Why Objective Truth Still Matters | Michael Ward on C.S. Lewis
In this episode of The Larry Arnn Show, Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn interviews Michael Ward, C.S. Lewis scholar and theologian. The two discuss the nature of truth, the legacy of C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man, and Ward's new book After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man.
This interview was conducted on September 11th, 2025.
Discover more at podcast.hillsdale.edu.
Check out Dr. Ward's latest book at www.amazon.com/After-Humanity-Commentary-Lewis-Abolition/dp/1943243778
00:00 Introduction to Subjectivism and The Green Book
01:01 C.S. Lewis, Language, and Objective Value
01:27 Introducing Michael Ward
02:32 Michael Ward’s Background and Hillsdale Connection
04:13 Overview of After Humanity and The Abolition of Man
06:14 Objective vs. Subjective Value in Lewis’s Work
07:21 Cultural Universality and the Tao
08:21 Explaining the Coleridge Waterfall Example
11:27 Reading Strategy: Abolition, Then After Humanity
13:18 Loss of Values and the Rise of Power Dynamics
26:18 Plato, Sophistry, and Lewis’s Parallel Argument
36:27 The Power of Moral Choice and Human Rationality
43:43 Faith, Reason, and the Return to Christianity
47:28 The Idea of Mere Christianity and College Purpose
54:09 Collapse of Colleges and Modern Protest Culture
60:31 Conclusion and Final Thoughts on The Abolition of Man
------------------------------
Support Hillsdale College: secured.hillsdale.edu/hillsdale/support-hillsdale-college
Visit our website: hillsdale.edu
Learn from our online courses: online.hillsdale.edu
Read Imprimis: imprimis.hillsdale.edu/
Undergraduate programs: www.hillsdale.edu/information-for/undergraduate-admissions/
Graduate School of Statesmanship: www.hillsdale.edu/academics/graduate-school/
Graduate School of Government: dc.hillsdale.edu/School-of-Government/Program-Overview/
Graduate School of Education: classicalgrad.hillsdale.edu/
Listen to the Hillsdale College Podcast Network: podcast.hillsdale.edu/
------------------------------
Hillsdale College is an independent institution of higher learning founded in 1844 by men and women “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings” resulting from civil and religious liberty and “believing that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.” It pursues the stated object of the founders: “to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary, scientific, [and] theological education” outstanding among American colleges “and to combine with this such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils.” As a nonsectarian Christian institution, Hillsdale College maintains “by precept and example” the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith.
The College also considers itself a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law.
By training the young in the liberal arts, Hillsdale College prepares students to become leaders worthy of that legacy. By encouraging the scholarship of its faculty, it contributes to the preservation of that legacy for future generations. By publicly defending that legacy, it enlists the aid of other friends of free civilization and thus secures the conditions of its own survival and independence.
