The spell is one of C.S. Lewis’s most characteristic metaphors – that which holds Prince Rilian in its enchanting drowsiness in The Silver Chair, the whole of Narnia in its wintry grip in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the whole natural order in its endless circularity in his poem, ‘What the bird said early in the year’.  

It is an apt metaphor for our generation, prevented (by the spell upon us and the stories told us) from exploring a more multi-dimensional world, and a grounded hope – and therefore locked up in the prospect of inescapable injustice and irreversible loss.  

Wycliffe Hall’s vision for a new Renaissance aims to help break that spell (with rigorous scholarship) and to tell a more compelling story (with creativity and beauty). Lewis – both as scholar and as creative writer – is a useful model for us as we seek to foster belief in a bigger world, and hope for a loss-reversing future.