First-Year Seminar: C.S. Lewis in a Disenchanted World

C.S. Lewis was a novelist, social critic, and one of the 20th century's most widely-read public intellectuals. He is most often remembered today as the creator of Narnia, but he wrote compellingly on topics like myth, morality, beauty, friendship, education, science, religion, and life in a democratic society. In all of his writing, Lewis sought to find a foundation of meaning and beauty that could support a life of intellectual integrity. This course follows Lewis's intellectual and aesthetic development over the course of his life, seeking him especially in the books he wrote and the books that shaped him.