The Personal Heresy: A Controversy - Softcover

C. S. Lewis And E. M. W. Tillyard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1881848108 ISBN 13: 9781881848103

Publisher: Concordia University Press, 2008

Synopsis

This book is a debate between Lewis and Tillyard on the topic of objective value, i.e. whether a piece of poetry or other imaginative literature is primarily about the state of mind of the author or the subject on which the author writes. Reading this book is like taking a tutorial with Lewis back in 1939, since you see the exchange of views between the two authors.

About this title

About the Author

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963), Fellow in English, Magdalen College, Oxford (1925-1954), and Magdalene College, Cambridge (1955-1963), is the author of 'The Screwtape Letters,' 'Mere Christianity,' the Chronicles of Narnia, and many other books and essays. Eustace Mandeville Wetenhall Tillyard (1889-1962), Fellow in English (1926-1954) at Jesus College, Cambridge, and later Master of Jesus College (1945-1954), wrote 'The Elizabethan World Picture,' 'Milton,' 'The Miltonic Setting: Past and Present,' and many other works.

Review

Those who only read his Christian Apologetics and stop short of his Literary Criticism are cutting themselves off from about half of what made C. S. Lewis--C. S. Lewis. It is a terrible shame, but it can be put right by reading this seminal work. I rejoice that it is being reprinted! Walter Hooper. --Personal Letter

It is too late to travel to Oxford and hear C. S. Lewis argue, lecture, laugh, discuss, dispute, debate. All the texts that remain tell us one side of the story, offer one half of the conversation. Except this one. Here we have front row seats to observe 'the formidable battery of Mr. Lewis's dialectic.' 'The Personal Heresy' shows Lewis in context, and it is a thrilling experience. Diana Pavlac Glyer --Personal Letter

Does Lewis win, draw, or lose this debate with Tillyard about biographical criticism? Are the terms of the contest even correct? Although on the face of it a period piece, this dispute reverberates interestingly into more modern arguments over feminist and Marxist theory and indeed over whether a text contains any stable meaning at all. Come, follow this keen, intellectual boxing match and make your own mind up! Michael Ward. --Personal Letter

Edition details

• Publisher: Concordia University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1881848108
• ISBN 13: 9781881848103
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 129
• Editor: Joel D. Heck