Seven sages: recommended resources

George MacDonald

• Begin with: The Princess and the Goblin (1872); The Princess and Curdie (1883); The Wise Woman (1875); Phantastes (1858); Sir Gibbie (1879); Diary of an Old Soul (1897); Malcolm (1875); George MacDonald: An Anthology (ed. C. S. Lewis)

• You might also like: The Light Princess and Other Stories (1890); At The Back of the North Wind (1871); What’s Mine’s Mine (1886); Lilith (1895); Poetical Works of George MacDonald (1893); George MacDonald in the Pulpit (ed. Joseph Flynn and David Edwards)

• Selected studies: Greville MacDonald, George MacDonald and His Wife (introduction by G. K. Chesterton); Rolland Hein, George MacDonald, Victorian Mythmaker; William Raeper, George MacDonald; Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, Storykeeper; Kerry Dearborn, The Baptized Imagination

• Journals: North Wind, Wingfold 

• Web: The Golden Key (http://www.george-macdonald.com/index.html); George MacDonald Informational Web (http://georgemacdonald.info/); Father of the Inklings (http://fatheroftheinklings.com/); North Wind (http://www.snc.edu/northwind/)


G. K. Chesterton

Begin with: Orthodoxy (1908); The Everlasting Man (1925); the Father Brown mystery series, and Autobiography (1936); The Man Who Was Thursday (1908); Collected Poems of G. K. Chesterton (1933)

You might also like: The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904); The Club of Queer Trades (1905); What’s Wrong with the World (1910); Heretics (1905); The Ball and the Cross (1909); The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922); St. Francis of Assisi (1924)

Selected studies: Maisie Ward, G. K. Chesterton; Ian Ker, G. K. Chesterton; Ralph Wood, Chesterton: The Nightmare Goodness of God; Dale Ahlquist, G. K. Chesterton, Apostle of Common Sense

Journals: Gilbert, The Chesterton Review 

Web: American Chesterton Society (http://www.chesterton.org); GKC Institute for Faith and Culture (http://www.shu.edu/catholic-mission/chesterton-index.cfm); G. K. Chesterton Library (http://chestertonlibrary.blogspot.com


J. R. R. Tolkien

Begin with: The Hobbit (1937); The Lord of the Rings (1954–55); Tree and Leaf (1964); The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1983); The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962); Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981); The Father Christmas Letters (1976)

You might also like: Farmer Giles of Ham (1949); Smith of Wootton Major (1967); The Silmarillion (1977); Pictures by J. R. R.

Tolkien (1992); Unfinished Tales (1980); and the History of Middle-earth series (1983–1986)

Selected studies: Humphrey Carpenter, Tolkien; Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull, J. R. R. Tolkien, Artist and Illustrator and the LOTR Reader’s Companion; T. A. Shippey, The Road to Middle-earth and J. R. R. Tolkien, Author of the Century; Matthew Dickerson and Jonathan Evans, Ents, Elves, and Eriador; Neil Isaacs and Rose Zimbardo, Understanding The Lord of the Rings; Ralph Wood, The Gospel According to Tolkien 

Journals: Amon Hen, Mallorn, Tolkien Studies, Mythlore, Journal of Inklings Studies 

Web: The Tolkien Society (http://www.tolkiensociety.org); Tolkien Estate (http://www.tolkienestate.com/home); Encyclopedia of Arda (http://www.glyphweb.com/arda); The One Ring (http://www.theonering.com); Tolkien Gateway (http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Main_Page)


C. S. Lewis 

Begin with: The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956); The Screwtape Letters (1942); The Great Divorce (1945); Mere Christianity (1952); Surprised by Joy (1955); The Abolition of Man (1943); A Grief Observed (1961)

You might also like: The Space Trilogy (1938–1945); Miracles (1960); Till We Have Faces (1956); Letters to Malcolm (1963); The Discarded Image (1964); essay collections God in the Dock, The Weight of Glory, and The World’s Last Night; Collected Letters vols. 1–3

Selected studies: James Como, Remembering C. S. Lewis; Peter Schakel, The Way into Narnia; Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis: A Complete Guide to His Life and Works; George Sayer, Jack; Alan Jacobs, The Narnian; Alister McGrath, C. S. Lewis; Michael Ward, Planet Narnia and The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis; Matthew Dickerson and David O’Hara, Narnia and the Fields of Arbol; Lyle Dorsett, Seeking the Secret Place; David Downing, Into the Wardrobe, Into the Region of Awe, and Planets in Peril; Crystal Downing, How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith

Journals: Bulletin of the New York CSL Society; The Lamp-Post; Mythlore; Journal of Inklings Studies

Videos from Vision Video: Shadowlands

Web:CSLewis.com, maintained by HarperCollins (which also runs Narnia.com); Into the Wardrobe (http://cslewis.drzeus.net); C. S. Lewis Web (http://www.cslewisweb.com); C. S. Lewis Foundation (http://www.cslewis.org); C.S. Lewis Institute  (http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/C.S._Lewis_Study_Program_Lectures)


Dorothy L. Sayers

Begin with: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries (1923–1937); Creed or Chaos? (1940); The Mind of the Maker (1941); The Man Born to Be King (1943)

You might also like: Sayers’s translation of the Divine Comedy by Dante (1949–1962); Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers (vols. 1–5)

Selected studies: Christopher Dean, ed., Studies in Sayers and Further Studies in Sayers; Crystal Downing, Writing Performances; Barbara Reynolds, Dorothy L. Sayers and The Passionate Intellect; James Brabazon, Dorothy L. Sayers

Journals: Sidelights on Sayers 

Web: Dorothy L. Sayers Society (http://www.sayers.org.uk


Charles Williams 

Begin with: War in Heaven (1933); Many Dimensions (1931); The Place of the Lion (1931); The Greater Trumps (1932); The Descent of the Dove (1931); He Came Down from Heaven (1931); Collected Plays (1945); The Forgiveness of Sins (1942)

You might also like: Descent Into Hell (1937); All Hallows’ Eve (1945); The Figure of Beatrice (1931); The Image of the City (1945); Taliessin through Logres, The Region of the Summer Stars, and Arthurian Torso (1945, ed. by C. S. Lewis); Outlines of Romantic Theology (1930)

Selected studies: Thomas Howard, The Novels of Charles Williams; Anne Ridler, ed., The Taliessin Poems of Charles Williams; Glen Cavaliero, Charles Williams, Poet of Theology; Alice Mary Hadfield, Charles Williams; Brian Horne, Charles Williams: A Celebration 

Journals: The Charles Williams Quarterly; Mythlore; Journal of Inklings Studies

Web: The Charles Williams Society  (http://www.charleswilliamssociety.org.uk), The Oddest Inkling (http://theoddestinkling.wordpress.com)


Owen Barfield

Begin with: Worlds Apart (1963); Unancestral Voice (1965); Saving the Appearances (1957); A Barfield Reader 

You might also like: The Silver Trumpet (1925); History in English Words (1926); Poetic Diction (1928); Romanticism Comes of Age (1944); This Ever Diverse Pair (1950); The Rediscovery of Meaning and Other Essays (1977)

Selected studies: Astrid Diener, The Role of Imagination in Culture and Society; Jacob Sherman, An Ever Diverse Pair (on Barfield and Teilhard de Chardin); G. B. Tennyson, Man and Meaning (video documentary)

Journals: Mythlore; Journal of Inklings Studies

Web: Owen Barfield Literary Estate (http://www.owenbarfield.org); Owen Barfield World Wide Web (http://davidlavery.net/barfield); Owen Barfield Society (http://www.barfieldsociety.org


Seven Sages in community

• Owen Barfield, Owen Barfield on C. S. Lewis

• Humphrey Carpenter, The Inklings

• Colin Duriez, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien: The Gift of Friendship and The Inklings Handbook 

• Verlyn Flieger, Splintered Light

• Diana Pavlac Glyer, The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community 

• Rolland Hein, Christian Mythmakers: C. S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. Chesterton,

and Others

• Mark Hillegas, Shadows of Imagination: The Fantasies of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams

• Clyde S. Kilby and Marjorie Lamp Mead, Brothers and Friends (Warren Lewis’s diary)

• C. S. Lewis, ed., Essays Presented to Charles Williams, (includes essays by Sayers, Tolkien, and Barfield in addition to a memoir of Williams by Lewis) 

• Michael MacDonald, G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis: The Riddle of Joy

• Jeff McGinnis, Shadows and Chivalry: C. S. Lewis and George MacDonald on Suffering, Evil and Goodness

• Joseph Pearce, Literary Converts

• Carol and Philip Zaleski, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams 


Christian History MAGAZINES

The sages have been covered in these past issues of CH magazine: 7, 65, 75, 78, 86, and 88. Several of these issues are available to purchase and all are available to read at www.christianhistorymagazine.org. CH

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[Christian History originally published this article in Christian History Issue #113 in 2015]

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