A Warm Welcome

Dear Readers,

Hello, and well met! I do not know what fortune brought us here, but I am pleased to make your acquaintance nonetheless! Allow me to introduce myself. I am the self-styled “Son of the Inklings,” or, “the Quill.” You may call me simply, “Quill.” Let me show you into my study.

Yes, I call this blog a “study.” A study is that little corner in a man’s home where he keeps special collections of favorite books, particularly those that have influenced him greatly. As I invite you to explore my “study,” I invite you to take part in those great works of literature that have influenced my own life so much. A study is a place where a man keeps his primary writings: books, articles, journals, letters, as well as hundreds of pages of incomplete drafts and discarded ideas.

And what of the room itself? The smell of old books and pipe smoke, blots of ink on an untidy desk, lamps that rarely turned off. The crockery from afternoon tea sits idle well past dinner, it is time now to open the whiskey drawer. It is in a man’s study that one can truly understand a man, because here he has no need to bridle his thoughts. Here he is free.

And in that spirit, I invite you to my study. Oh, there are greater restrictions that this online format present, and as we do not yet know one another, I will forgo showing completely “unbridled thoughts.” But inasmuch as this format allows me to express my beliefs, introduce others to the authors whose works have guided me, and most importantly, to expose my readers to the sheer beauty and power of the written word, I invite you all to my imperfect, online “study.”

You may have noted the peculiar name “Son of the Inklings.” Earlier, I made mention of wanting to introduce you to the authors who have had a profound impact on me. “The Inklings,” as they called themselves, were a collection of modern England’s finest and most influential writers. Devout Christians, their ranks included J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, C.S. Lewis, Roger Lancelyn Green, and Charles Williams, to name only a small number. They were convinced that old tales and ancient myths could serve to reinvigorate the modern imagination so as to re-inspire an increasingly atheistic world to the truth of Jesus Christ.

For indeed His story is rather myth-like. A dying and resurrected God, come to save the world from its sins? When Lewis was still an atheist himself, Tolkien explained that with all other myths, we are moved by heroic stories and self-sacrifice, but we know they are not real. And that is precisely the opposite with the Gospel: it actually happened. Jesus Christ was, and is, a man. Who lived with and was killed by other men. And who is testified by many of his contemporaries to have risen once more, that we may be free of sin and death and devil.

May it be said that I am soberly aware of my own limitations. I am no expert or authority on the matters of Christ. I’m not even an authority of on other matters of this blog: history, English, and literature. I enjoy learning and discussing all of these but I am still learning. I am not an expert. I write and read and think very often. I hope that this platform gives me an outlet to continue to do all of those things, learning and growing with others who learn and grow.

If you find that you enjoy this blog, I want to say first and foremost: I am not the professor. I’m just one of your fellow classmates trying to create a decent study guide for the next exam. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, sometimes it is better for students to learn with other students, because the we know what is puzzling us. Occasionally, the professor misses the question because he is too far removed from it that he can’t answer. And it is for this reason that I have created this blog.

I remain yours most respectfully,

The Quill