Just Fantasy: Otherworldly Wisdom on Rights and Wrongs
Throughout much of the 20th century, the literary establishment frequently dismissed works of fantasy as insignificant, juvenile, and less worthy than more modern and realistic works. But the authors of the Marion E. Wade Center knew better. For them, such works were never just fantasy. Fantasy mattered to them, both as a high form of art and as a means of practicing their faith. Several of the Wade authors defended fantasy literature in their essays and literary criticism, and—as many critics and scholars have noted—they turned to genre fiction again and again to express themselves creatively, explore their deepest convictions, and “steal past [the] watchful dragons” of religiosity. What scholars haven’t fully considered, however, is the relationship between these authors’ writings and their conceptions of justice. In these three lectures, Dr. Jim Beitler looks to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, G.K. Chesterton, and George MacDonald with questions of justice in mind. With the help of these “Fantastic Five,” we’ll see that fantasy’s otherworlds have much to teach us about rights and wrongs, just and unjust societies, and what it means to give people their due. The Hansen lectures will be held in the Wade Center's Bakke Auditorium (351 E. Lincoln Ave.) at 7:00pm Central, and are free and open to the public.
The lectures will be recorded and uploaded to the Wade Center's YouTube channel.
Dr. Jim Beitler ’02 & ’04 is Director of the Marion E. Wade Center and Professor of English at Wheaton College, where he holds the Marion E. Wade Chair of Christian Thought. His scholarship focuses on the rhetoric of Christian witness and writing as a spiritual activity, looking to C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, Desmond Tutu, and other exemplary communicators as guides for faithful practice. Beitler is the author of three books—Charitable Writing: Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words (with Richard Hughes Gibson, 2020), Seasoned Speech: Rhetoric in the Life of the Church (2019), and Remaking Transitional Justice in the United States (2013)—and he teaches undergraduate courses on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Tolkien and Environmental Stewardship, and Christianity and Fantasy. He is the co-editor of Sites of Writing: Essays in Honor of Anne Ruggles Gere (with Sarah Ruffing Robbins, forthcoming 2025), and he is a co-host of the Wade Center Podcast.
Lecture Dates and Titles
January 29, 2026 - "The Horn of Elfland: On Fairy-Story Justice"
Respondent: Dr. Kimberly Sasser, Associate Professor of English
In response to critiques of fantasy literature, several members of the Fantastic Five came to its defense, employing academic expertise, storytelling skill, and apologetic acuity to explain why fantasy matters. While these defenses may seem at first glance to have little to do with questions of justice, justice is, in fact, an underlying theme of many of their arguments. In this first lecture, we’ll look closely at J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous “On Fairy-Stories” and other defenses of fantasy written by the Wade authors, exploring what these arguments reveal to us about the relationship between fantasy literature and giving people their due.
February 26, 2026 - "The Hammer of God: Forging Forms of Fantasy Justice"
Respondent: Dr. Vince Bacote, Professor of Theology, Director of Center for Applied Christian Ethics
Fantasy stories always present us with visions of justice. As sub-creators conjure mythical creatures, strange lands, invented cultures, and new languages, they also offer us depictions of the just society, of right and wrong, and of what it means to render to everyone his or her due. But not all fantastical visions of justice are created equal, and the writings of the Fantastic Five offer us resources for interpreting these visions well. In the second lecture, we’ll mine our authors’ essays and stories for insights about how to read fantasy literature with questions of justice in mind.
March 19, 2026 - "The Ring of Righteousness: Justice in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth"
Respondent: Dr. Laura S. Meitzner Yoder, Director and John Stott Chair of Human Needs and Global Resources; Professor of Environmental Studies
What visions of justice does J.R.R. Tolkien offer to readers in The Lord of the Rings? Building on the first two lectures, the third lecture puts the Fantastic Five’s interpretive insights about fantasy literature into practice to explore what the characters and communities of Middle-earth have to teach us about rights and wrongs, just and unjust societies, and what it means to give people (and, yes, even Orcs) their due.
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