Developing Spiritual Discernment with Dr. Gerald McDermott

Lyle Dorsett, who has been the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism at Beeson Divinity School since 2005, began studying the spiritual formation of C.S. Lewis because he wanted to understand how Lewis developed spiritually. From the time of his conversion he began to grow into the increasingly mature Christian who would have a positive impact on many people. Dorsett’s research involved numerous trips to Britain over seven years, scores of formal oral history interviews with people who knew Lewis, and studying Lewis’s books and many of his letters. As he worked on this topic, Dorsett found that his own spiritual disciplines and approach to growing in the faith were changed.

In these four lectures, Dr. Dorsett presents some new light on the major elements of Lewis’s spiritual formation with emphasis on how and why he changed over the years. Relying on hundreds of unpublished letters, nearly fifty oral history interviews, and untapped evidence from Lewis’s personal library, Dr. Dorsett shows how Lewis’s own spiritual transformation became the impetus behind his important role as a spiritual director to countless souls.