Academic Paper Session 2-C

The Intertwining of Reason and Imagination: Casting Truth in an Imaginary World - Sharon Kotapish When writing The Chronicles of Narnia, did C.S. Lewis deliberately turn from the world of reason and abandon logical argument? Or did he gravitate toward imaginative fiction because story may be the best way to communicate certain kinds of truth? Just as the Narnia tales reflect major themes in Lewis\u27 overtly Christian nonfiction works, many of the truths taught by Jesus through parable are paralleled in the Apostle Paul\u27s expository letters. By reading a passage from Lewis\u27\u27 nonfiction writing along with a reflected passage from the Chronicles, our understanding and appreciation of both are deepened. C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and the Necessity of the Terrible Good - Kimberly Moore-Jumonville Through characters like Eustace, Psyche, and Orual, and others, Lewis reminds us that transformation from what we now are is a necessity if we wish to know God. We must relinquish the lies we blindly wear and be stripped to the bone; ironically, we have to go under the water so that we don\u27t drown or die of thirst. Pauline, of Charles Williams\u27s Descent into Hell, was not yet prepared to accept the terror of good (107), but she learns that the Lord does things in the midst of a fire (93). Pauline\u27s salvation lies in relinquishing her fear to a friend and simultaneously facing her doppelganger, her double. That courage leads to her freedom from fear. Thus, a study of Lewis\u27s and Williams\u27s treatments of the fierceness of good clarifies that the terrible good is a purgation necessary to free the shrinking soul for its deepest soul work. Between Two Strange Hearts: Spiritual Desolation in the Later Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Charles Williams - Sørina Higgins and Rebecca Talbot Spiritual desolation, while a perennial human experience, is expressed in historically-determined diction. Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) and Charles Williams (1886-1945) are an interesting case study, especially as Hopkins shaped Williams\u27 later prosody. My Own Heart (Hopkins) shares desolation with Ignatius\u27 Spiritual Exercises, and reading My Own Heart through Williams theory of spiritual schism as literary analysis reveals a cleft self similar to the split kingdom in Prayers of the Pope (Williams). Neither writer excludes hope: Hopkins\u27 Ignatian language frames My Own Heart as a hopeful surrender, while Williams offers hope via occult vocabulary