In This Issue:
- The Chosen TV Series: A Superb, Compelling and Inspiring, New Masterpiece on the Life of Jesus
- New Film: The Most Reluctant Convert to Premiere: Directed by Norman Stone and Starring Max McLean
- New Book: After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, by Michael Ward
- Top Stage Productions on C.S. Lewis Returning in Fall 2021
- Subscribe FREE to the YouTube Channel of the C.S. Lewis Society!
- Join with Us as a Member of the C.S. Lewis Society and Receive a FREE Book or Video!
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1. The Chosen TV Series: A Superb, Compelling and Inspiring, New Masterpiece on the Life of Jesus
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 The Chosen is the new, beautiful, compelling and inspiring TV series that portrays Jesus of Nazareth “through the eyes of those who met him.” Created outside the Hollywood system, the series is free and the first-ever, multi-season, series about the epic life of the Christ. This historically and biblically accurate series is the largest ever, equity, crowd-funding project. From director Dallas Jenkins and Angel Studios, everything about the production is crisp and superb, including the script, casting, acting, editing, musical score, lighting, sets, costuming, etc.
A key goal in creating the series is to help people know Jesus better. To reach that goal, the scriptwriters took the gospel accounts and added plausible details about the lives of the biblical figures found there. They added backstories to well-known characters and fleshed out other characters who might receive only a passing mention in Scripture. The intended result is that viewers see the people in the Bible as real people who dealt with the same types of issues we all have. In The Chosen, the disciples have families and friends, they have reputations to uphold, they have a sense of humor, and they struggle with finances and other concerns.
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Seasons 1 and 2 each have eight episodes, seven seasons are planned, and with a goal of reaching a billion people, The Chosen has already been viewed over 160 million times and translated into 50 languages in 156 countries. A charismatic fisherman drowning in debt. A troubled woman wrestling with real demons. A gifted publican ostracized by his family and his people. A religious leader struggling with his beliefs. See Jesus through the eyes of those that met him in the greatest story of all time.
The series is available through its own app as well streaming services NBC’s Peacock, VidAngel, YouTube, Trinity Broadcasting Network, UPtcv, and BYUtv.
Trailer for Season 1 • Trailer for Season 2
“The immense weight of playing Jesus”: Interview of Jonathan Roumie, the actor who plays Jesus in The Chosen.
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2. New Film: The Most Reluctant Convert to Premiere: Directed by Norman Stone and Starring Max McLean
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 The much-awaited film biopic, The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis, premieres in hundreds of cinemas across the U.S., including 13 theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area, for one-night only on Wednesday, November 3rd.
The film is directed by Norman Stone, the devout Christian and admirer of C.S. Lewis, who is a double Emmy and double BAFTA award-winning filmmaker. Among his films are the acclaimed BBC productions of C.S. Lewis Through the Shadowlands (1985, starring Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom), C.S. Lewis: Beyond Narnia (2005) and The Narnia Code (2009, co-sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Society of California).
The Most Reluctant Convert stars Max McLean and is based on his acclaimed stage production of C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Reluctant Convert. As Stone has well noted, “Max MacLean is the visionary New York actor and CEO of the Fellowship of the Performing Arts.”
In the film, an elder C.S. Lewis looks back on his remarkable journey from hard-boiled atheist to the most renowned Christian writer of the past century. The Most Reluctant Convert features Max McLean as the older Lewis and Nicholas Ralph—breakout star of Masterpiece’s All Creatures Great and Small—as young Lewis. This engaging biopic follows the creator of The Chronicles of Narnia from the tragic death of his mother when he was just nine years old, through his strained relationship with his father, to the nightmare of the trenches of World War I to Oxford University, where friends like J.R.R. Tolkien challenge his unbelief. The Most Reluctant Convert brings to vivid life the spiritual evolution of one the 20th century’s sharpest minds, greatest scholars, popular writers, and keenest wits.
Rating PG; Runtime 1 hr., 13 min.
Official Movie Website (where you can book tickets online for a theater near you)
Trailer • Synopsis • Photo Gallery
“C.S. Lewis Biopic ‘The Most Reluctant Convert’ Sets Cinema Release; Watch First Trailer,” by Tom Grater (Deadline)
“The Filmmaker and C.S. Lewis: Award-winning British director Norman Stone has an ongoing fascination with the writer C.S. Lewis,” by K.V. Turley (National Catholic Register)
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 After Humanity is the fascinating and essential, new guide to one of C.S. Lewis’s most important and widely admired books, The Abolition of Man.
The Abolition of Man tackles the crucial question of whether moral value is objective or not. When we say something is right or wrong, are we recognizing a reality outside ourselves, or merely reporting a subjective sentiment? Lewis makes a very powerful case against subjectivism and relativism, issuing an intellectual warning that, in our “post-truth” twenty-first century, has even more relevance than when he originally presented it.
Lewis characterized The Abolition of Man as “almost my favourite among my books,” and his biographer Walter Hooper has called it “an all but indispensable introduction to the entire corpus of Lewisiana.” In After Humanity, C.S. Lewis scholar Michael Ward sheds much-needed light on this seminal work, explaining both its profoundness and the circumstances in Lewis’s life that helped give rise to it, including his front-line service in the trenches of World War I.
 After Humanity explores and clarifies the many allusions and quotations scattered throughout Lewis’s argument. It shows how this crucial thesis fits in with his many other works, both fiction and non-fiction. The book also includes a full-color photo gallery, displaying images of people, places, and documents that relate to The Abolition of Man, among them Lewis’s original “blurb” for the book, which has never before been published.
About the Author: Michael Ward is Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, and Professor of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University. He is the author of the bestselling and award-winning Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis, co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis, and host of the BBC television documentary The Narnia Code. On the fiftieth anniversary of Lewis’s death, Michael Ward unveiled a permanent national memorial to him in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, London.
Video: After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s “The Abolition of Man”
“C.S. Lewis’s analysis of the anti-human trend of modern Western culture has perhaps even more and sharper pertinence now than when it was written. In this vigorous and widely researched book, one of our leading Lewis scholars helps us see this analysis in its full intellectual context, and confirms beyond doubt Lewis’s stature as a genuine public intellectual for our own day as well as his.”
—Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury; author, The Lion’s World: A Journey into the Heart of Narnia
“A fascinating, invaluable guide, going deep and wide to convey the thought of The Abolition of Man and the world of its author."
—John M. Finnis, Biolchini Family Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame; Emeritus Fellow in Law, University College, Oxford; author, Natural Law and Natural Rights
“In After Humanity, Michael Ward reminds us that Lewis was a philosopher, gifted in asking the most important questions about the cosmos and our place within it. In exploring Lewis’s philosophical anthropology, Ward is lucid in every sense of the word. He writes in a manner as clear and accessible as it is illuminating. After Humanity deserves (and will reward) a readership as diverse and dedicated as Lewis’s own.”
—Rebekah Lamb, Lecturer in Theology, Imagination, and the Arts, University of St. Andrews
“C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man is one of the most trenchant and prophetic writings of the twentieth century; Michael Ward is perhaps the leading contemporary scholar of Lewis and one of the most perceptive and thoughtful critics of his oeuvre. This splendid book will furnish an indispensable guide to the thought of C.S. Lewis.”
—Douglas Hedley, Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, University of Cambridge; author, Coleridge, Philosophy and Religion
“Detailed, meticulous research and scholarship has made this the definitive book on The Abolition of Man. This book is to The Abolition of Man what Michael Ward's Planet Narnia is to the Chronicles of Narnia.”
—Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College; author, C.S. Lewis for the Third Millennium: Six Essays on The Abolition of Man
“Some brilliant books are clear in themselves, but dreadfully obscure to most contemporary readers. C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man is that sort of brilliant book, and Michael Ward has done an enormous service to future generations of teachers, students, and other readers in making what is so extraordinary and important in Lewis’s argument completely transparent.”
—J. Budziszewski, Professor of Government and Philosophy, University of Texas; author, Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Virtue Ethics
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4. Top Stage Productions on C.S. Lewis Returning in Fall 2021
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A. An Evening with C.S. Lewis (Bird and Baby Productions): David Payne’s acclaimed portrayal of C.S. Lewis in An Evening with C.S. Lewis will resume in the Fall of 2021 with performances in the following cities:
Burnsville, MN: November 4
Rochester, MN: November 5
Stamford, CT: November 12
Hartford, CT: November 13
Troy, NY: November 14
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In addition, An Evening with C.S. Lewis will be returning to the San Francisco Bay Area in May 2022 when all performances will be co-sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Society of California.
As of these dates may be subject to change pending the status of COVID-19, please check the official touring site for David Payne.
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B. The Great Divorce (Fellowship of the Performing Arts): Max MacLean’s superb stage production of the beloved C.S. Lewis novel also returns in the Fall of 2021. For full schedule and to book tickets.
Grand Rapids, MI: November 6
Indianapolis, IN: November 13
St. Louis, MO: November 20
Cleveland, OH: December 4
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Our YouTube Channel now features 280 excellent videos, and is organized into twenty-one Playlists by topic. Our Channel also includes 28 C.S. Lewis Society videos, including The City of God with 32,000+ views and C.S. Lewis on Mere Liberty and the Evils of Statism 25,600+ views. And more videos are coming!
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6. Join with Us as a Member of the C.S. Lewis Society and Receive a FREE Book or Video!
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