Romantic Theology
C.S. Lewis on Scripture and Romantic Theology
NI-RT Lewis
Northwind Institute
Certificate Course
SYLLABUS:
COURSE DESCRIPTION
As a both a rational scholar and romantic poet, C. S. Lewis approached Scripture and the traditional teachings of the Church as revealed truths to be received and believed with the mind and heart, more imaginatively than propositionally. Lewis’s literary view on biblical inspiration and authority of Scripture encompassed both his rational faculty for understanding and his romantic longing to find a deeper meaning. “For me,” he says, “reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” (“Bluspels and Flalansferes”, Selected Literary Essays, p. 265). Through his “baptized imagination” Lewis championed the creative conjunction of Logos and Mythos (Reason and Story) to produce compelling works of theological fiction. Mythopoetic–-the language of myth, metaphor, poetry and narrative–-for Lewis pointed to primary religious experience and theological truths in aesthetic and concrete ways that engage both the mind and heart.
This doctoral level course features pre-recorded video lectures and digital resources focused on Lewis’s literary view of Scripture and his contribution to the Romantic Theology of the Oxford Inklings. It is offered as an individual tutorial (at the student’s on time, place and pace) with optional, periodic group discussions for those taking the course at the same time. As an intensive reading course of independent study, students are expected to have already read 6-10 fiction and non-fiction books by Lewis; and be ready to read more deeply in selected scholarly works focused on Lewis’s distinctive approach to epistemology, mythopoetic, biblical interpretation, and literary criticism as it relates to
Romantic Theology. It is open to students in doctoral, masters, and degree-completion programs at Northwind.
Course Outline & ASSIGNMENTS: See Syllabus