Open Thread: Bright Lights Under the Shadow of the Hideous Strength

Orthospherean Dale Nelson commented on my recent post about That Hideous Strength:

Interested readers can find my old commentary on That Hideous Strength [at Bruce Charlton’s Notion Club Papers, Bright Lights Under the Shadow of the Hideous Strength: The St. Anne’s Household — and Our Own Households.] Printed, it runs to about 60 pages including its appendices. It could use some revision but I think there is a lot of good material in it. It was originally prepared as a paper for a Christian retreat in rural Wisconsin. If anyone reads it and would like to discuss it, could The Orthosphere host that discussion?

That Hideous Strength is indeed an inspiring work, and my paper provides some leads for further reading.

Dale added:

By the way, the “bright lights” in my title “Bright Lights Under the Shadow of the Hideous Strength” alludes to something said by Brother Herman, colleague of Seraphim Rose and co-founder of the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. Br. Herman was quoted in an interview that relates to the dark time in which we live. The paper relates to some of the ways that Lewis’s rich and entertaining novel can help us to think and to nurture right sentiment, for ourselves and our families, in a time such as this. I hoped the paper would start good discussions at the retreat, about a dozen years ago, to which I referred. (I wasn’t there to deliver it. As I recall, the moderator was Angus Menuge, who is a professor of philosophy at an orthodox Christian college, Concordia University Wisconsin [LCMS].) Perhaps it will do so here.

I read Dale’s paper when it was first posted to the Notion Club Papers, and found it tremendously edifying. We are pleased to offer it here as a subject of general discussion.