"'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'... is worthy of
support from anyone, whether conservative or liberal, who believes in
classic, humanistic storytelling. ... Aslan, it has been
debated, is intended by... C.S. Lewis to be a symbol for Christ... but of
course the lion is also a royal and divine symbol throughout world
religion; there are numerous lion-like divine figures in ancient
Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Hindu and Buddhist religious
symbolism....
"The White Witch herself seems
to be a throwback to various witches and goddesses of Celtic and Greek mythology.
Her hair is dressed in the snake-like coils of a Medusa.... Is
it perhaps that like a shamaness, the White Witch dons the lion's garb in
order to assume his magical powers, or to signify some deeper connection
with the figure of Aslan - a connection that surmounts the duality of
good and evil? Why would the White Witch be garbed in leonine costume
at the end, except perhaps as a sign that she and Aslan are two halves
of one whole, and that they are playing out in ritual fashion an eternal
cosmic struggle, where good and evil, light and dark, summer and winter
alternate in ascendancy throughout the round of time?"[1] "Narnia'
a Classic Tale for the Ages"
| Resources to aid your Understanding |
| |
An argument between evangelical
and secular Narnia fans has been raging for decades: Are The Chronicles
of Narnia supposed to be Christian? The release of the Disney movie has
added fuel to this debate. Its director, Andrew Adamson denies the connection
to Christianity and says its spiritual themes are common to the fantasy genre.
Nor does the producer, Mark Johnson see the Christian message. "When I read
the book as a child," he said, "I accepted it as a pure adventure story. It
never occurred to me Aslan was anything more than a great lion."[2]
Even Douglas Gresham, Lewis'
stepson, said recently: “Churches in Britain and America are promoting the
film as a Christian film, but it’s not . . . and the Narnia books aren’t
Christian novels.”[2]
Evangelicals disagree. "We believe
that God will speak the gospel of Jesus Christ through this film,"[2] said Lon Allison.
A letter C.S. Lewis wrote to
one of his many young fans back in 1961 may close that debate:
“Supposing there really was a world like Narnia . . . and supposing Christ
wanted to go into that world and save it (as He did ours) what might have
happened? The stories are my answer. Since Narnia is a world of talking
beasts, I thought he would become a talking beast there as he became a man
here. I pictured him becoming a lion there because a) the lion is supposed
to be the king of beasts; b) Christ is called ‘the lion of Judah’ in the
Bible.... The whole Narnian story is about Christ.”[3] Narnia's lion really is Jesus
That letter, sent from
Magdalene College, Cambridge, brings us back to another question: Are the
stories true to the Bible?
"Lewis was anything but a classic
evangelical, socially or theologically," wrote Bob Smietana in a Christianity
Today article titled "
C. S. Lewis Superstar." He continued
with these thought-provoking statements:
"Though he shared basic
Christian beliefs with evangelicals, he didn't subscribe to biblical
inerrancy or penal substitution. He believed in purgatory and baptismal
regeneration. How did someone with such a checkered pedigree come to be a
theological Elvis Presley, adored by evangelicals? ... Part of Lewis's
current appeal... is a postmodern interest in 'thin places'—places where the
physical world and the spiritual world meet—and for myth that makes sense of
life in a way that rational thinking can't. For their dose of myth,
postmoderns turn to The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry
Potter, and, of course, Narnia.
"Fantasy allows you to explain and grasp and integrate into your life things
that are not logical.... It is to say that we can tell each other truth in
story."[4]
But when you communicate "truth in story," the
truth can be stretched like a rubber band. It takes on new colors and
character. The author creates the context out of the imagination, and the
story is likely to change from time to time -- and from teller to teller. Such
"truth" is nothing like Biblical truth which was written for eternity
according to the words and inspiration of God Himself. In fact He warns us
repeatedly against any meddling with His message! We cannot add or
delete anything. His certainty must not be tainted with our
uncertainties. [See God's unchanging
Word]
The last book written by C. S. Lewis shows the author's
view of change and ambiguity. In The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and
Renaissance Literature, he tells us that when people no longer like the
old Paradigm or cultural "Model" with its cultural beliefs
and values, they will simply discard it. Nothing is permanent; everything
changes along with human thought, imagination, philosophies and preferences:
"When changes in the human mind produce a sufficient disrelish of the old
Model and a sufficient hankering for some new one, phenomena to support that
new one will obediently turn up." [5, page 221]
"We must recognize that what has been called 'a
taste in universes' is not only pardonable but inevitable. We can no longer
dismiss the change of Models as a simple progress from error to truth. No
Model is a catalogue of ultimate realities, and none is a mere
fantasy. Each is a serious attempt to get in all the phenomena known at a
given period.... But also, no less surely, each reflects the prevalent
psychology of an age almost as much as it reflects the state of that
age's knowledge...."[5, p. 222]
Lewis ends his book with this
prediction:
"It is not impossible that our own Model
[including the Biblical worldview] will die a violent death, ruthlessly
smashed by an unprovoked assault of new facts -- unprovoked as the nova of
1572. But I think it is more likely to change when, and because,
far-reaching changes in the mental temper of our descendents demand that it
should. The new Model will not be set up without evidence, but the
evidence will turn up when the inner need for it becomes sufficiently
great. It will be true evidence.'[5,
pgs. 222-223]
"What Lewis imagined to be 'not impossible' some
generations away--the death of the modern model or worldview -- turns out to
be happening," wrote the leading postmodern Pastor Brian McLaren, who has
discarded absolute truth just as Lewis predicted.
If you go to the Customer Reviews of The Discarded Image
at Amazon.com, you
would find other interesting responses to this book. The third reviewer wrote:
In this context, it is perhaps fair to warn potential readers coming to
the book directly from Lewis-the-Christian that he displays
throughout a remarkable sympathy for a variety of views (pagan,
Neo-Platonic, medieval Catholic, and so forth) which they may find
disturbing. Education, not edification, is his primary focus....
To
use a catch-phrase introduced to scholarship in 1962 by Thomas Kuhn's
"Structure of Scientific Revolutions," Lewis is presenting an "Old Paradigm"
of the Universe, the very presuppositions of which have been replaced by a
series of "New Paradigms" during the last four centuries. It describes a
vast but finite world of natural hierarchies.... It is an effort to equip
the student to think and perhaps even feel in medieval, not modern, terms. I
can think of no one who has so successfully evoked the sensation of living
in a Ptolemaic or Aristotelian cosmos."[6]
In other words, Lewis has a remarkable ability to
bring Christian readers into new worlds or worldviews and make them feel at
home in the midst of pagan rituals, occult mysteries and magical forces. In so
doing, he presents unbiblical views of the most important gifts God has given
us: His truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation.
3. God's PEACE to have and share
God's peace is based on certainty: absolute
confidence that God will be and do what He has promised in His
Word -- no matter how difficult our circumstance. This peace is incompatible
with the postmodern belief that everything must change and nothing is
absolute.
Likewise, it clashes with the dialectic process,
which is driving the transformation of churches as well as schools,
corporations, government and homes. In other words, there can be no peace when
truth (thesis) and myth or opposing opinions (antithesis)
continually merge together (synthesis) into an evolving consensus.
In this context, everything becomes uncertain and subject to change with each
new thought, feeling or group input. Any belief or supposition must be claimed
as a "truth" by a person or group. In this context Narnia can be interpreted
in countless ways. That brings us back to the old question again:
"USA Today asked: 'Is the world
created by C.S. Lewis a rip-roaring piece of fantasy – or a fairy tale
suffused with Christian imagery? 'The answer is both, and that raises
a related question: Can Disney succeed by selling the movie on two tracks –
as a sort of cross between ‘The Lord of the Rings' and ‘The Passion of the
Christ'?"[6]
That's not God's way to peace. Unlike the ways of
human nature, His message doesn't waver between two worlds. But human nature
continually tries to compromise. The apostle Paul knew that. "I fear," he
wrote to the Corinthians, "lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his
craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not
preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not
received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may
well put up with it!" 2 Co 11:3-4
Jesus never marketed his message with entertaining
thrills or dialectic compromise. Nor should we! Like Him, we must bring
true light "into the world," even though "men [have always] loved
darkness rather than light." [John 3:19]
Some will hear and others will hate that truth.
"For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved
and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death
leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life." But
"thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ!" [2 Corinthians 2:15-16, 14]
“Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I
also send you.” John 20:21
"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me
you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good
cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
[See PEACE]
4
. The shield of FAITH
-- absolute confidence that God's word is true and
right.
When C.S. Lewis wrote Narnia half a century ago,
the actual practice of witchcraft and ancient occultism was generally out of
reach. In an era of politically correct cultural Christianity, few knew the
Bible well and even fewer knew much about other religions. The stories seemed
safe, yet exciting and far from reality. People enjoyed them but didn't
believe them.
This is a different era. Magical powers are now
both real and tantalizing. Among teens, witchcraft is said to be the fastest
growing religion, accessible to all through the Internet. And children in
public schools are trained to view all religions through a pluralistic filter
that rules out any claim that one "God" is better than any others.
"Faith is in the eye of the beholder," declared Tilda Swinton who played
the part of the Witch. "Lewis' original book is more 'spiritual' than
religious.... You can make a religious allegory out of anything if that's what
you're interested in."[2]
Like many today, Lewis had, early in his life, been captivated by the
mythical worlds that filled his mind and heart. As he wrote in Surprised by
Joy, the possibility that "the visible world" might conceal huge
"uncharted realms"--
"started in me something with which, on and off, I have had plenty of
trouble since—the desire for the preternatural, simply as such, the passion
for the Occult. Not everyone has this disease; those who have will know what
I mean. ... It is a spiritual lust; and like the lust of the body it
has the fatal power of making everything else in the world seem
uninteresting while it lasts. It is probably this passion, more even
than the desire for power, which makes magicians....
"The vagueness, the merely speculative character, of all this Occultism
began to spread--yes, and to spread deliciously -- to the stern
truths of the creed. The whole thing became a matter of speculation: I was
soon (in the famous worlds) altering 'I believe' to 'one does feel.' And oh,
the relief of it!... From the tyrannous noon of revelation I passed into the
cool evening of Higher Thought, where there was nothing to be obeyed, and
nothing to be believed except what was either comforting or exciting.”[7]
A similar obsession apparently drove ancient Israel from God's loving care.
Fascinated with the beliefs and practices of their pagan neighbors, they put
their faith in their own imagination and ignored His warnings:
"There shall not be found among you anyone who... practices
witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or
one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up
the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the
Lord..." (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)
It may be tempting to let fantasies confuse magic with the mighty power of
God, but the two are incomparable. God reigns over all! He alone is worthy of
our faith.
"I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith
should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."
1 Corinthians
2:1-5
5. The
helmet of SALVATION -- a steady hope in God's promised
victory
The Last Battle, the final book in the Narnia series, gives us a
glimpse of Lewis' view of salvation and eternal life. The idol of the
neighboring nation is Tash, a large, frightening creature who walked like a
man but had a head like a vulture. After the final destruction of the worlds,
the evil characters have all died. But Emeth, one of evil Tash' faithful
servants, ends up in the new heavenly Narnia along with Aslan's loyal
subjects.
"Do tell us who you are and what's happened to you," asks Jill, a "saved"
human who has been reunited with King Peter, King Edmund and Queen Lucy. So
Emeth begins his long story: "...always since I was a boy I have served
Tash, and my great desire was to know more of him.... But the name of
Aslan was hateful to me." He then describes the events of the final battle
between the evil forces of Tash and the faithful followers of Aslan. Finally
he shares his surprise at finding himself in the new world -- face to face
with Aslan:
"...the glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead
with his tongue and said, 'Son, thou art welcome.' But I said, 'Alas, Lord,
I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash.' He answered, 'Child, all
the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me.'...
"I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, 'Lord, is
it then true... that thou and Tash are one?'
"The lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against
me) and said, 'It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are
opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For
I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be
done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if
any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath sake, it is by
me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I
who reward him.'
"But I said also, 'Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days.'
'Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou
wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly
seek."
[8]
What does this passage suggest? That a person who serves Satan faithfully
will reap eternal blessings if he does some "good" things? That those "good
deeds" will save you, even if you trust in a false god and reject the true
gospel? That Rick Warren is right and those who resist his "Second
Reformation" are wrong? Remember, that Reformation calls for a change in
Christian focus from doctrine and beliefs to deeds and
behavior.[9]
Don't believe it! God's Word tells us that -
"...this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
John 17:3
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone
should boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9
“...this gospel of the kingdom will be
preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end
will come."
Matthew 24:14
6. The Sword of the Spirit: The WORD OF
GOD.
Never have our children been surrounded by so many spiritual counterfeits,
seductive suggestions, digital delights and occult images. And seldom has
the Christian community been less prepared to resist such spiritual temptations.
We can't trust Christian schools or youth pastors
to fulfill our God-given assignment. But when we -- as families -- trust God,
memorize His Word, wear His armor,
follow His way, and praise Him together, we will know a fellowship in our
families that far exceeds the fleeting fantasies that the world offers.
"As you therefore have received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established
in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
"Beware lest anyone cheat you through
philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to
the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him,
who is the head of all principality and power." Colossians
2:6
Endnotes:
1.
Jason Apuzzo & Govindini
Murty, "Narnia' a Classic Tale for the Ages,"
(12-05)
at http://view.e.newsmax.com/?ffcb10-fe8d1679716d067d7d-fe2515797d610678701271-ff2c1d70746d
2. Jim Meyers,
"Disney's 'Narnia': Christ Need Not Apply"
(12-9-05) at
www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/12/8/204407.shtml
3. Christopher Morgan, "Narnia's lion really is Jesus" (12-4-05) at www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1903338,00.html
4.
Bob Smietana,
C. S. Lewis Superstar, Christianity Today, 11/23/2005 at www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/012/9.28.html
5. C. S. Lewis,
The Discarded Image (Cambridge University Press, 1964), pages
221-223.
6.
Customer Reviews of The Discarded Image
at www.christianity-books.com/The_Discarded_Image__An_Introduction_to_Medieval_and_Renaissance_Literature_0521477352.html
7.
C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (C.S. Lewis PTE
limited, 1955), pages 60-61. In this passage, Lewis goes on to explain
something the experience-driven Emergent church should take to heart: "One
reason why the Enemy found this so easy was that, without knowing it, I was
already desperately anxious to get rid of my religion.... I [had] set myself a
standard. No clause of my prayer was to be allowed to pass muster unless it
was accompanied by what I called a 'realization,' by which I meant a certain
vividness of the imagination and the affections. My nightly task was to
produce by sheer will power a phenomenon which willpower could never
produce... and which, even when it did occur, was of very mediocre spiritual
value. If only someone had read to me old Walter Hilton's warning that we must
never in prayer strive to extort by "maistry" [mastery] what God does not
give!" 61-62
8.
C.S.
Lewis, The Complete Chronicles of Narnia (Harper/Collin Publishers),
page 517.
9. Warren's
P.E.A.C.E. Plan & UN Goals
at www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/peace-un.htm
Provided by
Berit Kjos
See our selection
of wonderful
books by Berit Kjos
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal
Savior, but have been very lukewarm in your spiritual walk with Him, you need
to immediately ask Him for forgiveness and for renewal. He will instantly
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need to begin a daily walk of prayer and personal Bible Study.
If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as
Savior, but have come to realize His reality and the approaching End of the
Age, and want to accept His FREE Gift of Eternal Life, you can also do so
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