,
his work Saving the Appearances contained
a summary of his philosophical framework as expressed
in his other writings. From all of this work, Barfield
gained a significant reputation among academic and
philosophical communities - in particular in the
U.S. , where he was often a lecturer and visiting
professor at various colleges and universities. Barfield
died in December 1997 at the age of 99.
Barfield
was primarily influenced by the works of Rudolf
Steiner, founder of Anthroposophy, but his beliefs
were also based on Trinitarian and Christian tenets,
and his studies of the Incarnation and the arts
led him to declare himself a "convinced Christian".
C.S. Lewis disagreed with many of his views, yet
readily acknowledged Barfield's impact on his own
philosophical and theological thought, and Barfield's
critical thinking in philosophy, literature, and
religion continues to influence numerous writers
and philosophers today.
Owen Barfield website
http://www.davidlavery.net/barfield/
The Owen Barfield Society
http://www.barfieldsociety.org/
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G.K. Chesterton
May 29, 1874 – June 14, 1936
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, prolific journalist and author, was well known for his apologetics, biographies, detective fiction, literary, social, and political commentary, and modern history. Possessing a keen wit, a comic genius delighting in paradox, and a gift for religious argument, he published nearly 100 books and over 4,000 newspaper columns and essays.
While attending art school in London in the mid-1890s when he was about twenty, Chesterton realized his artistic limitations and determined to pursue journalism. A few years later he was writing columns regularly for several newspapers, including the Daily News and the Illustrated London News, and by 1902 was widely recognized for his abilities as a political and social critic, and as a writer in general. During the first decade of the 20th century Chesterton's voluminous written output only increased, and included his first novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, and his classic work on the basics of Christian belief, Orthodoxy. Chesterton also met George Bernard Shaw and Hillaire Belloc during this period, men with whom he worked and debated for most of the rest of his life. He took over editorship of the The New Witness in the 1910s, and renamed it G.K.'s Weekly, using it as another vehicle for his articles and essays, and to introduce his Father Brown detective stories. Chesterton and his wife, Frances, visited the U.S. twice between 1920 and 1930, both times stopping in Chicago. His book, What I Saw in America (1922)
contains his thoughts about his 1921 trip.
Chesterton continued writing essays and
articles, among them "The Everlasting Man" and "The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic." The
former work helped convince C.S. Lewis of the sensibleness
of Christianity. A large man in later life, Chesterton
was often seen on London's streets walking to and
from his office, sporting a cape, swordstick, crumpled
hat, and tiny glasses, talking with friends and
colleagues. In the early 1930s, Chesterton began
a series of popular BBC radio broadcasts addressing
a variety of issues. Chesterton died in 1936 at
age 62.
At an early age Chesterton ceased to accept
the existence of a higher being, but later came
to believe in a personal God and in the Christian
faith. He eventually became a Roman Catholic, finding
there the spiritual discipline and responsibility
he believed were needed in an increasingly decadent
world. In spite of his strong ties to the Catholic
Church, Chesterton's writings spanned denominational
lines with such apologetic works as Orthodoxy and
The Everlasting Man-writings that dealt with the
core tenets of the Christian faith.
The American Chesterton Society http://www.chesterton.org/
The Chesterton Society http://www.sndc.demon.co.uk/chessoc.htm
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C.S. Lewis
November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963
A scholar and author, Clive Staples Lewis left his mark on the realms of literary criticism, Christian apologetics, and fantasy stories. While children know him best for the seven Chronicles of Narnia, his religious writings such as Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters remain popular today, and his work on Milton, A Preface to Paradise Lost, is considered a standard critical work.
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Lewis was educated
and lived most of his life in England. He served
and was wounded in the trenches of World War I
France, after which he completed his studies at
Oxford University. In 1925, he was elected to a
Fellowship in English Language and Literature at
Magdalen College, Oxford, where he taught for thirty
years. Beginning in the 1930s, Lewis and some friends
often gathered informally to discuss their writings
and other topics. This group known as "The Inklings" continued
meeting regularly until the 1950s, and included
such members as J.R.R.Tolkien, Owen Barfield, and
Charles Williams. Lewis' popular success began
in the 1940s with his BBC radio broadcasts (which
later were compiled in written format as Mere Christianity) and publication of The Screwtape Letters. His autobiography, Surprised by Joy, is an engaging description of his journey to faith. In 1955, Lewis left Oxford for Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was appointed Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature, a position he held for the rest of his life. It was also during the 1950s, that Lewis met and married Joy Davidman Gresham, an American writer, whose influence can be seen in Lewis' novel, Till We Have Faces as well as his study on the nature of love, The Four Loves. Joy's battle with cancer and her subsequent death were the subject of two different films both titled, Shadowlands. Lewis' own struggle with her loss is movingly captured in his book, A Grief Observed. After Joy's death in 1960, Lewis' health gradually declined. He died after an illness of several months in his home outside Oxford, on November 22, 1963, the same day President Kennedy was assassinated. Lewis was just a few days short of his 65th birthday.
Raised in a Christian home, Lewis abandoned his
faith as a young man, but returned to God as an
adult, acknowledging the deity of Christ after
a long conversation with several of the Inklings
on the nature of myth and truth. "I have just passed on from believing in God to definitely believing in Christ…" he wrote to a friend. "My long night talk with [Hugo] Dyson and Tolkien had a great deal to do with it." A
member of the Anglican Church, Lewis' devout and
vigorously reasoned faith is the subject of many
of his works, and his impact on Christian thought
during his life and after has been of tremendous
significance.
C.S. Lewis Societies are abundant. A sampling follows:
The New York C.S. Lewis Society
www.nycslsociety.com
C.S. Lewis Society of California
http://www.lewissociety.org
Into the Wardrobe website http://cslewis.drzeus.net
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George MacDonald
December 10, 1824 – September 18, 1905
George MacDonald was a popular Victorian author, now best known for his children's stories, such as At the Back of the North Wind and The Princess and Curdie, and his adult fantasies Phantastes and Lilith. One of only a few writers of his time to write symbolic fiction, his romantic vision of spiritual realites has greatly influenced such writers as W.H. Auden, G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis.
A native of Scotland, MacDonald attended the University
of Aberdeen, but although receiving a master's
degree in chemistry and physics in 1845, was uncertain
about what to do with his life. Desiring to bring
others to the Christian faith, and having a gift
of preaching, he attended Highbury College, London,
graduating in 1850 with a divinity degree. The
following year he assumed the pastorate of a Congregationalist
Church in Arundel, near the southern coast of England,
and also married Louisa Powell, with whom he would
eventually have eleven children. Within two years
his congregation asked him to leave for theological
reasons, particularly his insistence on the duty
of obedience to the principles of Christian living.
In poor health, struggling to support his growing
family, and searching for a means to communicate
his beliefs, MacDonald turned to writing. In 1858
his long poem "Within and Without" was
published and well received, helping to establish
MacDonald's reputation. Three years later Phantastes was published to literary acclaim but little public enthusiasm. MacDonald took up lecturing to support his family and about 1860 became Professor of English Literature at Bedford College, London, a post he held for seven years. In 1863 his novel, David Elginbrod, was published and proved very popular. For the next forty years MacDonald lectured and wrote realistic novels, fantasy, children's stories, and poetry, enjoying popular and financial success. MacDonald produced some of his best works during the last 15 years of his life, including There and Back and Lilith. MacDonald died in 1905 at the age of 80.
MacDonald took issue with the strict Calvinism of his upbringing and the emphasis on theological systems to the neglect of the Gospel of God's love. God the Father's love for humanity, as exemplified in Christ, was an overriding principle for MacDonald, and imagination and symbolism were his keys to knowing that love. A common theme of Macdonald's is a journey which springs from the main character's longing for or wanting to know more about some unknown, a search which brings one ever closer to God.
George MacDonald Society http://macdonaldsociety.org/
George MacDonald Web Page http://www.george-macdonald.com/
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Dorothy L. Sayers
June 13, 1893 – December 17, 1957
Considered one of the foremost modern detective writers and perhaps best known for her Lord Peter Wimsey novels, Dorothy Leigh Sayers was also an accomplished and popular playwright, religious commentator, and scholar whose translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy is considered unmatched in quality and readability.
Sayers attended Somerville College, Oxford, graduating in 1915 with first class honors in modern languages, but not caring for the academic life, for a number of years held a variety of jobs in publishing, advertising, and teaching. Frustrated with several relationships, worried about how to support herself, and unsure of her abilities, she nonetheless began writing detective fiction, and in 1923 her first Lord Peter Wimsey novel, Whose Body, was published. A few years later Sayers met and married Arthur Fleming, a journalist 12 years her senior, and over the next decade or so Sayers wrote 14 Lord Peter Wimsey novels and short stories, enjoying popular and financial success, her husband often acting as assistant and unofficial press agent. Sayers turned to play writing in the mid-1930s, a medium which highlighted her poetic skill and dramatic abilities with Christian themes. Although not her first play, The Zeal of Thy House, produced in 1937, was her first such commercial and critical success. Sayers' most well-known play, The Man Born to be King, broadcast on the BBC in 1941, was very popular but caused a stir for its Christ who spoke modern English. Sayers was sought out as a religious commentator as well, and so also in 1941 The Mind of the Maker was published. Sayers continued writing plays and other works throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s, and began translating Dante's The Divine Comedy, an interest of hers for some years as a result of reading Charles Williams' The Figure of Beatrice. Her translations of Dante were to be her greatest accomplishment, though she died in 1957 at age 64 before completing the last of its three volumes.
An Anglican all her life, Sayers also recognized
that "I am quite without the thing known as 'inner light' or 'spiritual experience.'" Instead, she possessed what she termed a "passionate intellect," and it was this intellect and her creativity which enabled her to write as she did. Yet, for all her intellect, "Christianity
is as plain and common as bread. The simplest person
or the youngest child can be a Christian, by faith
and baptism."
The
Dorothy L. Sayers Society http://www.sayers.org.uk/
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J.R.R. Tolkien
January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973
J.R.R. Tolkien was an academic and professor at Oxford University and author of the now widely popular The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings,
works that have enormously shaped modern fantasy
literature. In academic circles, Tolkien is recognized
for his contributions to the study of language
in literature In particular, his lecture "Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics," published
in 1936, is a major critical work about that important
Old English poem. His other writings include poems
and short stories.
Born in South Africa and a few years later taken to England for his health, Tolkien entered Exeter College, Oxford, in 1911 and in 1915 took a First in English Language and Literature. In 1916, after a period of forced separation of several years, Tolkien married Edith Bratt with whom he eventually had four children. Tolkien served with the Lancashire Fusiliers from 1915-18, fought in the Battle of the Somme, and, contracting an illness, returned to England to recover. While recovering he began what was to be his life-long literary work The Silmarillion. Tolkien became Reader in English Language at the University of Leeds in 1920, Professor of English Language at Leeds in 1924, and Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford in 1925. During these years, he worked with E.V. Gordon on a critical edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and continued work on The Silmarillion. Early in the 1930s he began writing The Hobbit, which was published in 1937. That same year, at the suggestion of his publisher, he began work on The Lord of the Rings, the first two volumes being published in 1954 and the third in 1955. In 1945, Tolkien was awarded the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford, a position he held until his retirement in 1959. After his retirement, Tolkien wrote Smith of Wootton Major, Tree and Leaf, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and set about revising The Silmarillion, which was eventually completed by his son Christopher and published in 1977. Tolkien died at the age of 81 in September 1973.
Tolkien was a devout and life-long Roman Catholic whose understanding of Christ's sacrifice and divinity, and of the spiritual truth embedded within human mythology helped persuade C.S. Lewis to become a Christian. Tolkien's adherence to the Catholic view of the relationship between the physical and spiritual worlds, and his belief in the inherent truth of mythology were the foundation for many of his works.
The Tolkien Society
http://www.tolkiensociety.org/
The American Tolkien Society
http://www.americantolkiensociety.org/
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Charles Williams
September 20, 1886 – May 15, 1945
An editor at Oxford University Press and a popular lecturer on English Literature, Charles Williams published nearly 40 books, including poetry, plays, novels, literary criticism, biographies, and theological works. He is best known for his spiritual novels, which powerfully portray good and evil, and for The Figure of Beatrice, a study of Dante's Divine Comedy.
Williams began his formal schooling in St. Albans near London and won a scholarship to University College, London, in 1901, but two years later left without taking a degree, unable to afford to continue his education. For several years he worked as a bookroom clerk, then in 1908 took a job with Oxford University Press as a proofreader. Williams had written poetry since adolescence and in 1912 saw his first work published, the sonnet sequence The Silver Stair. He married Florence Conway in 1917, had a son in 1922, and by 1924, due to his extensive knowledge of English literature, was working as an editor for the Press and giving regular lectures on English literature for Adult education classes in London. In the late 1920s he turned his attention to other literary forms, publishing, for example, seven novels between the years 1931 and 1945, of which Descent into Hell (1937) is perhaps the most well-known. Throughout this period, he also continued to write poetry, most notably Taliessin through Logres (1938), the first volume of his Arthurian poetry cycle. In the 1940s he found the academic recognition he had long sought when after giving a series of well-received lectures at Oxford University he was awarded an Honorary Master of Arts in 1943. The same year his scholarly study of Dante and romantic theology, The Figure of Beatrice, was published, a work which sparked Dorothy L. Sayers' interest in Dante. The following year, his novel, All Hallows' Eve, and the second volume of his Taliessin cycle, Region of the Summer Stars, were published, and he began work on The Figure of Arthur, but died on May 9, 1945 before completing it. He was 59 years old.
A member of the Church of England,
Williams also knew the value of rationalism, was
interested in the supernatural, and had a detailed
knowledge of the occult. Yet, as demonstrated in
his novels, he clearly understood that such practices
were evil and selfish attempts at individual power.
Central to his thinking were the theological concepts
of co-inherence, the "way of affirmation," and
substitution, the death and resurrection of Christ,
God's perfect substitution for the sins of humankind,
being the center of his life.
The Charles Williams Society http://www.geocities.com/charles_wms_soc/
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