C. S. Lewis Birth Bash Draws Crowd
by Christine J. Gardner | posted 10/05/1998 12:00AM
The one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of C. S. Lewis drew more than 800 participants to Oxbridge '98, the largest gathering ever of the C. S. Lewis Summer Institute in England.
With the theme "Loose in the Fire," academics and professionals representing evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox traditions gathered July 19 to August 1 on the campuses of Oxford and Cambridge Universities to discuss the impact of Lewis on such diverse topics as health care, the performing arts, public policy, and the ethics of human cloning. Presenters included Tony Campolo, Charles Colson, Madeleine L'Engle, George Marsden, Dallas Willard, and Philip Yancey. While at Oxford, the conference convened at the Sheldonian, the Christopher Wren-designed lecture hall where Lewis, then an atheist undergraduate, gave his first public address.
"It was in every sense an historic convocation," says C. S. Lewis Foundation president Stan Mattson.
Lewis's popularity persists. In honor of his birth, the Oxford Royal mail issued a postage stamp (above) based on Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia stories. Thirty-five years after his death, Lewis's books continue to sell more than 1.5 million copies each year.
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October 5 1998, Vol. 42, No. 11
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