Saturday, January 4, 2014

An Introduction to Owen Barfield

Whether you are considering politics, culture or theology, occasionally there comes along a thinker whose work has the potential to radically rearrange all of your own thinking on every major subject in which you spend time.  Over the last year, I have been discovering with a great amount of enjoyment, that Owen Barfield (1898-1997) is such a thinker.

Philosopher, philologist, lawyer, theologian, author, poet - Barfield was one of the Inklings drinking companions along with C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Warren Lewis, Adam Fox, Hugo Dyson and Roger Lancelyn Green.  Along with Tolkien, Barfield knew Lewis when he was still an atheist and it was Lewis’s conversations with Barfield that helped lead him to Christianity.

As I continue to write, the influence of Barfield’s thinking will begin to appear in my own thought.  But, for now, I can heartily and happily recommend an introductory talk on Barfield for the reader who is unfamiliar with him by modern day poet, Malcolm Guite.  Enjoy.