“Growing Younger”: Literature and Childlike Faith Southeast Conference on Christianity & Literature Covenant College, October 10-12, 2024

Thursday, October 10

12:15 - 12:45 pm

Registration, Chapel Lobby

12:45 - 2:05 pm

Panel 1a, Creative: Fiction, Kresge Library Lounge

Moderator: Sarah Huffines, Covenant College
Paul Luikart, Covenant College, “Flash Fiction: ‘Crash Boat,’ ‘Good Boy,’ and ‘Victory Dance’”
Robert Erle Barham, Covenant College, “Where the Wild Things Were”
Cliff Foreman, Covenant College, “Godfrey Brown”

Panel 1b, MacDonald’s Princess Books & The Golden Key, Carter Hall 109

Moderator: Heather Hess, Covenant College
Molly B. Lewis, Regent University, “Against Suspicion: George MacDonald and the Ethics of Hospitality”
Madeleine Freace, Covenant College, “Bradbury, MacDonald, and the Romantic Metanarrative”
Olivia Jensen, Ralston College, “Katabasis is Key: The Ageless Secret to Platonic Pedagogy in George MacDonald’s The Golden Key”

Panel 1c, World of the Five Gods, Carter Hall 111

Moderator: Laura Schrock Crawford, Samford University
William Tate, Covenant College, “‘Blinded by the surfaces of things’: Imaginary Gods and Genuine Prayer in the World of Five Gods”
Chad Schrock, Lee University, “Polytheistic Providence in Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion”
Carissa Turner Smith, Charleston Southern University, “The Theology of Failure in Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls”

2:20 - 3:40 pm

Panel 2a, Creative: Nonfiction, Kresge Library Lounge

Moderator: Robert Erle Barham, Covenant College
Sara LoPiccolo, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, “Your Weird Little Space Cadet Salutes You”
Noelle Salgado, Uplift Educational Charter, “Paolina”
Christianna Soumakis, “Sacred Play: Embodying Childhood Myths as Pilgrimage to Maturity on the Way of St. James”

Panel 2b, At the Back of the North Wind, Carter Hall 109

Moderator: Joyce McPherson, Covenant College
Aaron Cassidy, The Cambridge School of Dallas, “Diamond’s ‘Bright Shadow’: Childlike Faith in North Wind”
Avery-Claire Galloway, Georgia College and State University, “‘Go Through Me’: MacDonald’s Maternal Depiction of Death in At the Back of the North Wind”
Melody Green, Urbana Theological Seminary, “The Spiritual Needs of Victorian Children as Presented in George MacDonald’s At the Back of the North Wind and Hesba Stretton’s Jessica’s First Prayer”

Panel 2c, American Mythologies of Childhood, Carter Hall 111

Moderator: Gwen Macallister, Covenant College
Sophie Sunder, Covenant College, “Savoring Miracles: Dandelion Wine, Time, and Ecclesiastes”
Lana Lockhart, Spelman College, “Take My Hand Precious Lord: Christianity and Childhood Trauma in the Literature of Dolen Perkins-Valdez”
Jim Wildeman, Covenant College, “Crevecoeur’s America: Too Rich, Too Real to BE Myth?”

3:40 - 4:15 pm

Coffee & tea available in Brock Breezeway

4:15 - 5:30 pm

Poetry Workshop, Brock Hall 118
“Finding your form – finding your freedom; how form and craft can liberate your writing”
Revd. Dr. A. Malcolm Guite, Life Fellow Girton College, Cambridge

Friday, October 11

7:30 - 8:00 am

Conference registration in the Chapel Lobby
Coffee, tea, and light breakfast fare available

8:05 - 9:05 am

Panel 3a, 17th Century Childlikeness, Kresge Library Lounge

Moderator: William Tate, Covenant College
Brooke Neal, University of Mississippi, “A Mist Dispersed”: Politics, Faith, and Childlikeness in Henry Vaughan’s “They are all Gone into the World of Light!”
Griffin Adams, Covenant College, “Infant Felicity in Traherne’s Plain Verse”

Panel 3b, Contemporary Fantasy, Carter Hall 109

Moderator: Chad Schrock, Lee University
Nick Palombo, Point University, “‘Though Not at This Time an Artist’: Katharine Burdekin’s The Burning Ring as a Künstlerroman of Re-enchantment”
Hallie Wielfaert, Lee University, “On the Threshold: The Two-Fold Liminality of Will and the Book of Gramarye”

9:20 - 10:40 am

Panel 4a, Rebirth in Classical and Modern Texts, Kresge Library Lounge

Moderator: Mary McCampbell, Covenant College
Daniel Shirley, Southeastern University, “An Exploration of Rebirth in Plato’s ‘Myth of Er’: Death as a Portal to Imagination”
Aimee Smith, Classical Conversations, “An Exploration of Rebirth in Homer’s Odyssey: The Role of Hospitable Imagination in Human Restoration”
Rebecca Dolny, Southeastern University, “An Exploration of Rebirth in At the Back of the North Wind: Unless a Man Be Born Again”
Maria Wilkening, Southeastern University, “An Exploration of Rebirth in Till We Have Faces: The Role of Imagination in the Life of Faith”

Panel 4b, Transatlantic Abolitionism and Religion, Carter Hall 109

Moderator: Carissa Turner Smith, Charleston Southern University
Christine Colon, Wheaton College, “Educating the Next Generation: Family Sins and Painful Repentance in Charlotte Yonge’s Heartsease”
Emma Butler-Probst, Anderson University, “A Community of Black Bible Interpreters in Stowe's Dred”
Demetrius Minnick-Tucker, Georgia State University, “Unmaking American Slavery, Sighting Canaan: Frederick Douglass’s Covenantal Re(visions) of Youth in My Bondage and My Freedom”

Panel 4c, MacDonald in Context, Carter Hall 111

Moderator: Laurel Samuelson, Baylor University
Lisa Krajecki, Tennessee State University, “Back Through the Looking Glass: Childhood in Works by George MacDonald and Lewis Carroll”
Stephen Bell, Liberty University, “Divested of Dirt, Prickles, and Claws: MacDonald’s and Kingsley’s Understanding of the Self Transformed by God”
Mark Lama, “Growing in Youth: George MacDonald’s Diary as Writing to Rejuvenate the Soul”

Panel 4d, Literature for Children, Sanderson 201

Moderator: Josephine Stringer, Dallas Baptist University
Elaine Lux-Koman, National University, “Healing Connection and Themes of Restoration in Johanna Spyri’s Heidi”
Emily McArthur, Southern Adventist University, “Horatio Alger, Adolescent Purpose, and the Dignity of Work”
Paul Marchbanks, Cal Poly, “Greater Love: Scare Tactics & the Path to Sacrifice in Stories for Children”

11:00 am - 12:45 pm

Lunch
Meal tickets good for lunch in the Great Hall

12:45 - 2:05 pm

Panel 5a, Creative: Poetry, Kresge Library Lounge

Moderator: William Tate, Covenant College
John Blair, Texas State University, “From The Shape of Things to Come: Children of the Bomb”
Ben Egerton, Victoria University of Wellington, “From The Seed Drill”
James Lee, Anderson University, “From Bee Suit: Spring Chores with Grandfather”

Panel 5b, MacDonald’s Lilith, Carter Hall 109

Moderator: Melody Green, Urbana Theological Seminary
Sophie Davis, Regent College, “‘All Will Be Little Ones’: Dying unto Life in George MacDonald’s Lilith”
Chris Pipkin, Emmanuel University, “‘Safe’ but Not Good: Jadis and Lilith as Bad Teachers”
Joshua Rawleigh, Indiana University, “‘God has hidden with his word all sorts of treasures’: George MacDonald and Syriac Poetic Theology”

Panel 5c, Children in the Contemporary Novel, Carter Hall 111

Moderator: Jim Wildeman, Covenant College
Jonathan Sircy, Southern Wesleyan University, “Children Without Chests: Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Moral Deformation”
Jay Beavers, Union University, “Babes in the Woods: Children and Prophetic Witness in Cormac McCarthy’s Tennessee Novels”
Bryant White, Covenant College, “Parody and the Christ-Haunted Childhood in Patrick Chamoiseau’s Une enfance créole”

Panel 5d, John Milton , Sanderson 201

Moderator: Wesley Garey, Charleston Southern University
Rachel Byrd, Southern Adventist University, “John Foxe and John Milton: Religious Conformity and Freedom of Conscience”
Joshua McCarthy, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, “‘A Fierie Tempest’: On The Nature & Effect of The Forbidden Fruit in Paradise Lost”
Mark-Elliot Finley, University of South Florida, “The Miltonic Narnian Hero: Milton’s Comus in Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”

2:20 - 3:40 pm

Panel 6a, The Child in Pop Culture, Kresge Library Lounge

Moderator: Cory Grewell, Patrick Henry College
Christina Eickenroht, Regent College, “Forming, Filling, and Naming: The Lost Words as Creational Re-Enchantment”
Candace Lilford, University of North Carolina Greensboro, “‘It’s a big responsibility but I really love her’: Childlike Faith in Ponyo”
Heather Hess, Covenant College, “Powerful Innocence: George MacDonald’s Legacy in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time”

Panel 6b, Return as Growth, Carter Hall 109

Moderator: Emily McArthur, Southern Adventist University
Jordaine Broyer, Southern Adventist University, “Homeward Bound”
David Smith, University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma, “A blindness of spirit which comes from age”: Recapturing Childish Wonder in Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter”
Mary McCampbell, Covenant College, “The Child as Prophet, Romantic, or Cynic”

Panel 6c, Inklings: Tolkien and Barfield, Carter Hall 111

Moderator: Chris Pipkin, Emmanuel College
Julia Adams, Patrick Henry College, “Accessing the ‘Other’: J.R.R. Tolkien on the Value of Fairy-Stories for Adults”
Cory Grewell, Patrick Henry College, “Wonder as the Beginning of Wisdom”
Josh Nisley, Faith Builders Institute, “Losing Childhood to Save It: Loss, Memory, and Poetic Consciousness in Owen Barfield”

3:45 - 4:15 pm

Coffee & tea available in the Chapel Lobby
Book table open

4:15 - 5:30 pm

Keynote, Chapel Auditorium

“‘The Child in the Midst’: the Paradox of Childlike Maturity, with reference to MacDonald, Chesterton, and Lewis”
Revd. Dr. A. Malcolm Guite, Life Fellow Girton College, Cambridge

6:00 - 7:30 pm

Banquet Dinner, Mills First Floor Lobby

Saturday, October 12

7:30 - 8:00 am

Coffee, tea, and light breakfast fare available in the Chapel Lobby

8:05 - 9:05 am

Panel 7a, Linguistic Innocence, Carter Hall 111

Moderator: Bryant White, Covenant College
Ben Egerton, Victoria University of Wellington, “‘O, o, o’ and ‘A, a, a’: sound patterns and protowords as inchoate praise”
Jason Crawford, Union University, “Jokes, Proverbs, and the Language of Eden”

Panel 7b, American Classics, Carter Hall 109

Moderator: Jonathan Sircy, Southern Wesleyan University
Cliff Foreman, Covenant College, “The Scaffold and the Noose: Law, Nature and Grace in The Scarlet Letter and Billy Budd”
Laura Schrock Crawford, Samford University, “Beyond the Death Drive: Poe’s Problem-Solving Aesthetic and ‘The Imp of the Perverse’”

9:20 - 10:40 am

Panel 8a, Pride & Prejudice, Sanderson 202

Moderator: Christine Colon, Wheaton College
Rebekah Barbee, Covenant College, “Falling Short: Understanding Maturity and its Lack in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice”
Elisha Sircy, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, “Pastoral Epistles and Moral Pretense: Moral Failings and Narrative Technique in Pride and Prejudice”
Ray Lantrip, Arthur Williams Middle School, “Lydia Bennet and the Prodigal Son: Biblical Allusions in Pride and Prejudice”

Panel 8b, John Bunyan, Carter Hall 109

Moderator: Robert Erle Barham, Covenant College
Joyce McPherson, Covenant College, “Why the Spiritual Core of Story Matters: Delving into Pilgrim’s Progress and the Work of George MacDonald”
Laura Sterrett, Milligan University, “‘Playing Pilgrims’: How to Engage the Allegory of The Pilgrim’s Progress”
Wesley Garey, Charleston Southern University, “Emblems and Education in Seventeenth-Century Protestant Poetics”

Panel 8c, MacDonald’s Fairy Stories, Carter Hall 111

Moderator: Katherine Wyma, Anderson University
Janie M. H. Fritz, Duquesne University, “Childhood, Spiritual Responsibility, and Emergent Responsiveness: A Communication Ethics Understanding of Selected Works of George MacDonald”
Abby Atchley, Covenant College, “Identity and Social Structures in Conflict in Photogen and Nycteris”
Laurel Samuelson, Baylor University, “The Beginning of Wisdom: Second Innocence in The Wise Woman”

Panel 8d, The Impact of Children’s Stories, Sanderson 201

Moderator: Molly Lewis, Regent College
Josephine Stringer, Dallas Baptist University, “Fertile Imagination: Children’s Literature as the Seeds of Virtue”
Christina Eickenroht, Regent College, “Intimations of an Enchanted World: Frederick Buechner on Childhood and Fairy Tales”
Brandon Harvey, Catholic International University, “The Formative Quality of Stories for Children and its Corresponding Metaphysics”