The Inklings, the Victorians, and the Moderns

Reconciling Tradition in the Modern Age

Christopher Butynskyi

In The Inklings, the Victorians, and the Moderns, the author examines the dynamics of a small group of twentieth-century traditionalists who reacted in opposition to the spirit of the intellectual movements of the modern age. In particular, he draws on the Inklings (e.g., C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien), Christian humanists such as G.K Chesterton, and other proponents of the Great Books and classical liberal learning to outline a position that eschewed reactionary rejections of modern thought, but sought to transcend its perceived limitations by asserting the continued value of myth, religion, liberal education, and ancient texts. They were more than instigators and wished to reconcile and translate conservative traditional ideas within a progressive modern scientific context. The author magnifies the intellectual trends in modern Western thought in the twentieth-century and provides the historical context for the resistance to the prominent and convincing tenets of modernity. Given the myriad responses, he focuses on a more conservative response to reductive definitions born out of well-intentioned progressivism. The author approaches the subject matter from an historical perspective, but utilizes an interdisciplinary discourse to create a multi-dimensional explanation of the intellectual atmosphere of the twentieth-century.

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 206 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-68393-227-7 • Hardback • January 2020 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-68393-229-1 • Paperback • March 2022 • $41.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-68393-228-4 • eBook • January 2020 • $39.50 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Literary Criticism / Science Fiction & Fantasy, Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century, Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Religion, History / Intellectual History

The Inklings, the Victorians, and the Moderns

Reconciling Tradition in the Modern Age

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

In The Inklings, the Victorians, and the Moderns, the author examines the dynamics of a small group of twentieth-century traditionalists who reacted in opposition to the spirit of the intellectual movements of the modern age. In particular, he draws on the Inklings (e.g., C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien), Christian humanists such as G.K Chesterton, and other proponents of the Great Books and classical liberal learning to outline a position that eschewed reactionary rejections of modern thought, but sought to transcend its perceived limitations by asserting the continued value of myth, religion, liberal education, and ancient texts. They were more than instigators and wished to reconcile and translate conservative traditional ideas within a progressive modern scientific context. The author magnifies the intellectual trends in modern Western thought in the twentieth-century and provides the historical context for the resistance to the prominent and convincing tenets of modernity. Given the myriad responses, he focuses on a more conservative response to reductive definitions born out of well-intentioned progressivism. The author approaches the subject matter from an historical perspective, but utilizes an interdisciplinary discourse to create a multi-dimensional explanation of the intellectual atmosphere of the twentieth-century.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 206 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-68393-227-7 • Hardback • January 2020 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-68393-229-1 • Paperback • March 2022 • $41.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-68393-228-4 • eBook • January 2020 • $39.50 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Literary Criticism / Science Fiction & Fantasy, Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century, Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Religion, History / Intellectual History

Author

Chris Butynskyi is lecturer of European history at Eastern University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Instruments of Tradition in the March of Progress

1 Ink and Parchment: A Historiographical Review

2 Tradition: More than Custom and Convention

3 G.K. Chesterton: Mouthpiece of Tradition

4 Raising the Temple of Science: A New Marketplace

5 Fellowship of Tradition

6 The Broader Conspiracy

7 Not All Books are Created Equal

Epilogue: Passing the Torch

Bibliography

Index

About the Author