Past Sessions

An Inklings Son Remmebers

I am Robert “Humphrey” Havard’s second son, Mark and I was born in Oxford in 1935. While I was still a teenager, I would sometimes be invited to accompany my father to an Inkling informal Tuesday morning get-together at the Eagle and Child pub or at Studley Priory. Professor Tolkien lived on our street and was a neighbor. My younger sister and I were on one occasion asked by the Lewis brothers to stay at the Kilns for a few days to take care of it and provide care for Mr Paxford who was suffering from flu at that time. The Lewises were taking a short trip to Ireland.. All this must have taken place between 1950 and 1953 because I left home in 1953, immediately after being graduated from high school and entered a Benedictine monastery.
I was given the religious name of Colin. I went up to Oxford as a monk and obtained an MA in Modern History there. In 1964 I was sent to the United States to supplement the community at what is now St Louis Abbey. Ten year’s later I asked to be dispensed from my vows and the priesthood and moved to New York City.  During the 14 years I was there, I married my wife, became the father of two sons, and entered a second career as a computer consultant. We returned to St Louis in 1988 and have lived and worked here since then. I am now retired and am fortunate to have my two sons still living here. Our one grandson brings us great joy. I go by Colin rather than Mark except in my immediate family.

Professor Emeritus ICC

Interviewer for An Inkling’s Son Remembers

Professor Mike Foster has served as the North American representative of the Tolkien Society (Great Britain) since 1995. He has been a member of the Mythopoeic Society scholarship awards committee for Inklings scholarship and fantasy scholarship since 2000. He has presented and subsequently published papers at a wide variety of conferences in the United States, Canada, and England, and has been featured in interviews on Tolkien on ABC-TV World News Tonight and in magazine and newspaper articles published around the world, including the Chicago Tribune, Manchester Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Der Stern, The Prairie Sun, the Peoria Journal Star, and others syndicated and published throughout the United States and abroad. Foster retired from Illinois Central College in East Peoria in 2005. While there he taught classes in Tolkien. Mike also has quite a large number of publications, including “Teaching Tolkien,” published in The Lord of the Rings: 1954-2004 , “An Unexpected Party: Tolkien in the 1960’s” which was published in The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia in 2006, and quite a few reviews and essays in Mythlore: A Journal of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature.

Pastor, Cornerstone Church and Librarian, Urbana Free Library

When the Road Darkens

In this talk Seth Kerlin (MDiv, Regent College) will be discussing the importance of suffering and journey in Tolkien, in particular how it relates to a life of discipleship with Christ.  In Tolkien’s world safety and comfort are seen as soporific at best, with risk-taking and subsequent suffering seen as necessary building blocks of spiritual maturation.  Likewise, in His teachings and through His own life Jesus exhibits the necessity of suffering for any who would count themselves His disciples.  To travel a spiritual journey means to engage evil directly and as such we who follow Christ all find ourselves in some fashion at the gates of Mordor.  In this way we leave the world of perpetual childhood (the Shire) and become wounded warriors of compassion and insight (Bilbo, Frodo) who need divine healing to finish their journey to complete wholeness.

Artist; Professor at Illinois State University

Will Coats is an artist who is a long term resident of Middle Earth. He has enjoyed a career creating images in the prosaic world of corporate clients, but wants to move into story illustration, and has recently returned to his roots in the Misty Mountains to ply his trade, creating drawings and paintings of our friends of the pages.  He would like to share these, the first fruits of his work, by describing processes and motivations with passion and pictures.  Galadriel to his Celeborn, Karen Coats teaches English at Illinois State University. The author of Looking Glasses and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire, and Subjectivity in Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature and the Developing Reader, and the forthcoming Bloomsbury Introduction to Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Karen is an internationally recognized scholar and all around sage with a beautiful voice.  Karen will read the passages from the book and add commentary.

Director, Ithaka Fellowship

Technology, Goodness, and Beauty in Tolkien’s Middle-earth

Duane is an ordained minister, farmer, and the founding president of Ithaka Fellowship – The Agrarian Center for Christian Growth and Study. Duane received a BS in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois, Master of Divinity and Masters in Counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, MO, and is presently working towards a doctorate in creation care and spiritual formation. Duane and his wife, Julie, live on a farm with their six children near Bloomington, Illinois. Presentation topic: What are the subtle rhythms and virtues expressed in Tolkien’s Middle-earth that create beauty, goodness, and rest in the mind of the reader? Can and should locality, roads, homes, and technology contribute to our wellbeing as a people today? And if so, how is the tension with technology and technique harmonized with the Christian virtues of gratitude and humility in Tolkien’s sapiential imagination? In this talk, Duane contends for technologically advanced medievalism of sorts, a way of life that can be lived either in the city or country, with all the fruits of modernity coexisting with robust Christian values, that is able to keep one’s soul close to God, others, and the land.

Memories, Mugs and Movies: How Iconic Tolkien Moments Transcend Their Initial Context

“Deb works as a copy writer for Trend Setters, Ltd. a woman- owned- and- operated manufacturer located in Tremont, IL. Trend Setters works with major motion picture studios, comic and book publishers to build exciting products for discerning collectors. Deb now gets paid to research and write about (among other things) Tolkien, and is still a bit giddy over it.

Keynote Speaker

Tolkien’s Theory of Myth

Charlie W. Starr teaches English, Humanities, and Film at Kentucky Christian University in Eastern Kentucky. He teaches, writes and lectures on C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and has published five books: two biblical studies, a children’s fantasy, a work on C. S. Lewis entitled Light: C. S. Lewis’s First and Final Short Story, which has released a never before published C. S. Lewis manuscript, and most recently a science fiction novel called The Heart of Light. Charlie enjoys caving, writing, reading, watching lousy television, and movies of every kind. His areas of expertise as a teacher include literature, film, and all things C. S. Lewis. Charlie and his wife Becky, have two mostly grown-up children, Bryan and Alathia, and a five pound family dog named Phydeaux.

Baptist Student Foundation at the University of Illinois

Good Dog: Tolkien’s Voice in Roverrandom

Rick D. Williams has been working with Christian students in educational settings for nearly 20 years. Following a 15-year career in teaching and administration at Judah Christian High School in Champaign, Illinois, Mr. Williams moved in 2011 to a new position as Housing Minister for the Baptist Student Foundation at the University of Illinois. There he oversees residential life and operations for three Christian cooperative residences which serve over 80 undergraduate and graduate students. He also serves as campus advisor for Veritas Forum at the University of Illinois.

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Dean, Urbana Theological Seminary

The Riddle of Strider, the Riddle of Us

Dr. Melody Green is the Dean of Urbana Theological Seminary, where she teaches classes on Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and topics such as Christianity and Doctor Who. Prior to this, she taught at multiple institutions of higher education, all over the state of Illinois. Dr. Green publishes articles, essays and book reviews on Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, and the TV series Doctor Who. A few examples of her publications include “Scapegoating and Collective Violence in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” in New Casebooks: C. S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia published by Palgrave Macmillian in 2012 and “Story: The Doctor’s Daughter” in Bigger on the Inside: Christianity and Doctor Who published by Square Halo Press in March of 2015. Dr. Green earned her Ph.D. in English Studies with a specialization in literature for children and adolescents from Illinois State University.

Tolkien’s First and Last Tales: Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wooton Major

Professor Mike Foster has served as the North American representative of the Tolkien Society (Great Britain) since 1995. He has been a member of the Mythopoeic Society scholarship awards committee for Inklings scholarship and fantasy scholarship since 2000.
He has presented and subsequently published papers at a wide variety of conferences in the United States, Canada, and England, and has been featured in interviews on Tolkien on ABC-TV World News Tonight and in magazine and newspaper articles published around the world, including the Chicago Tribune, Manchester Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Der Stern, The Prairie Sun, the Peoria Journal Star, and others syndicated and published throughout the United States and abroad.

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Lecturer at Lincoln Christian University

Tolkien’s Artistic Souls: The Hobbit’s Intertwining of Aesthetics and Spirituality

Dr. Billie Jarvis-Freeman is a lecturer of Literature and Humanities at Lincoln Christian University, in Lincoln Illinois, where she teaches a wide variety of literature courses. Her scholarly interests include contemporary adolescent literature, the Inklings, the Victorian fairytale, and religious and spirituality intertextuality found within all literature.

Illustrator

Fanning the Secret Fire: Sub-Creation as a Spiritual Voyage

Jef Murray (www.JefMurray.com) is an internationally known artist, author, and illustrator. His paintings, sketches, and writings appear in fantasy publications and cultural journals  (Amon Hen, Mallorn, Beyond Bree, Silver Leaves, Mythprints, The St. Austin Review, Gilbert Magazine, The Georgia Bulletin) worldwide. His artwork has been featured in calendars, on websites (e.g. The Middle-earth Network, NarniaFans.com) in video courses and television specials on J.R.R. Tolkien, and in logo and book cover designs for corporate, nonprofit, educational, and entertainment clients. He is artist-in-residence for the St. Ausin Review (StAR), a founding member of The Middle-earth Network (legendarium.mymiddleearth.com), and is a regular speaker and presenter at fantasy and sci-fi themed events on the topics of fantasy art, storytelling, and the spiritual dimensions of art and illustration.

Jef’s book illustrations have appeared in The Magic Ring: Deluxe Illustrated Edition by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque, Black & White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien by Hilary A. R. Tolkien, and most recently in Seer: A Wizard’s Journal, a collection of stories, poems, and essays written by the artist and offered by Oloris Publishing.

Jef resides in Decatur, Georgia, USA, with his wife, author and columnist Lorraine V. Murray (www.LorraineVMurray.com) and Hamster-in-Residence Ignatius. He is also employed by the Candler School of Theology of Emory University, Atlanta, GA.

St John's Catholic Newman Center

Steward of All Worthy Things: Leadership Lessons from Gandalf

Undergrad at Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio) — BA Philosophy; Seminary: Kenrick-Glennon, St Louis.  Ordained 1999. Served at St Philomena’s (Peoria); Peoria Notre Dame High School (chaplain and theology teacher); St Mark’s (Peoria); and St John’s Catholic Newman Center (2011-present). I started a class on Tolkien at Notre Dame High School and taught it for eight years. In 2004 I participated in Tolkien Conference at Marquette University, celebrating 50 years of publication of the Lord of the Rings.  I was a panelist for a session on teaching Tolkien to secondary education students.

Urbana Theological Seminary

Carrying on the Story: J. R. R. Tolkien as a Fictional Character

Dr. Green earned her Ph.D. in English Studies from Illinois State University. She has taught a course on Tolkien at Urbana Theological Seminary, and has presented on Tolkien at various conferences, including Mythcon, the annual conference of the Mythopoeic Society, and The Ring Goes Ever On, the International Tolkien Society’s conference celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the publication of the Lord of the Rings which was held in Birmingham, England.  She has also published articles on Tolkien, Lewis and the other Inklings.

Baptist Student Foundation at the University of Illinois

Hwaet! Considerations on Tolkien as a Teacher

Rick D. Williams has been working with Christian students in educational settings for nearly 20 years.  Following a 15-year career in teaching and administration at Judah Christian High School in Champaign, Illinois, Mr. Williams moved in 2011 to a new position as Housing Minister for the Baptist Student Foundation at the University of Illinois.  There he oversees residential life and operations for three Christian cooperative residences which serve over 80 undergraduate and graduate students.

Mr. Williams holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Illinois State University and has done additional graduate studies at Lincoln Christian Seminary and Urbana Theological Seminary.  His teaching experience includes college and high school courses in History, Civics, and Classics, and he continues to teach a highly-regarded Worldviews class for high school seniors.  In addition to teaching, administration, and campus ministry, Mr. Williams has been a presenter at many professional conferences and workshops, and he has authored numerous published articles and book chapters on topics ranging from education and international student ministry to state and local history.

Judah Christian School

Transferring Tolkien – Enchanted Page, Enchanted Screen

Bryan Mead holds a BA in Film and Video from Columbia College and a MA in Film Studies from National University.  He has taught introductory film studies at Judah Christian School in Champaign the past 4 years.  Bryan is also finishing his MA in Religion at Urbana Theological Seminary.  He plans to pursue a PhD in Cinema Studies with his main focus of study being the intersection of Theology and Film.