`Walking with God’ tops best-seller list

c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) If you share my concern about the spiritual, intellectual and creative impoverishment of American culture, consider what two stuffy academics in Oxford and an American philosopher and Dutch art historian in Switzerland reveal about the nature of cultural transformation. Let’s start with the Oxford academics, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) If you share my concern about the spiritual, intellectual and creative impoverishment of American culture, consider what two stuffy academics in Oxford and an American philosopher and Dutch art historian in Switzerland reveal about the nature of cultural transformation.

Let’s start with the Oxford academics, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and their partnership that changed the course of contemporary literary history.


We begin in 1931 as Lewis and Tolkien set out for an after-dinner stroll along the River Cherwell in Oxford with fellow scholar Hugo Dyson. Dyson was teaming up with Tolkien, a published but somewhat reclusive lover of Icelandic sagas, to convince Lewis, then a struggling poet, that beneath the myths he so loved was one true myth recounted in the biblical narrative.

Later, after Lewis converted to Christianity, the three men formed the core of what became known as “The Inklings.” They would gather with friends _ most of them British and Christian, and most somehow affiliated with Oxford _ in college rooms and pubs from the 1930s to 1963.

During those sessions, they would share their love for imaginative literature and critique each other’s work. During that time, Lewis penned more than 70 books, including the beloved “Chronicles of Narnia” series.

I thought about all this as 300 of us gathered recently in the majestic San Juan Islands in Washington state for the first-ever KindlingsFest, a celebration of art and ideas, and where they intersect with the spiritual. The subject was Lewis and “The Art of Being Fully Human.”

At the same time, another 300 young music lovers met at the nearby Woodsong Music Festival, a weekend of performances by indie musicians whose work shares a common thoughtfulness and creativity.

Which brings us back to that American philosopher, Francis Schaeffer, and the Dutch art historian, Hans Rookmaaker.

The Woodsong festival was inspired by the late singer-songwriter Mark Heard, who traveled to Switzerland in the 1970’s to study under Schaeffer and Rookmaaker; The Kindlings was inspired by British actor Nigel Goodwin, who made the same sojourn in the 1960s.


At Schaeffer’s mountain chalet, which came to be known as L’Abri, Schaeffer and Rookmaaker hosted an ongoing forum to discuss philosophical and religious beliefs with curious travelers and spiritual seekers.

The long shadow cast by Lewis and Tolkien, Schaeffer and Rookmaaker, is due in large measure to the excellence, integration and synergy of their intellectual, spiritual and creative work. Rather than dumbing down for a lowest common denominator, each challenged people to elevate their intellectual game.

But perhaps more significant than the intellectual foundation of their work was the element of collaborative community found in both the Inklings and L’Abri.

Over the course of 30 years, Lewis (an Anglican) and Tolkien (a Catholic) were able to enrich each other’s lives and work. Tolkien insisted he would not have published his legendary “Lord of the Rings” series were it not for Lewis. Likewise, Lewis left Oxford for Cambridge because Tolkien paved the way for the academic recognition he knew his friend deserved.

In the same vein, Schaeffer and Rookmaaker strengthened and completed each other. Their right- and left-brain merger resulted from their imaginative and logical collaboration.

At KindlingsFest, Goodwin’s theatrical improvisation opened hearts, while Lewis scholar Jerry Root worked the mind. One attendee described Goodwin’s contribution this way: “I was startled into a new way of hearing/new way of seeing/new way of comprehending.”


One final note. All these men were over 40 years of age, yet they served a younger generation. Attempts at cultural transformation that aren’t intergenerational seem doomed.

With all the hype, conferences and strategies for cultural transformation afoot, I somehow think the basics are all we need: keen minds, creative imaginations and deep synergistic, intergenerational relationships forged in community.

It’s the lesson learned from Oxford dons in a pub, a philosopher and art historian in a Swiss chalet _ or even their progeny at two festivals in the San Juan Islands.

(Dick Staub is the author of “The Culturally Savvy Christian” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (http://www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read at http://www.dickstaub.com)

KRE/JM END STAUB750 words

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