Logos: The C.S. Lewis Society Update (April 2008)

Editor, David J. Theroux

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    1. Film News: Prince Caspian, Expelled, and the Camie Awards
    2. Hugo Award
    3. C.S. Lewis Society Book Club
    4. Other Events

1. Film News:

A. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia—To Be Released May 16, 2008

    Christianity Today interviews Douglas Gresham (stepson of C.S. Lewis).

    HarperCollins is using Special Ops Media to market online the seven-book series, The Chronicles of Narnia, to attract young people to read as well as create buzz for the May 16th film release of Prince Caspian. Such sites as Facebook and MySpace highlight profiles on Prince Caspian, a custom Prince Caspian widget, and contests. As discussed by Marketing Daily, “Children can find interactive games at NeoPets.com and the HarperCollins site, along with links to the microsite, trailer and special features. HarperCollins also inked marketing agreements with Yahoo Kids to feature e-cards from Pevensie children, and KOL, the kids' division of America Online, which will offer a read-a-long of a chapter per week and prizes. Ads will also run on nick.com and nickjr.com.” New Zealand Post Office to issue Prince Caspian Stamps.

    Clips and trailers for the film on YouTube.

B. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed—To Be Released April 18, 2008

    Featuring Ben Stein, this new documentary vividly reveals the “politically correct” intolerance experienced in the academic world for those who raise serious questions regarding God and Darwinian materialism.

      “Expelled is an enormously important project.”
      —Michael Medved, nationally syndicated radio host

      “[E]xposes the widespread suppression of freedom of thought and inquiry. . . . The film is definitely worth viewing.”
      —Christianity Today

      “Propaganda molds minds in a very direct way and that is the logjam in this situation, which the Ben Stein movie, Expelled, by being entertaining, seeks to break through. I wish it well—I hope under God it will have a great effect just at that point.”
      —J.I. Packer, Board of Governors Professor, Regent College

      “Expelled should be rated R not for sex or violence but for being reasonable, radical, risible, and right.”
      —Marvin Olasky, Editor, World Magazine

      “Four stars!”
      —Ted Baehr, Editor, MovieGuide

      “I love Ben Stein. . . . He’s a charming, engaging, and very bright guy. He’s on the right track here. What he’s doing in this film is extremely important because it is opening up an honest debate in the public square where people can hear reasoned arguments on both sides and make their own conclusions.”
      —Charles Colson, Founder and Chairman, Prison Fellowship Ministries

      “We highly recommend Expelled to anyone.”
      —Ken Smitherman, President, Association of Christian Schools International

    Trailers here, here and here.

    Interview of Ben Stein by R.C. Sproul.

C. 2008 Camies:

    On May 3rd, the 2008 Camie Awards will be presented at the Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills, Calif. The Camies (“character and morality in entertainment”) are given annually for “entertaining and uplifting motion pictures that provide positive role models for building character, overcoming adversity, correcting unwise choices, strengthening families, living moral lives, and solving life's problems with integrity and perseverance—realizing some lessons of life come with pain and sorrow.” Both films for theatrical release and made-for-television are awarded. Previous Camie Award winners.

2. Hugo Award:

The 66th World Science Fiction Convention has announced that in the final ballot for this year's Hugo Awards, a recent book on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien has been selected as one of the five finalists in the Best Related Book category. The book examines the interaction of Lewis, Tolkien and other members of their remarkable Christian literary society, The Inklings, which met weekly in Oxford in the 1930s and 1940s:

Final announcement of this year's awards will be made on August 9th at the Convention in Denver.

3. C.S. Lewis Society Book Club:

Book for Discussion: Prince Caspian: Return to Narnia, by C. S. Lewis; moderator/leader: Dona Wessells

    Wednesday, April 16, 7:30 p.m.
    Wednesday, April 30, 7:30 p.m.

The second volume of Lewis's Narniad, Prince Caspian is the first novel of a trilogy involving Caspian X. In this book, Caspian is a boy who has lived in a large fortress with his uncle Miraz. Caspian's father was king and brother of Miraz. Miraz had murdered Caspian's father and took his place. This means that Prince Caspian is the rightful king of Narnia, and Miraz is a usurper.  One year later (in our world) after the adventures described in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are sitting on a railway station on their way back to school. Suddenly they feel something dragging them away and they are carried back to Narnia where a civil war has broken out.  The book chronicles their adventures in Narnia with the help of the divine Aslan in defeating the tyranny of Miraz and restoring liberty and justice to Narnia. As such, the story is full of imagery and themes regarding the yearnings of us all to find a “deeper magic” in connecting with God.

The meetings will be held at:

    11990 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94619 USA (atop the Oakland hills)
    510-482-2906 phone; email
    wine, soft drinks and other refreshments served

Articles on Prince Caspian:

Prince Caspian is available for order:

Schedule of future Lewis Society book club meetings.

4. Other Events:
Copyright 2008, The C.S. Lewis Society of California