C.S. Lewis and the Arts: Creativity in the Shadowlands

On C.S. Lewis’ birthday we released the newest book from Square Halo Books: C.S. Lewis and the Arts: Creativity in the Shadowlands. The book is a collection of essays edited by Rod Miller and featuring David C. Downing, Bruce Herman, Scott B. Key, Don W. King, Jerry Root, David Rozema, Peter J. Schakel, Charlie W. Starr, and Will Vaus, with a foreword by Theodore Prescott.

Lewis holds a notable place in the church and in the world for both his creative literary contributions as well as his informed reflections upon artistic activity. He negotiated the intellectual and aesthetic issues of his day in his creative endeavors and sought to ground those in relation to his faith. The arguments, perceptions and values Lewis posited benefit those today who seek to use their creative gifts beyond mere fad but towards the holy.

“Helpful and worthwhile. Anyone seeking to understand Lewis’s approach to the arts will profit from this array of interesting perspectives.” —Dr. Michael Ward, co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis

“Even fifty years after his death, C.S. Lewis remains one the most popular and influential Christian writers and thinkers of the twentieth century. So much has been written about him, one wonders what else can possibly be said. But this book is a fascinating exploration of Lewis’s thinking about the arts, making it a must read book for anyone who loves Lewis and loves the arts.”—Mary McCleary, artist

“We need more books like this: books that not only celebrate and decipher Lewis’s defense of the arts and of the ineradicable links between the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, but that wrestle alongside Lewis, extending and nuancing his arguments so that they will speak with direct and prophetic power to our modern and postmodern colleges and universities.” —Dr. Louis Markos, author of Restoring Beauty: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the Writings of C.S. Lewis

Beauty Given by Grace

Square Halo Books is pleased to report that coming soon is a new book published with CIVA to support and complement the upcoming traveling exhibit,

Beauty Given by Grace: The Biblical Prints of Sadao Watanabe. The book will officially be released at the opening of the show at the Billy Graham Center Museum. Even though Watanabe's art can be found in the most important museums in the world, he always desired to have his work displayed where it could be seen and enjoyed by ordinary people. It is hoped that Beauty Given by Grace will introduce many new communities to the luminous biblical prints of this dedicated and gifted Japanese Christian artist. Lavishly illustrated, half of the book features full page reproductions of the works found in the traveling exhibit along with the passages from the Bible which inspired their creation. The rest of the book contains other works by Sadao Watanabe not in the show with essays by Sandra Bowden, I. John Hesselink (his interpreter), Makoto Fujimura, and John A. Kohan.