C.S. Lewis Society

Our History and Purpose

The C.S. Lewis Society was organized by Princeton University students in 1975, as a guest-speaker forum for the campus community to hear Christian scholars articulate a biblical perspective on topics of wide public concern.  After years of fruitful ministry, the Society was re-launched on the campus of Trinity College of Florida in 1988 as a fellowship of those committed to explaining and defending the Christian faith internationally. Our outreach has focused especially on university campuses and nations that are dominated by skeptical attitudes toward the core truths of Christianity.

As a Christian Society adhering to what C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity”—classic or creedal Christianity--the members[i] and friends of the Society seek first and foremost to know Christ and make Him known.  Secondly, inspired by the words of philosopher-apologist Douglas Groothuis, we strive “to know the truth of the biblical worldview and to make it known with integrity to as many people as possible with the best arguments available.”[ii]  This quote captures the central and distinctive purpose of the Society, and our apologetics.org website is dedicated to supporting this purpose.

 

Recent Milestones

  • Our Alive Conference, focused on Dr. Gary Habermas’s case for Christ’s resurrection, was webcasted to an estimated 10,000 listeners in 10 countries in both English and Spanish.

  • In May 2016, Dr. Woodward joined Ravi Zacharias, Lee Strobel, Richard Keyes and Randy Newman, at “Why Jesus?”…drawing 6800 attendees to the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine.  “Why Jesus?” DVD sets of all plenary talks and the panel discussion are available upon request for $30 by writing to information@apologetics.

  • Each year, we receive 100,000 Apologetics.org website visitors from 50 countries.

  • We recently presented the evidence for Christian faith at Georgetown University.  More than two dozen atheists joined a large crowd that heard “Can Faith and Science Be Reconciled?”

  • Our weekly radio/podcast  show, “The Universe Next Door,” heard in five states, shares the good news of Christ and the evidence and reasons for faith with about 15,000 listeners per broadcast.

  • We made eight presentations in seven cities in Columbia, reaching an estimate of 2,000 listeners in attendance and an additional 20,000 through conference telecasts.  Also, we presented the evidence of intelligent design to four universities in Lima, Peru.

  • Two national apologetics conferences featured Dr. Woodward’s talks in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. In Tampa, the professionally recorded “Intersect” conference was held, featuring renowned author Greg Koukl, Dr. Darrell Bock of Dallas Seminary, and Dr. Woodward

  • We sponsored events at churches and equipped believers in the greater Tampa Bay, the Washington, D.C. metro area, as well as Ohio, South Carolina, California, and New York.

  • We hosted an outreach at Dartmouth College, and presented the case for Christianity at universities in Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina.  Talks were presented at Princeton University, and at universities and colleges in California (Stanford, San Jose State) and in Tampa Bay as well.

  • Lee Strobel was the keynote speaker at our Reasonable Faith Conference in Clearwater, Florida.

 

 

[i] “Members” refers to any person who choose to support the Society by financial support of any size at least once a year.  The term “friends” refers to anyone who asks to be put on the email news and updates distribution list.

[ii] See the entire section from which this quote is taken, entitled “The Sum of the Matter: Defend the Truth” on pages 44-45 of Groothuis’s magisterial Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (IVP Academic, 2001).