Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Radio Theatre

C. S. Lewis at War: The Dramatic Story Behind Mere Christianity

by

warFocus on the Family Radio Theatre has done it again: they’ve produced another first-class audio drama.

This one is titled C. S. Lewis at War: The Dramatic Story Behind Mere Christianity.

It’s only 2.5-hours long, and the time goes by very quickly.

It also comes with an unabridged audiobook of Mere Christianity (~7.25 hours).

Publisher’s description:

You probably know C.S. “Jack” Lewis as the man who wrote the wryly insightful The Screwtape Letters, the seven children’s stories comprising The Chronicles of Narnia and the masterful defense of Christian belief, Mere Christianity. You may not know that Jack was wounded in World War I. Or that he became a Christian while trying to argue against Christianity. Or that his best-known writings were produced against a backdrop of family difficulties, conflicts with his fellow academics and a world war that impacted every aspect of his life and writing.

Now, for the first time, the dramatic story of the life of C.S. Lewis and the events behind the creation of Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters are played out with a full cast of award-winning actors and an original music score—recorded in London, England, and on location in C.S. Lewis’ Oxford home. Also included in this package is a new, dramatic reading of Lewis’ Mere Christianity—capturing the clarity, intelligence and wit of Lewis’ words in a way not experienced before.

Forged against the hard realities of war and personal difficulty, Mere Christianity was created to speak to a generation that had lost its faith. Time has not diminished its power. Years later, it still articulates Christian truth with fresh relevancy—and the drama behind the book makes it truly come alive.

Update:

  1. A Biography of a Book: Marsden on C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity.
  2. The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis
  3. Diabolical Ventriloquism: A 1-Sentence Summary of Each of Screwtape’s Letters
  4. Ten Narnia Resources

Related: Other Focus on the Family Radio Theatre stories include these:

  1. Narnia (cf. Ten Narnia Resources)
  2. Amazing Grace: The Inspirational Stories of William Wilberforce, John Newton, and Olaudah Equiano
  3. Anne of Green Gables: An Endearing Story of a Young Girl Whose Spirit Could Never Be Broken
  4. At the Back of the North Wind
  5. Ben Hur: An Epic Tale of Revenge and Redemption
  6. Billy Budd, Sailor: A Classic Tale of Innocence Betrayed on the High Seas; Adapted from the Novel by Herman Melville
  7. Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom; A Man Whose Message Could Not Be Silenced (cf. my thoughts)
  8. A Christmas Carol: By Charles Dickens
  9. Father Gilbert Mysteries: Collector’s Edition; All 9 Father Gilbert Mysteries
  10. The Hiding Place: The Acclaimed Story of Corrie Ten Boom
  11. The Legend of Squanto: An Unknown Hero Who Changed the Course of American History
  12. The Life of Jesus: Dramatic Eyewitness Accounts from the Luke Reports (cf. my thoughts)
  13. Little Women
  14. Les Misérables: Victor Hugo’s Masterpiece
  15. The Screwtape Letters: First Ever Full-cast Dramatization of the Diabolical Classic (cf. my review)
  16. The Secret Garden: Frances Hodgson Burnett; A New Way to Experience the Beloved Classic
  17. Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe; The Transforming Power of a Child’s Love
  18. Traveling Home for Christmas: Four Stories That Journey to the Heart of Christmas (The Shoemaker’s Gift, The Gift of the Maji, Christmas Day at Kirkby Cottage, andChristmas by Injunction)
  19. Oliver Twist

Radio Theatre: The Chronicles of Narnia

by

Over the last several weeks, Jenni and I listened to The Chronicles of Narnia, another first-class presentation by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. Since purchasing the Narnia CDs about one year ago, this was our second time listening to this excellent twenty-two hour production (157 tracks on 19 CDs). (No, we’re not bored. We took some road trips and had some downtime with some illnesses.) It definitely beats TV.

Related:

1. Unabridged Narnia audiobooks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

2. My previous posts on The Life of Jesus: Dramatic Eyewitness Accounts from the Luke Reports and Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom.

3. Kevin Bauder’s series “The Christian and Fantasy Literature” (2005), which I have compiled into a single PDF:

  1. Definitions and Questions
  2. Evaluating Fantastic Writing
  3. Magic in Fantasy
  4. Pilgrim’s Progress
  5. The Lord of the Rings
  6. The Chronicles of Narnia
  7. The Harry Potter Books

Radio Theatre: Bonhoeffer

by

Last weekend Jenni and I listened to Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom, another first-class presentation by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. (Cf. my previous post on The Life of Jesus.) It is moving. It impressed me with how little the contemporary American church knows of persecution and how dispassionate we can be for the gospel. An edifying listen.

Disclaimer: I’m not expert in Dietrich Bonhoeffer‘s theology. I’ve read a lot about him and only a little by him (i.e., his Letters and Papers from Prison, rev. ed., ed. Eberhard Bethge; trans. Reginald Fuller; rev. Frank Clarke and others [New York: Macmillan, 1967]). Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-45) is notoriously difficult to categorize theologically because his writings are sporadic rather than systematic. The work that I read is by far his most influential one (the New Dictionary of Theology calls it “one of the most influential theological documents of the century”), and it has inspired those holding diverse theological viewpoints spanning from conservative evangelicals to “death of God” theologians. The reason so many theologies could claim Bonhoeffer as inspirational is that his letters contain vague, serviceable terminology such as “worldly holiness” (p. 201), “world come of age” (the most frequent such phrase in his letters), and “religionless Christianity” (pp. 152-57, 172, 178-79). Although I do not appreciate Bonhoeffer’s seed theology (i.e., as I now understand it with the relatively little exposure I’ve had), I highly respect him for his courageous martyrdom and events that led to it.

Radio Theatre: The Life of Jesus

by

Yesterday while traveling for most of the day, Jenni and I listened to The Life of Jesus: Dramatic Eyewitness Accounts from the Luke Reports. This is one of many first-class productions by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. These CDs are great long-term investments for your family. Unlike videos, these require (and help develop) a lot of imagination.

The Life of Jesus series is creative and well-done. It’s over eight hours long altogether, and its reconstruction is based on Luke’s Gospel (cf. Luke 1:1-4).

The basic plot is this: Paul is in jail in Rome, and Luke is with him. A Roman senator is sympathetic and asks Luke to travel to Palestine to compile a record of the life of Jesus in order to make the Roman emperor more sympathetic to Paul’s cause so that Paul will be released. This Roman senator’s code name is Theophilus. Luke’s mission is to interview as many primary sources (i.e., people who had direct contact with Jesus) as he can, and his travels are full of action and suspense. (They’re probably over-dramatic and at times pushing the envelope, e.g., Luke casts demons out of a magician, and such like–but I don’t want to spoil the plot by listing much more.) The plot gets a little complicated, especially if you listen to the whole series without much of a break. Overall: creative, stimulating, thought-provoking, enjoyable.