C.S. Lewis: His Theology and Philosophy
C. S. Lewis is an extremely good theologian who does his work for the thoughtful lay person. But his writings reflect his erudite understanding of the great classics of literature, historical theology, philosophy, and other disciplines. Lewis says in Mere Christianity that theology is like a map. We may get where we’re going without it, but it is much easier to use the map. The map of Christian theology is drawn over the early centuries of the church as the believing community interprets the Bible and its experience of God.
Of course, the ultimate goal of theology, according to Lewis, is practical: to draw us into the life of God, or St. Gregory of Nazianzus ((329-374 AD), called it, “the Great Dance.” I know no theme deeper or more pervasive in Lewis than our need to get the steps right, to join the dance once again.
In “Meditations in a Tool Shed,” Lewis says that there is a distinction between looking at a beam of light and looking along the beam of light. He is speaking of looking at reason or using reason—a passage that forms part of his great case that presence of rationality argues for the truth of theism. We will be doing a lot of looking in this course, largely, “looking at” Lewis himself. But let us also try to “look along” the same line of sight as Lewis, to see things—God, humanity, spiritual life, and a host of other things—as Lewis saw them. This means attempting to step inside Lewis’s worldview and learning to interpret fundamental realities the way he did and to deploy his distinctive strategies for engaging other worldviews. In effect, we will learn to think Christianly by learning to think along Christianly with Lewis.
In 2020, Dr. Peterson published the book, C. S. Lewis and the Christian Worldview. It is essentially his course lectures in written book form--covering Lewis on all key worldview issues--reality, knowledge, creation, trinity, christology, as well as issues of evil, religious pluralism, and the impact of science on faith. You will also see it listed in the Recommended Reading section.
Lecturer/Teacher:
Dr. Michael L. Peterson is Professor of Philosophy of Religion. He has written or been senior author in a number of books: Reason and Religious Belief (Oxford University Press); God and Evil: An Introduction to the Issues (HarperCollins/Westview); With All Your Mind: A Christian Philosophy of Education (University of Notre Dame Press); Evil and the Christian God (Baker Books); Philosophy of Education: Issues and Options (InterVarsity Press); Science, Evolution, and Religion: A Debate about Atheism and Theism (with Michael Ruse, Oxford); and Religion and the Biosciences (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).. Dr. Peterson launched and continues as the Managing Editor of the prestigious scholarly journal Faith and Philosophy, published at Asbury Theological Seminary.
In 2020, Dr. Peterson also published the book, C. S. Lewis and the Christian Worldview, which is based on the course, C.S. Lewis: His Theology and Philosophy that is in the Institute section on BiblicalTraining.org.
D.H.L. Trinity Western University, 2010 (honoris causa)
Ph.D. State University of New York at Buffalo, 1976 (summa cum laude)
M.A. University of Kentucky, 1974 (summa cum laude)
B.A. Asbury University, 1972 (cum laude)
Course Description:
Thirty-two part video series
To access the Course, click here:
https://www.biblicaltraining.org/cs_lewis_theology/michael-peterson
Free course requires registration, which may be used to access other free course on Biblical Training Institute website.
