S8E35 – Perelandra – “Season Finale”

It’s time to say our goodbyes until October when we begin Season 9 and “The Abolition of Man!“

S8E35: “Season Finale”, Season 8 Wrap-up (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

Quote-of-the-Week

“What made you laugh?” asked Ransom, finding her question too hard.
“I laughed, Piebald, because… you had nothing to say about it and yet made the nothing up into words.”

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Six

Chit Chat

• Matt’s wife is starting a new job, and the last few weeks crossing t’s and dotting i’s have been stressful, but they’ve just about made it through. Andrew is in the same boat, and is in the last stages of onboarding before his move in mid July.
• David just redid his driveway, and insists that everyone admire the freshly-poured concrete as they drive past. Other than that, he has been in full preparation for the birth of his son, and for the arrival of his mother, who will be staying with them to help out.
• David is also continuing his Latin Duolingo streak (over 100 days, and about a year left to go). For anyone who is interested in learning Latin, he recently came across an app called Legentibus, which he highly recommends for its immersive storytelling teaching method.
• Keep an eye out for new Half Pint episodes, featuring authors, podcasters, and interesting Lewis content, as always. These interviews will be published throughout the summer to tide listeners over until the next season begins in October.
• Andrew suggested having people from the Mythopoeic Society on in future half pint episodes. They discuss fantasy literature and hold conferences promoting it.

Toast

• Andrew had his San Antonio Blend coffee in his Nashville mug.
• Matt drank a can of NA beer from Athletic Brewing Company out of a PWJ pilsner glass.
• David also had Athletic Brewing – “Sunset Stoke” – out of a brand new stein glass.

• A toast to Mary Margaret and her new job. May the Lord use her as His instrument to impact the world for the better.

Discussion

01. “Thoughts on Season Eight”

Q. Any opening thoughts on this past season?

• Everyone found “Perelandra” to be a beautiful and insightful read that deserves much more recognition than it currently has. It’s made them excited for next season, though there is a bit of a gap between.
• It’s especially paining David to have to end the season a month early and miss the month dedicated to an Inkling. But there have been many fun events that they reflected on, including C. S. Lewis Reading Day (East Coast and West Coast).

02. “Reviews”

Q. Let’s move on to reading some reviews!

• Andrew, Matt, and David read off some of the top reviews from the season’s episodes:

Top notch podcast for Lewis fans

Listener guy1212

This is my favorite podcast! i look forward to every episode! Im with Andrew, Til We Have Faces is Lewis’s best book and my favorite book of all time thank to you guys for introducing it to me. I never would have found it or loved it without you. It is now in my yearly rotation of rereads. Seriously love you all, God Bless!

MeganMWarr

• Listen to our primer on “Till We Have Faces” if you are interested in hearing a good-natured discussion on the book.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to discover C.S. Lewis until my late 20s when I discovered Narnia. Since then, I’ve read the major books and hope to dive into the lesser known works. I was also late to the wonderful world of podcasts but since I came across this one (I think from a reference on the Great Books podcast), I’ve been listening to the extensive episode list. I’m really loving the Perelandra episodes. Oh, and my fellow GenXer, Andrew, is correct about Lewis’s best book!

Pswap57

• If you’re interested in lesser-known Lewis books, check out the Lesser-Known Lewis podcast.

Far and away my favorite podcast

Archvk

This is a very enjoyable and informative podcast. Oh, and the one host is really great!

Williams_79

Found this podcast a few years ago when searching for a CS Lewis podcast. This is by far my favorite. The conversation is a great balance of casual and intellectual.

0101010000101110

Deep discussions of books by Lewis, great interviews with Lewis scholars and authors, with humor and some fun added to the mix. I don’t listen to many podcasts, but I love this one. Many thanks to Matt, David and Andrew!

Mossy & Tangle

• Fun fact: Mossy and Tangle are two characters from “The Golden Key” by George MacDonald.

Pints With Jack has consistently been one of my favorite podcasts for several years, ever since I first listened. It’s not merely a C.S. Lewis podcast – though it is unquestionably excellent in that respect. Listening to the discussions of C.S. Lewis’ works and wisdom has been an encouragement to my faith as well. Thanks David, Matt, and Andrew for all the hard work and time you put into this podcast, and I look forward to enjoying many more seasons!

Weihnachtslilie

I’ve long read CS Lewis discovering him as an adult coming back into faith in college. THis year (2025) I decided to read through Lewis’s bibliography and found this podcast to follow along with the books (so far Out of the Silent Planet and Mere Christianity). It’s been a joy to listen to these conversations and deep dives chapter by chapter! Looking forward to catching up!

theimagebearer

• They discussed future books to read on air out of Lewis’ corpus, as well as different formats for the show, including separate streams for each book.

Yesterday I was young. Through these conversations and meditations about Pealandria Maledil, (Blessed be He), has made this Thulcandrian a little older. Thank you for guiding me to this well, with its delightfully sweet waters, where I have received a taste/glimpse of Beauty that can make me older still. I thank Maledil, (Blessed be He), for this gift!

S_josef

• David pulled a comment from Spotify as well:

Pints with Jack is completely enjoyable. Filled with light hearted yet often deep thought provoking conversations, it’s a fantastic mix of friendly interaction, spiritual conversation and scholarly ideas. I think Lewis would have loved it. Great job David, Matt and Andrew.

anndebellis-us

• Say nice things about us and you too might be read out on a season finale!

03. “The Shape of Next Season”

Q. The question our listeners truly care about is… what is next season going to look like?

• We won’t begin Season Nine until October. However, though there won’t be anything on our audio feed for some time, you can find several Half Pint episodes on our YouTube channel. 
• As you know, we like to mix up our literary genres each season. We’re going to switch from the fantasy of “Perelandra” to Lewis’ short philosophical book defending objective value, that thorny, difficult, and very relevant work, “The Abolition of Man”. 
• It’s pretty short – about one hundred pages made up of three chapters. It’s quite a dense work, so we’ll probably dedicate about three episodes per chapter. This will set us up perfectly for Season Ten when we return to the Ransom Trilogy and read “That Hideous Strength” which works out many of the ideas we’ll encounter in Abolition.
• We will be having a Charles Williams month near the end of the season, and will be taking a peek at “The Place of the Lion”.
• In November we’ll be celebrating #CSLewisReadingDay again with some Inklings scholars and other podcasters. Last year we looked at Lewis and Friendship, so who knows? Maybe this year we’ll look at one of the other loves…
• We will move onward through the Narnian adaptations next season, looking at the 1988 BBC version of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”. You’re going to love it, Matt…
• While we’re discussing movies, it’s just been announced that the Fellowship for Performing Arts is going to be creating a cinematic version of “The Screwtape Letters”.
• We’ll continue to browse through Jack’s bookshelf next year too, finally exploring Beowulf and the great St. Augustine of Hippo…

04. “Drink With Us!”

Q. How does one get a hold of these magnificent drinking glasses?

• Those on our Slack or social media channels will know this, but we’ve got a number of drinking receptacles in production at the moment… Stoneware mugs, imperial pint glasses… David will be sending them out in about a month to our top tier supporters and offering them at-cost to everyone else.

05. “Messages”

Q. This season we’ve had some great messages and discussions on Slack…

• One listener asked how to send in an email. You may send us emails at Pints with Jack to fill out a form.
• We received lots of nice messages after giving away over 20 Inklings books to newsletter subscribers. This will happen from time to time, so if you want a chance to win, please consider subscribing!
• Our first message comes from Cosette:

Hello, I’m a listener of your podcast and I love it. I’m really enjoying and being very encouraged by the season on Perelandra right now. I had a funny moment this morning that really shows how much your show has been rubbing off on me, when I was attending church, and my pastor was talking about how some people can be too possessive over other people, and the natural place my mind went was to Orual. It was just a little thing that made me laugh, because without the repeated references to Till We Have Faces in Pints With Jack, I’m not sre I would have thought that at first. Thanks for the podcast! Each new episode is the highlight of my week, and I absolutely can’t wait till your season on Surprised by Joy, my favorite non-fiction Lewis book.

Cosette

• We will be doing “Surprised by Joy” soon, but we are waiting until the annotated edition is out so that the research is easier.
• We also had another email from Christopher…

Gentleman all from a fellow Thulcandrian,

First off I cannot believe I have only just discovered your podcast. I have been a dual citizen of Narnia and Middle Earth for the better part of my 42 years. I started your podcast in the middle of season 8 and then went back to hear each of the initial episodes starting with chapter 1 of Perelandra. I have thoroughly enjoyed each of your keen insights into this amazing book. I have also followed up on each of the after hours episodes.
As my email address suggests, I am an ordained priest who also happens to be disabled. I am blind with minimal use of my hands. As such, I am having my best friend, Patrick transcribe this email on my behalf. In any case, I wanted to thank each of you, Andrew, David, and Matt for the ministry your podcast has been to me so far. Rest assured, I am looking forward to when you jump into That Hideous Strength in season 10 as that is my favorite book in the Ransom trilogy. I am hoping to become a Patreon supporter in my wife will consent to it in the near future. In the meantime, if any of you care to find me on social media, I am @thedisabledpriest on Instagram.

Grace and peace to you all and thank you all again for your amazing work on CS Lewis.

Christopher Stewart

• One more message from our listener Steve:

On my way to and from Mass this morning I listened to your discussion of Perelandra including the painful to read frog massacre. As always, I loved hearing the three of you tease out all the details that I miss.
The new January Magnificat includes pictures of the Hieronymus Bosch painting The Adoration of the Magi. This richly symbolic picture has a barely recognizable detail that the commentary explains as “Bosch sets the golden statue firmly atop three half-squashed frogs that are barely visible poking out from its base, representing the grotesque foolishness of evil, thoroughly defeated by Jesus’ triumph on the cross.” I can’t help but pass this on to you guys.

Steve Clancy

06. “Nice Things”

Q. Now for a few more kind comments and messages…

• Matt read a comment attached to his interview with Sr. Miriam James, which was recorded a few years ago:

This is amazing! I cannot tell you how much this conversation has helped me. Well, maybe I can because I hear that you have been on your own journey, so I’m sure you know the pain of searching for relief from the pain of not really knowing that I am a child of God ❤️

donaldkeith139 on YouTube

• And now for a Christmas message:

Merry Christmas 🎄
I really enjoy listening to your podcasts. When I go to our library I am able to download your programs to my mp3 through podbean. I gave up my TV in 1992 and love reading and listening to about 20 different podcasts. Yours is at the top of my favorites.

Alan McArdle from Grove, Oklahoma

07. “To Do’s”

Q. We also had some listeners write in with some requests about future content.

• Jason wrote in about a poll about the best Lewis book.

Hello! I’m a more recent listener who found this podcast through The C.S. Lewis Podcast with Alister McGrath. I recently heard that you might do a poll among listeners about whether TGD or TWHF is their favorite fo Lewis’s works. I have to vote for TGD. I’ve read it many times, it always speaks deeply to me, and I’ve even seen it performed as a one-man play, which was incredible. With that said, I have to admit that my vote might not count as much among Lewis fans, because I also have a deep love and respect for Pilgrims Regress, which seems to be a very unpopular opinion. That, along with my extreme dislike of any alcoholic beverage, might cause you to question my tastes (although I do love a good cup of tea).

Thank you all so much for all you do!

Jason Stanley

• There are many people who do love “The Pilgrim’s Regress”, although it’s a bit of a different opinion. And to address the rumor you heard, we will be doing a vote, and hopefully that will encompass most of the TGD vs. TWHF debate for Season Nine.
• We also had an email from Miriam Ellis:

My name is Miriam Ellis and I am an artist living in California. I first heard of Pints with Jack as a result of Alan and Shaun from the Prancing Pony Podcast being invited as guests to your podcast. I recently began listening to Season 1 of your show in earnest and am truly enjoying it as part of the ecumenical flowering we are all witnessing of Lewis and Tolkien fans, Anglicans and Catholics, coming together to share our love of both authors. Like Deacon Lazo, my father is a Catholic Deacon (now retired) who raised me on Tolkien, and I will have an art book coming out this year called “The Art of Mercy in Middle-earth,” being brought out by the eminent Tolkien’s scholar Professor Tom Shippey’s publishing house, Uppsala Books.
I am writing today just to thank you and encourage you in your work on the podcast, and because I thought you might enjoy seeing one of hte paintings in my upcoming book. The painting is called “Tolkien and Lewis, Addison’s Walk, 1931”. It has received kind private praise in the Lewis community, including from the wonderful Anglican scholar N.T. Wright and some of the lovely people incolved with the production of the outstanding film, The Most Reluctant Convert. I painted it as my Lenten devotion last year, and thought your team might just find a little joy in it. You can see it here on my site: https://www.miriamellis.com/product-page/tolkien-and-lewis-addison-s-walk-1931-tolkien-art-print
In the painting, Tolkien’s match is a token of the sub-created Holy Spirit in his legendarium (that which he called The Secret Fire) and Lewis’ Narnian lamppost beckons in the distance on Magdalen Bridge. I wanted not only to pay tribute to the importance of this night in Lewis’ conversion story, but also to show hot these gentlemen had been willing to cross a bridge over the serious Anglican-Catholic divide of their day to befriend one another. It seems to me that, nearly a century later, new fruits are still being bourne of their friendship, with Christians of many denominations coming together on stages, podcasts, YouTube channels and more to share their love of both authors. I hope you may find encouragement in the picture to keep up the important work you are doig, and thank you for the new enjoyment I am experiencing from Pints with Jack.

Miriam Ellis

• Check out more of Miriam’s art at her website. Needless to say, she will be a Half Pint guest soon!
• We also had another message from a listener who found deep consolation in “Perelandra” after experiencing her own tragedies.

I’ve been reading Lewis since my own awaking as a Believer at age 14-15 in Hollywood, where a coffee house & street ministry called the Salt Company was active in the late ’60’s, I’d grown up staring at my parents science fiction bookcase filled with the paperback 1st editions of every mid-century author including Lewis’ Space Trilogy and The Screwtape Letters and I soon followed with Till We Have Faces, then at last Narnia and The Great Divorce. All these I devoured before I was 17, but Lewis has shaped literally the Lion’s share of my understanding of how my own actions and choices ripple forward throughout my years here into everything still to come. This book is the one I most often quote in explaining so much of my own life’s “tragedies” and God’s grace and love forever leading further up and further in. (And I write this at age 71, having just buried my 35 year old son after his sudden unexpected or explained death!) It’s been another chance to share with so many the fact that the Best of Danny’s real life and journey are only now beginning and this book is a great help in illustrating my words.

martharisingrosson7926

• Our condolences for your son, Martha. But how wonderful it is that you are using this tragedy to spread the message of God’s goodness and love, and the journey that we make after parting from this life.

08. “Matt Bush Bingo”

• There’s many more things that we could talk about. If you would like to participate in some of our conversations, consider becoming a Patreon member to access our Slack channel and join our merry band!
• While discussing gifts, guests, and merchandise, David pulled out a PWJ bingo card of “Matt-isms” for listeners to check off while listening to podcast episodes. Perhaps you’ll find a bingo card section in our newsletter, so listeners can make one for each of us.

Wrap Up

Concluding Thoughts

• Happy anniversary to Angelina Stanford and the Mysterious Mr. Banks from The Literary Life Podcast (as of the day of this recording)!
• Please pray for Andrew as he and his wife pack up every book they own and move for his new job.
• Lots of events on the horizon. In early fall, there will be the annual C. S. Lewis Festival held September 19-21, which David and Andrew will be attending.
• The Inklings Project has an open application for fellowships, available now.
• France is beginning to catch on to Jack, as the University of Picardie Jules Verne will host a C. S. Lewis conference next year in June, called “War, Fellowship, and Survival in the Lives and Works of C.S. Lewis and Kindred Spirits”.
• Houston Christian University is going to be hosting an event in October called “C. S. Lewis Reason and Imagination”, with many Lewis scholars speaking. They are currently accepting papers.

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