Dr. Michael Ward, Ph.D.

Dr. Michael Ward is one of the world’s leading experts on C.S. Lewis. He teaches at Blackfriars Hall in the University of Oxford and Houston Baptist University in Texas. Dr. Ward is the author of the bestselling and award-winning Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis, which won the 2011 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies. He is also the author of a critical edition of Lewis’s philosophical work, The Abolition of Man; the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis; and presenter of the BBC television documentary, The Narnia Code.
 
On the fiftieth anniversary of Lewis’s death (November 22, 2013), Dr. Ward had the privilege of unveiling a permanent national memorial to him at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. He is the co-editor of C.S. Lewis at Poets’ Corner, a book of essays about this commemoration. Dr. Ward studied English at Oxford and theology at Cambridge, and he earned a Ph.D. in Divinity from the University of St. Andrews. For three years, he served as resident warden of The Kilns, Lewis’s Oxford home.
 
Praise for Michael Ward
“Michael Ward is the leading authority on C.S. Lewis, simple as that. His sensitive learnedness, penetrating intuition, and beautiful style make the rest of us look like amateurs.”
– Dr. Jason Lepojärvi, scholar-in-residence at Regent College
 
“Michael Ward is that rare thing, a meticulous scholar with the gifts of a brilliant communicator. Nobody has done more in recent years to transform our understanding of C.S. Lewis.”
– Dan Hitchens, Deputy Editor, Catholic Herald
 
“Michael Ward is a world-class expert on C.S. Lewis; his brilliant scholarship has profoundly influenced the field of Lewis and Inklings studies. He has the rare gift – as Lewis himself had – for combining deep knowledge and scholarly insight with the ability to communicate effectively and engagingly, with clarity, depth, and wit. His listeners will discover that learning from him is a true joy.”
– Dr. Holly Ordway, Houston Baptist University
 
“Michael Ward is one of the top C.S. Lewis scholars worldwide. His knowledge of Lewis’s life and work is exceptional, as is his ability to explain Lewis to students of all ages. His humor makes him a truly enjoyable guide on the journey ‘further up and further in’ to the thought and imagination of C.S. Lewis.”
– Cole Matson, Ph.D., Programming Associate, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Thought & Culture