Just Fantasy: Otherworldly Wisdom on Rights and Wrongs
Fantasy works have often been dismissed as insignificant, juvenile, and less artistic than more thoroughly modern and “realistic” literature. But the authors of the Marion E. Wade Center knew better. For them, such works were never just fantasy. Fantasy mattered to them both as a high form of art and as a means of practicing their beliefs. Several of the Wade authors defended fantasy literature in their essays and literary criticism, and—as scholars and commentators have frequently noted—they turned to fantasy again and again to express themselves creatively, explore their deepest convictions, and “steal past…watchful dragons.” However, scholarship on the Wade authors has not fully explored the relationship between their fantasy works and questions of justice. In these three lectures, Dr. Jim Beitler looks to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the other Wade authors with such questions in mind. With the help of our very own “Justice League,” we’ll see that fantasy’s otherworlds have much to teach us about rights and wrongs, just and unjust societies, and what it means to give people their due. The Hansen lectures will be held in the Wade Center's Bakke Auditorium (351 E. Lincoln Ave.) at 7:00pm Central, and are free and open to the public.
The lectures will be recorded and uploaded to the Wade Center's YouTube channel.
Dr. Jim Beitler ’02 & ’04 is Director of the Marion E. Wade Center and Professor of English at Wheaton College, where he holds the Marion E. Wade Chair of Christian Thought. His scholarship focuses on the rhetoric of Christian witness and writing as a spiritual activity, looking to C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, Desmond Tutu, and other exemplary communicators as guides for faithful practice. Beitler is the author of three books—Charitable Writing: Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words (with Richard Hughes Gibson, 2020), Seasoned Speech: Rhetoric in the Life of the Church (2019), and Remaking Transitional Justice in the United States (2013)—and he teaches undergraduate courses on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Tolkien and Environmental Stewardship, Christianity and Fantasy, and the Wade Center Authors. He co-edited Sites of Writing: Essays in Honor of Anne Ruggles Gere (with Sarah Ruffing Robbins, 2025) and co-hosts the Wade Center Podcast.
Lecture Dates and Titles
January 29, 2026 - "The Horns of Elfland: On Fairy-Story Justice"
Respondent: Dr. Kimberly Sasser, Associate Professor of English
In response to critiques of fantasy literature, several of the Wade Center authors came to its defense, employing their academic expertise and argumentative skills to explain why fantasy matters. In the first lecture, we’ll look closely at J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous “On Fairy-Stories” and other defenses of fantasy written by the Wade authors, exploring what these arguments reveal to us about the relationship between fantasy literature and justice.
Photo by Kristen Page
February 26, 2026 - "The Hammer of God: Sub-creation and Divine Justice"
Respondent: Dr. Vince Bacote, Professor of Theology, Director of Center for Applied Christian Ethics
Tolkien places a high value on the art of sub-creation, going so far as to call it our “right” as humans. In the second lecture, we’ll reflect with the Wade Center authors on what it means to do justice to this “right” as well as the judgments that await those who do wrong by it.
Photo by Kristen Page
March 19, 2026 - "The Ring of Righteousness: Justice in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth"
Respondent: Dr. Laura S. Meitzner Yoder, Director and John Stott Chair of Human Needs and Global Resources; Professor of Environmental Studies
Fantasy stories always present us with visions of justice. As sub-creators conjure mythical creatures, strange lands, invented cultures, and new languages, they also offer us depictions of the just society, of right and wrong, and of what it means to give people their due. In the third lecture, we’ll consider the visions of justice that J.R.R. Tolkien offers us in The Lord of the Rings.
Photo by Kristen Page
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