Surprised by Myth : A Collection of Essays on the Inklings and Friends

Materialist philosophies dominated the early part of the 20th century and, it could be argued, prompted two of the most disastrous and bloodthirsty conflicts humanity has ever known. C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien both found themselves on the front line of one of these conflicts, serving in the First World War; Lewis was involved in the moral aspect of the Second through his broadcasts about Christianity on the BBC. Both men, and the Inklings group of writers and thinkers which gathered around them, represented a counter-cultural movement: they were rebels — conservative, middle class, religiously orthodox for the most part, but nevertheless rebels — against the tide of materialist ideas which in their lifetimes took possession of the surrounding culture through science, education, broadcasting and popular thought. The tool which the Inklings and their friends and associates primarily employed in this battle was literature, calling upon the forms, images, ideas and resonances of earlier ages as well as reinterpreting the world around them in spiritual rather than material terms, from Williams’ “co-inherence” to Barfield’s “collective representations”. Their struggle against the overwhelming might of materialist thought and culture makes for a fascinating story in itself — and it also prompts this book. Surprised by Agape told the tale of how Justin Wiggins found meaning in the Inklings’ work and discovered a way back towards an altogether different view of things, walking down that path to find personal faith. In this book, he further comments upon a range of experiences and encounters with the Inklings and their works. In my case, as you will read, I encountered some of their material while I was still at school, and its fascination ran deep, opening up unsuspected new worlds to my imagination and spirit. Justin and I decided to gather together various pieces we had written over the years in order to further the Inklings’ struggle against the prevailing view of the world which permeates modern life, in the hope that readers might be brought closer to the motherlode of work which can help achieve enlightenment of an altogether different kind, and perhaps, in so doing, light in them the fire of personal faith too. - Grant P. Hudson