“Truth, Beauty, and the ‘True Myth’ — Thinking with the Inklings and Beyond” is the theme of the 2018 Canadian Rockies Theological Conference April 10-13 in Canmore, Alberta.
The Rev. Dr. Malcolm Guite, Chaplain of Girton College of the University of Cambridge, England, is the featured speaker.
Dr. Guite will collaborate with musician Steve Bell throughout the conference and hold a joint concert on Thursday evening. Both were featured at the 2016 NALC Convocation. The Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England, in the 1930s and 1940s. Members included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Conference organizers offer the following titles and descriptions of Dr. Guite’s presentations:
Tolkien, Lewis, and the True Myth. Malcolm revisits the momentous conversation between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien on Addison’s Walk, showing how it helped bring Lewis to faith and drawing out what it might mean for us in our own time.
Why Do We Hunger for Beauty? Malcolm will introduce the “Theology of Beauty” starting with Plato and moving on to Augustine, and then be in conversation with Steve about the Christian artist’s response to beauty in the world and in the making of their art. Steve and Malcolm will illustrate with occasional poems and songs.
Imaginative Apologetics: How beauty in art and myth can help us prepare the way for Christ. Malcolm will reflect on the importance of beauty in Lewis’ life and conversion, and lead a discussion of how we might prepare the way for Christ in our own life and work.
Behind the Inklings, Coleridge, Nature, and the Gospel. Drawing on his recent book, “Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge,” Malcolm will tell the story of how Coleridge (a huge influence on the Inklings) recovered his faith, in part by responding to beauty in nature.
In the Image of the Trinity: Christian Collaboration. A joint session with Malcolm and Steve. The Inklings all collaborated, set ego aside, critiqued, and contributed to one another’s work. In this session Malcolm and Steve will talk about how our understanding of God as Trinity, as a loving communion of persons each addressing and giving to the other, forms the foundation for all good human interaction. This will be illustrated by stories of their own collaboration and with songs and poems arising from it.
Panel discussion. Where do we take it from here? How can the example of the Inklings, and the songs and stories they have shared enable us to proclaim and share Christ and the Kingdom more widely?
Those who attend may receive Continuing Education Units from the North American Lutheran Seminary, a cosponsor of the event.
More information on the conference is available on the NALC website — www.thenalc.org.