Michael Ward, a noted British scholar on C.S. Lewis, will present the address "C. S. Lewis and the Christian Imagination" on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 4 p.m. in room 135 of the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication at Hope College.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Ward is author of one of the most important books on Lewis, "Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis," published by Oxford University Press in December 2007. In the book, Ward argues that medieval cosmology, a subject which fascinated Lewis throughout his life, provides the imaginative key to the seven Chronicles of Narnia. He has also published many articles and essays on Lewis.
Ward also has lectured widely on C.S. Lewis, in South Korea and Sweden as well as in Britain and numerous places in the United States. He debated Christian fiction with the atheist writer, Philip Pullman, before an audience of 800 people in Oxford in 2002. He is co-editor of two books: "Heresies and How to Avoid Them: Why it Matters What Christians Believe" (2007) and the forthcoming "Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis."
Ward studied English at Oxford University and theology at Cambridge University. He received his doctorate in divinity from the University of St Andrews. He was ordained in the Anglican Church in 2004 and served for several years as the Chaplain of Peterhouse, the oldest of the Cambridge colleges.
The Martha Miller Center is located at 257 Columbia Ave., at the corner of Columbia Avenue and 10th Street.