Louis Markos, PhD

Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities
Scholar in Residence
Professor in English

• BA in English and History from Colgate University (Hamilton, NY)
• MA and PhD in English from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)

• Ancient Greece and Rome (for the Honors College)
• Victorian Poetry and Prose
• Seventeenth-Century Poetry and Prose
• C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien
• Mythology
• Epic
• Film (classics, Hitchcock, Capra, Hollywood Studios, musicals, etc.)

While at the University of Michigan, he specialized in British Romantic Poetry (his dissertation was on Wordsworth), Literary Theory, and the Classics.

Dr. Markos is the author of eight books: From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics; Pressing Forward: Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the Victorian Age; The Eye of the Beholder: How to See the World like a Romantic Poet; Lewis Agonistes: How C. S. Lewis can Train us to Wrestle with the Modern and Postmodern World; Apologetics for the 21st Century; Restoring Beauty: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the Writings of C. S. Lewis; Literature: A Student's Guide; and On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue in Tolkien and Lewis (October 2012). He has also produced two lecture series with the Teaching Company (The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis; Plato to Postmodernism: Understanding the Essence of Literature and the Role of the Author), published some five dozen articles and reviews in such journals as Christianity Today, Touchstone, Theology Today, Christian Research Journal, Mythlore, Christian Scholar’s Review, Saint Austin Review, American Arts Quarterly, and The City, and had his modern adaptation of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris performed off-Broadway in the Fall of 2011 (his adaptations of Euripides’ Helen and Sophocles’ Oedipus are scheduled for performance in 2012 and 2013).

In addition to presenting papers at scholarly conferences, Dr. Markos is a popular speaker in Houston, and has spoken on such topics as C. S. Lewis, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and Dante in two dozen states and in Oxford and Rome. His venues include churches, colleges, universities, museums, civic groups, continuing education programs, and classical Christian academies. He is committed to the concept of the Professor as Public Educator and believes that knowledge must not be walled up in the Academy but must be disseminated to all who have ears to hear. He lives in Houston with his wife, Donna, his son, Alex, and his daughter, Stacey.   

He is faculty sponsor for Sigma Tau Delta (the English honors society) and leads a home Bible Study for students and study of Screwtape Letters for Honors freshmen. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and has won Teaching Awards at both the University of Michigan and Houston Baptist University.

Dr. Markos' full website can be accessed at this link: LouMarkos.com.

Dr. Markos has co-written a screenplay on C. S. Lewis (The Lion Awakes) that also highlights his friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien. For full information on this exciting project visit here. To hear Dr. Markos give an 8-minute talk on the spiritual aspects of the film click here.

Dr. Markos' full resume/vita.

For links to all Dr. Markos' books, visit his Amazon author's page.

To hear Dr. Markos discuss Books I and II of Mere Christianity for HBU freshmen, click here.

To hear Dr. Markos give a 17-minute talk on a new adaptation that he has written of the Helen of Euripides that will be performed off-Broadway and at HBU in the fall of 2012, click here.