Cathy Crow, one of our friends and an alumnus of several of our conferences, including Oxbridge 2008, recently sent us an article describing her church’s creation of a Narnia themed library. Cathy, a professional librarian, spearheaded the project, and is featured in the article. We thank the Columbia Metropolitan magazine, author Susan Fuller Slack, and photographers Jane Ellen Moore and Lynn Greenlee, who gave us permission to repost the article and photos.
Through the Wardrobe
Northeast Presbyterian Church’s Magical Land of Books.
Once upon a time…
The Wardrobe Doors to the Library
When the church library was established at Northeast Presbyterian Church on Polo Road, it took shape through the vision and dreams of Cathy Crow, a professional librarian and wife of the church’s pastor, George Crow. One of Cathy’s goals was to give the library a unique indentify, so she decided to name it The Lamppost. It was a reflection, in part, upon the words of Psalm 119:105: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
Another lamppost that influenced Cathy’s design was from The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of seven children’s books sprung from the mind of Irish-born writer C.S. Lewis. The writer penned the first volume, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in 1950, and librarians, teachers and parents in the United Kingdom voted the timeless tale the most influential children’s book of the 20th century.
Cathy and George Crow
In the story, four British children decide to explore an old-fashioned coat wardrobe and inadvertently pass through an entryway to Narnia, a magical land of enchantment that is populated with a rich diversity of wondrous beings. The children pledge allegiance to the wise and powerful golden lion Aslan. In an epic battle they triumph over cruel Queen Jadis, the White Witch who blankets the land with endless winter.
Visitors Posed on Narnian Thrones for Photo Opportunities
Lewis’ writings influenced Cathy’s spiritual growth and ultimately the development of the church library because, she says, “They reflect the best in Christian scholarship and literature.” Scholars say that Lewis was noted equally for literary scholarship and for his intellectual and witty expositions of Christian tenets.
Cathy explains that Northeast Presbyterian Church was growing, and the library needed to grow with it. So plans were developed for a new multipurpose building with ample room in the atrium for both an adult’s library and a special children’s library. Today, the welcoming new atrium evokes a sense of openness warmed with sunlight, and the expansive floor plan offers several intimate seating areas. Pam and Andrew Grayson, a designer and an architect from Birmingham, Ala., who also happen to be family members, designed the children’s facility.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Cathy Crow, children, library, Narnia, Northeast Presbyterian Church, Oxbridge 2008, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
At our Oxbridge 2008 conference, Dana Gioia, award winning poet and former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, gave an address titled “Art and the Search for Meaning.” In it, he discussed the role of art in life, in education, and in Christianity, and argued that we have an innate need for beauty - if we don’t expose ourselves and our children to great art, then we will fill that need for beauty with lesser, and sometimes baser, art.
As a resource for thought and discussion, here is a link to “Can Poetry Matter,” an essay Gioia wrote about the state of poetry in the 21st century, and whether poetry still matters.
In addition, for a similar view of the state of affairs of poetry in the United States, particularly how quality criticism of poetry matters, please read this article by Jeffrey H. Gray in the Chronicle of Higher Education, titled “Poet’s Puffery.”
Tags: Art, C.S. Lewis Summer Institute, Chronicle of Higher Education, Culture, Dana Gioia, Jeffrey H. Gray, Oxbridge, Oxbridge 2008, poetry
Click here to download
To find out the latest news on the mission, work, and events of the C.S. Lewis Foundation, download the pdf version of our print newsletter by visiting our newsletter page here.
Included in the newsletter are articles on Oxbridge 2008 Summer Institute, the Summer Seminars at The Kilns, Camp Allen, the Blue Plaque ceremony at The Kilns, our Faculty Forum awards, and profiles of some of our volunteers and supporters.
As a special preview, we’ve posted one article from our newsletter on this blog — Debbie Higgens’ Scholar-in-Residence report from The Kilns Study Centre: “A Ph.D. Journey by Way of Narnia.”
Tags: Blue Plaque, C.S. Lewis, C.S. Lewis blog, C.S. Lewis Foundation, Camp Allen, Debbie Higgens, Faculty Forum, newsletter, Oxbridge 2008, Summer Institute, The Kilns, The Kilns Study Centre
We have been saddened to learn of the death of Dr. Prentice Meador (70) on November 25th in Nashville. Prentice held the Baxter Chair of Preaching at Lipscomb University, and he was a minister in various congregations of the Church of Christ for over 40 years. Over the past ten years he gave lecture series on C.S. Lewis in the U.S. and abroad. Prentice and his wife, Barbara, were participants in CSLF’s Southeast Regional Conference in Nashville (September 2007) and in Oxbridge 2008. For details on Prentice’s life, work and witness, see the links below. His family has also set up a website at www.prayforprentice.com.
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20081128/NEWS01/811280380
http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/11/prentice-meador-longtime-pasto.html
Tags: Lipscomb University, Nashville 2007, Oxbridge 2008, Prentice Meador
Given the thoughtful response to Bruce Herman’s Oxbridge 2008 lecture topic, we are pleased to post Wilfred McClay’s abstract of his Oxbridge 2008 lecture, “On Losing and Saving the Self.” Please write in with your thoughts.
“On Losing and Saving the Self”
By overthrowing all older sources of moral authority, modern culture has enthroned the individual as the sole valid source of meaning, and promoted the pursuit of happiness as the chief end of life. But if we accept this state of affairs, we make a dreadful mistake, one that places upon the self a greater burden than it can bear, and cuts us off from the very happiness we so avidly pursue.
But the Christian faith does not make this mistake. It envisions life as a steady parade of astounding reversals, in which the appearances are regularly turned on their heads: the first becomes last, the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone, and our weakness becomes our strength. So too, will the wounded and needy modern self find restoration and wholeness, not through its own introspective efforts, but by acknowledging that its chief source of meaning is something outside itself. The search for the self should lead us to what is beyond the self.
My title comes from words near the end of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, in which this : “The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it.”
Tags: Christianity, conference, Oxbridge 2008, self, The Self and the Search for Meaning, Wilfred McClay
