The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the Moral Imagination
John J. Miller of National Review and Gregg Easterbrook, author of The Progress Paradox, explore the controversy over the new film version of C.S. Lewis's classic children's story.
How should children's imaginations be enlivened and enriched? Does Lewis's story excite children about the moral adventure of human life, or does it indoctrinate them with primitive concepts? What challenges do Narnian symbols present? What lessons lie in the box-office success of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
- John J. Miller is National Review magazine's National Political Reporter, based in Washington, D.C.
Miller is the co-author Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France and author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.
In addition to National Review, Miller writes frequently for a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, The New Republic, Boston Globe, New York Post, and the New Criterion. He is a contributing editor to Philanthropy and the author of a Philanthropy Roundtable monograph, Strategic Investment in Ideas: How Two Foundations Reshaped America.
- Gregg Easterbrook is a senior editor for The New Republic specializing in public policy issues.
A graduate of Colorado College in 1976, Easterbrook earned his master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1977 and quickly gained a national reputation. Easterbrook was recently named a distinguished fellow at the fiftieth anniversary of the Fulbright Foundation. He also received the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for a story on the national energy supply, and is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek and The Washington Monthly. Additionally, he is a contributing editor for Atlantic Monthly. His books include The Progress Paradox, A Moment on the Earth, and Beside Still Waters.
EVENT AUDIO: MP3 format, 12 megabytes, 69 minutes