The C.S. Lewis Society of California

cordially invites you to a special performance of

With a special post-show conversation with
Actor Max McLean and Director Jeffrey Fiske

Starring
Max McLean as His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape
With Karen Eleanor Wight as Toadpipe, Screwtape’s personal secretary

Adapted for the Stage by
Jeffrey Fiske and Max McLean

Directed by Jeffrey Fiske

C. S. Lewis’s brilliant, bestselling novel, The Screwtape Letters, explores the theme of spiritual warfare from a demon’s point of view. This funny, provocative and wickedly witty theatrical adaptation-critically acclaimed in New York; standing room only at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C.; and called the “most successful show in the history of the Chicago Mercury Theater” by the Chicago Tribune-will change the way you think about the problems in your everyday life.

WHEN:

Saturday, October 3, 2009
Performance: 8:00 p.m.
(Includes show plus special post-show program with Actor Max McLean and Director Jeffrey Fiske.)

WHERE:

Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek, CA 94596-4299
(Easy, plentiful parking in Locust Street Garage)
Map and directions here. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: C.S. Lewis, C.S. Lewis Society of California, Jeffrey Fiske, Karen Eleanor Wight, Lesher Center for the Arts, Max McLean, The Screwtape Letters, Theatre, Walnut Creek

Our friend and CSLF event alumnus and faculty member, Don King, recently released his newest book, Out of My Bone: The Letters of Joy Davidman. The book, edited by King, is a collection of the letters of Joy Davidman Gresham, covering her early years as a poet to her later years as wife of C.S. Lewis (though none of her letters to Lewis are reprinted in the book, as Lewis tended to throw away letters he received).

For more information on the book, click the links below:

Washington Times review

Amazon.com book listing (buy the book through this link and the C.S. Lewis Foundation receives a percentage of the sale as a donation)

Tags: C.S. Lewis, Don King, Joy Davidman, Joy Davidman Gresham

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Dear Friends:

This is the seventh message in a series on fretting and worry. It will be Tuesday by the time you receive this. I’m sorry. It was done by Sunday night, but I still had some work to do. I hope this blesses you.

When in danger or in doubt,
run in circles,
scream and shout!

Children’s folk rhyme

#

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907

My friend, Ed, attended a service in one of the largest Protestant churches in Southern California. The preacher told the congregation that “A Christian should never be afraid,” no “ifs” or “buts” about it. Ed says, “I wanted to jump up and shout, “But we are afraid. Tell us how not to be afraid.”

Ed raises an excellent point that has stirred in me with everyone of these messages. It is hard not to be afraid, not to fret or worry about the uncertainties of the future, and not to be anxious about how things will turn out. Life is difficult, full of ambiguities and there is definitely pain involved in living. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.

In response to the harsh vagaries of our existence in a broken world, the three most frequent character traits taught by principle or example in the New Testament are love, humility, and trust in God, in that order. All three traits are highly relevant to our subject of what it takes to follow God’s instruction not to worry or fret. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: A Word of Grace, Kent Hansen, worry

Note: the following blog post is a repost from our 2009 Southwest Regional Retreat Writers Workshop blog page. Click here for the main 2009 C.S. Lewis Southwest Regional Retreat page.

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Please excuse the pause in this blog. I’ve been on holiday, and, of all places, to The Kilns. Yes, C.S. Lewis’s home just outside Oxbridge, England. What a thrill and what a blessing the visit was.

I went as a participant of the Summer Seminars-in-Residence for the August 1-7 session. The Kilns was bought and restored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation. See “Programs” on this site for more information. If you are interested in my tales of The Kilns, click here to view the main C.S. Lewis Foundation Blog.  I wrote one post on-site and will continue with The Kilns Chronicles soon.

Meanwhile, “back at the ranch,” the plans go forward to our Texas retreat and writers workshop coming up just about two months from now. There is so much to share about this one-of-a-kind workshop. Keep visiting this blog for more.

Inklings & Inspiration

THE COMPANY THEY KEEP: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Dr. Diana Pavlac Glyer was the inspiration for this writers workshop. Lewis, Tolkien, and the other men who made up the Inklings were all writers. In her book, Diana tells their fascinating story-of the influence they had on each other, their lives and their work. So, it was a natural fit to include a focus on writing at this retreat.

I believe that it’s fairly common for writers - when we discover authors whose words sink right to the heart, settle into the soul, and stimulate the mind - to devour their every work and learn all we can about them. Of course, meeting them in person is a special treat. But for those no longer in this world, second best is learning from those who knew or studied them. Diana has thrown open the wardrobe door and invited us Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: C.S. Lewis, C.S. Lewis Foundation, Camp Allen, Diana Glyer, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joy Jordan-Lake, Nan Rinella, Southwest Regional Retreat, Texas