“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labor is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.”

— CS Lewis quote on the memorial market outside the conference room at the Wade Center, Wheaton, IL.

The Threefold Office of the College President

One of the high purposes of fantasy is to help us live more wisely in reality. Indeed, C.S. Lewis took this to be one of the “the main things” that Tolkien “wants to say“– namely, “that the real life of men“ is the “mythical and heroic quality.”

“The value of myth”, Lewis goes on to say, “is that it takes all the things we know and restores them to the rich significance which has been hidden by the ‘veil of familiarity.’”

By “dipping” the real things in myth, “we see them more clearly.“

So what might we be able to learn from Gandolf‘s ministry as profit – from his miraculous wonders, bold predictions, wise counsel, and triumph over death?

I have a special and specific reason for asking this question I believe that the role of profit – like the role of king and priest – is part of my calling as the president of a Christ-centered college.

— Philip Ryken, The Messiah Comes to Middle Earth