Mere Christians: A C. S. Lewis Conference
Surprised by Love, May 2-3 2025
A Call For Papers
The Mere Christians C. S. Lewis Conference gladly presents a Call For Papers for the upcoming
gathering in Winter Garden, FL. Our orienting theme, “Surprised By Love,” will guide us into the
heart of Lewis’s life and work, with keynote talks on Till We Have Faces, Surprised by Joy, and The Great
Divorce.
We encourage a wide variety of paper topics, though all papers should illuminate the conference
central theme, “Surprised by Love,” and relate to at least one of the texts under consideration (the
more the better!).
Suggested topics include but are not limited to:
- Problems and issues in (auto)biographical accounts of Lewis
- Love in Lewis’s works (esp. TGD, TWHF, & SBJ)
- Surprise
- Joy
- Strangeness, friendship, theophany, theodicy, apologetics (esp. of imaginative and
- narrative approaches)
- Romanticism, romantic theology, philosophy of love, rhetorical approaches, and
- Explorations of the theme in Lewis’s poetry.
The conference will focus on honing the next generation of Lewis scholars through our
“BanderTrack” sessions, including paper presentations, feedback sessions for participating Lewis
scholars, and a live interactive Q&A session with Journal of Inklings Studies Managing Editor, Dr.
Norbert Feinendegen.
Abstract submissions should be anonymous (no names on submissions, please) and between 300
and 500 words for 20 minute presentations, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A. The conference
committee will review abstract submissions on a rolling basis between February 15 and April 1.
Please visit the conference website https://www.merechristians.net/ for additional information.
We’re actively pursuing publication opportunities for select conference proceedings.
Deadline, March 31.
Please send any queries to Annie Nardone at: the.annie.nardone@gmail.com or Michael Oppizzi at
michaeloppizzi@gmail.com.
