Frances White Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends

     The Frances White Ewbank Colloquium on C. S. Lewis and Friends is a biennial event. Frances White Ewbank pioneered the study of C. S. Lewis at Taylor University. More than thirty years ago, she began to assign readings from Lewis’s works as the basis for writing assignments in an honors class. Her work inspired her colleagues as well as her students and led to the Lewis studies at Taylor today. We believe that it is fitting to name the colloquium in honor of this outstanding scholar and teacher.

     At these colloquia we are interested in more than just Lewis. The "and Friends" in the title has a triple meaning.  It refers to the fact that we are interested in the friends of Lewis, both his contemporaries and otherwise. Also, we ourselves are friends of these authors. Finally, because of our common love for these men and women, we are friends of each other. We are friends in the sense that, to use George MacDonald’s words, we are "alike enough to understand each other, and unlike enough to interest and aid each other." We believe that the varied programs at the colloquia promote conversations among "friends," whether scholars or not, and occur outside of the scheduled sessions as well as within them. 

     In addition to papers on theology and literature related to Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. Chesterton, Frederick Buechner, Madeleine L’Engle, and others, the colloquia provide a wide variety of activities: discussion groups, panel discussions, drama, music, art, and worship services. Some of the keynote speakers at past colloquia have been Walter Hooper, Barbara Reynolds, Colin Manlove, Chris Mitchell, Jerry Root, Peter Kreeft, Tom Howard, Bruce Edwards, and Louis Markos.