California State University at Fullerton

Comprehensive American university located in Fullerton, California. Barfield was a visiting professor there in 1979, his visit arranged by Jane Hipolito.

Calliope

Daughter of Zeus and one of the nine Muses--the muse of epic poetry.

Cambridge University

British university, the second oldest in the UK (behind Oxford) and one of the world's premier institutions of higher learning.

Cambridge Platonists

"[S]chool of English Christian philosophers, centered at the University of Cambridge, in the late 17th century. Derived from a group known as the Latitudinarians that reacted against Calvinism, and basing their doctrines largely on the teachings of Plato, the Cambridge Platonists were the theological liberals of their age. . . . The two best-known Cambridge Platonists are the English philosophers Ralph Cudworth and Henry More" [Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia  1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation].

camera obscura

Originally a "dark room" in which images of things outside are projected on a wall via light entering through a small hole; more broadly, any pinhole camera.

catharsis

Aristotle's term (in "The Poetics") for the summoning, perfecting, and purging of emotions he discerned in the audience attending a tragic drama.

Celtic

"[P]atterns and traits of the Celts, who were descendants of Indo-European-speaking tribal groups that spread across Europe during the 6th and 5th centuries BC, reaching the British Isles, France, Spain, Italy, Macedonia, and Asia Minor. Among their cultural legacies was a richly ornamental art and colorful folklore" [Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation].

Cerberus

In Greek mythology, a three-headed dog who guards the entrance to Hades.

Charon

"[I]n Greek mythology . . . the ferryman of the dead. The souls of the deceased are brought to him by Hermes, and Charon ferries them across the river Acheron." [Encylcopedia Mythica]

Chiltern

"Chiltern Hills, range of hills northwest of London, England. The Chiltern Hills, exhibiting a southwest to northeast trend, form part of a more extensive range that marks an outcrop of chalk rocks dating from the Cretaceous Period. The highest point in the Chiltern Hills is the summit of Combe Hill, 260 m (852 ft) above sea level. At the northwest end of the range is a steep slope, while the southeast slope is gentler" [Microsoft Encarta].

Chinatown

1974 film, directed by Roman Polanski, and starring Jack Nicholson.

Church of England

The religious institution, also known as the Anglican Church, which resulted from long-term assertions of British independence from Rome and became formal and final after Henry VIII's break with the Vatican over approval of his divorces.

Clio

Daughter of Zeus and one of the nine Muses--the muse of history.

Clive Hamilton

A pseudonym used by C. S. Lewis early in his career.

cloud chamber

"[A]n enclosed chamber supersaturated with a liquid vapor, for revealing the presence of ionizing particles that cause liquid droplets to form" (Webster's New World Dictionary].

Clytemnastra

"[T]he daughter of Leda and Tyndareus and the half sister of Helen. Clytemnestra and Helen are half sisters because Zeus appeared to Leda in the form of a swan and raped her. On the same night, Tyndareus also had sex with Leda and Leda became pregnant. Leda gave birth to four children or in some versions, laid four eggs" [Encyclopedia Mythica].

cogito ergo sum

"I think, therefore I am." Descartes' famous formulation from The Discourse on Method (1637).

cognitive science

The interdisciplinary study of cognition, involving the disciplines of psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, etc.

coincidentia oppostorium

Literally, the coincidence of opposites; the belief, originating in Ancient Greece, that there exists a polar linkage even between apparently irreconcilable differences.

collective unconscious

Jung's term for the shared, archetypal "mind" in which all human beings participate.

Commedia/The Divine Comedy

Thirteen Century epic poem (The Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradisio) by Dante.

Communism

Economic and social theory, an alternative to capitalism based primarily on the writings of Karl Marx, in which all goods are jointly and equally owned by the people.

comparative religion

The academic study of the similarities and differences between world religions.

Comus

A masque by John Milton (1634).

Corinthians

New Testament epistles, originally letters from St. Paul to the Christian community in Corinth.

Cornwall, England

County in Southwest England.

cosmic consciousness

Term--coined by Richard Henry Bucke (1837-1902) in a book of the same name published in 1901--referring to a form of enlightened, universal awareness.

Cotswold(s)

"Cotswold Hills, also Cotswolds, range of limestone hills, western England, extending about 80 km (about 50 mi) northeast of Bath. They reach a high point of 314 m (1,031 ft) atop Cleeve Cloud, near Cheltenham. Famous for their many beautiful churches and villages, the Cotswolds were once a prosperous center of England's wool trade. The Cotswold breed of sheep originated here" [Microsoft Encarta].

counter-culture

Name, coined by Theodore Roszak (The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and Its Youthful Opposition, 1968) to refer to those anti-status quo forces in American culture seeking to develop an alternate conception not only of society but of reality itself.

Course in General Linguistics

Influential book (on the development of linguistics, structuralism, post-structuralism, etc.) by Ferdinand de Saussure, published (1915) by his students after his death.

Courtly Love

"[I]n the later Middle Ages, a highly conventionalized code that  prescribed the behaviour of ladies and their lovers. Amour courtois also provided the  theme of an extensive courtly medieval literature that began with the troubadour  poetry of Aquitaine and Provence in southern France toward the end of the 11th century. It constituted a revolution in thought and feeling, the effects of which are still  apparent in Western culture" [Britannica Online].

creationists

Largely fundamentalist, usually Christian, anti-evolutionists who argue that the world and the natural world are the result of God's creation, not of biological evolution.

Criseyde

Also Cresside. Her story told in a romance by Boccaccio, a long poem by Chaucer (sometimes called the first novel), and a play by Shakespeare, the beloved of the Trojan prince Troilus, who eventually loses her to the Greek warrior Diomede.

Criterion

British periodical, very influential in the first half of the 20th Century. From 1922 to 1939, edited by T. S. Eliot.

Critique of Pure Reason

The major philosophical treatise of Immanuel Kant., published in 1770, one of the most important books in the history of philosophy.

Cronos

The Greek god of time; once the ruling deity, he was overthrown by his son Zeus.

C. S. Lewis: Images of His World

1973 book by Douglas Gilbert (who did the photographs) and Clyde Kilby (who authored the text).

Cupid

"The Roman god of love and the son of Venus. He is a small, winged boy, blindfolded, carrying bow and arrows. The arrows, once struck the heart, makes the victim fall in love" [Encyclopedia Mythica].