Asbury professor teaches seminar at The Kilns
WILMORE, KY—Dr. Devin Brown recently served as the Scholar-in-Residence for a weeklong Summer Seminar at The Kilns, C.S. Lewis’s home just outside of Oxford, England. The seminar was put on by the C.S. Lewis Foundation, which purchased The Kilns in 1984 and has restored it to its 1930s appearance.
The seminar was composed of fourteen participants from all walks of life who came to live and study in Lewis’s home. In addition to the daily classes which were taught by Dr. Brown in The Kilns’ library, the group was able to tour Lewis’s college, worship at the church he attended, and eat at The Eagle and Child—the pub which hosted the weekly meetings of the Inklings, the writing group composed of Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and their friends.
Lewis moved into The Kilns in 1930 and lived there until his death in 1963. It was the first and the only
home he owned.
In addition to being able to visit the Oxford sites associated with Lewis, the group also traveled to Cambridge for a day, where Lewis was made Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English for the final years of his teaching career.
One of the special highlights for this summer’s seminar was going to Oxford’s Odeon Theater to see the film adaptation of Prince Caspian, which had opened in Britain just weeks earlier. Dr. Brown commented, “Going to sleep in the house where Lewis had written all seven of The Chronicles of Narnia felt extra special that night.”
About the experience Dr. Brown said, “Staying at The Kilns was a dream come true for me. There is a genuine feeling of Lewis that lives on in each of the rooms and in the lovely garden and grounds as well.”
Released: Aug. 13, 2008
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