Shadowlands Dispatch

“Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator.” C.S. Lewis, “Miracles” Shadowlands Science Selections is a column of resources and recommendations from the writing team at Shadowlands Dispatch dedicated to science and technology. This month, we share resources exploring the capabilities of LLMs and LRMs, asking whether AI’s rapid breakthroughs in theorem proving will ultimately put mathematicians out of work.

For this month’s “Original Essay,” Annie Crawford offers an insightful review of the fantasy novel “Travel By Star” by Paul Scott Grill. This piece speaks not only to readers but to writers as well, as she explores what makes for good storytelling, especially within a culture that’s slowly waking up from a long spell of disenchantment. “Travel of the Ruelands has sworn he will never make another run through the wilds.

Annie Crawford is a cultural apologist, a teacher, and the Director of the C.S. Lewis Studies Certificate for the Logres Institute. Below is her interview discussing why C.S. Lewis serves as our modern "British Boethius” and her new eight-course program in Lewis studies. She shares details on enrollment opening now for classes beginning the week of October 5. Images from C.S. Lewis’s own collection of annotated works, courtesy of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Rare Book Collection.

In this month’s “Field Notes”, Rebekah Valerius explores the original definition of “amateur” through the lens of G.K. Chesterton, the BBC series “Detectorists”, and professional philosopher Zena Hitz. She argues that pursuing something simply for the love of it—without hope of fame, money, or even respect—is today a vital act of cultural disobedience. Scene from Detectorists (Series 3, Episode 6), BBC Four, October 2014-2017.

In this series, Joel Park engages C.S. Lewis’s distinction between ‘looking at’ and ‘looking along’ to reconsider the standard apologetic approach that is solely analytical. In the first installment, Park argued that while this kind of defense is an important component of the task, it is insufficient on its own. In this second installment, he argues that to achieve a truly ‘inhabited’ apologetics, we must also encourage imaginative engagement. Part One: Inhabited Apologetics can be read here.

In this series, Joel Park engages C.S. Lewis’s distinction between ‘looking at’ and ‘looking along’ to reconsider the standard apologetic approach that is solely analytical and argumentative. In the first installment, Park argues that while this kind of defense is an important component of the task, it is insufficient on its own.

In the following review, Megan Rials explores Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation of “The Odyssey”, examining how the director weaves classical Greek tragedy with Christian theology to explore memory, guilt, and ending the cycles of vengeance. Drawing striking parallels to C.S. Lewis’s “Till We Have Faces”, she argues that Nolan’s adaptation powerfully depicts the idea that remembering is the start of redemption, both for the individual and society.

“Field Notes from the Shadowlands” is a monthly column from the Shadowlands Dispatch writing team. This month, Rebekah Valerius reflects on the inevitable gap between our intellectual convictions and our day-to-day experience of resting in these convictions amid great suffering and loss. “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.

Shadowlands Selections is a monthly column of recommendations from the editorial team at Shadowlands Dispatch (Dr. Melissa Cain Travis, Dr. Julie Miller, and Rebekah Valerius). This column is reserved for paid subscribers of Shadowlands Dispatch. If you’d like to receive “Shadowland Selections” every month and support our work, click below to become a paid subscriber today!

“Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator.” C.S. Lewis, “Miracles” Shadowlands Science Selections is a column of resources and recommendations from the writing team at Shadowlands Dispatch that is specifically concerned with science and technology. This month, we are focusing on recent developments in AI and resources that can help you navigate claims about its similarity to human cognition and consciousness.