Category Archives: Religion and Philosophy

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Posted on December 8, 2025 by smellincoffee

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader opens with one of my favorite lines from Lewis’s fiction, and repeats that achievement toward its close. “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” Said lad is the … Continue reading →

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Shadowlands: A Play

Posted on November 22, 2025 by smellincoffee

C.S. Lewis died on 11/22/63, a week before his 65th birthday. Over the years, I have taken up the habit of spending “a week with Jack” — reading something of his in that space, to spend time with an author … Continue reading →

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American Orthodox

Posted on September 30, 2025 by smellincoffee

A few months back, I happened to hear one of my favorite Orthodox pieces of music, the Paschal Troparion, put to the tune of an Appalachian folk melody. As it happens, I adore folk music: I spend time actively memorizing … Continue reading →

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Savage Gods

Posted on February 18, 2025 by smellincoffee

Savage Gods is a challenging book to review because of its nature: it is a meditation, or perhaps a rumination, by the author on his continuing search for meaning and the role of writing and the word in that search. … Continue reading →

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My Dear Hemlock

Posted on December 12, 2024 by smellincoffee

During Advent I like to revisit The Screwtape Letters as a devotional exercise, but this year my ladyfriend discovered My Dear Hemlock, a new Screwtape-esque book that focuses on a female “patient”, and follows her from early young adulthood through … Continue reading →

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Living in Wonder

Posted on December 12, 2024 by smellincoffee

“The world is not what you think it is.” Rod Dreher opens Living in Wonder with that line, one that can rattle the reader when it actually begins sinking in throughout the course of this book. I’ve struggled with writing … Continue reading →

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Selections from Living in Wonder

Posted on December 11, 2024 by smellincoffee

Review to follow tomorrow.

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Beauteous Truth

Posted on November 5, 2024 by smellincoffee

I encountered Joseph Pearce over a decade ago via a podcast on literature: he is a man whose life was transformed through literature and the grace he experienced through it. His passion seeking the ‘good, the true, and the beautiful’ … Continue reading →

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The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis

Posted on October 25, 2024 by smellincoffee

Most people encounter C.S. Lewis as a Christian apologist or an author of stories — either the children’s series of Narnia, or his fascinating “space trilogy”, which combined mythology, medieval cosmology, and character drama to good effect. His occupation, though, … Continue reading →

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The Lives of the Stoics

Posted on June 7, 2024 by smellincoffee

Some seventeen years ago I discovered The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and the Discourses and Handbook of Epictetus. Neither men meant to publish these: the first was a private diary that was publically shared after the Emperor’s death, the second … Continue reading →

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