Narnia and the North!

I recently began reading The Horse and His Boy with my 11 year old son. In this book, several "Narnian's" are trying to make their way back to their blissful home. "Narnia and the North" is a sort of slogan comparable in someway to "Disneyworld or Bust" (I doubt, however, that everyone would see Disney world as a "blissful" destination!). This is my favorite book in C.S. Lewis's timeless masterpiece, the Chronicles of Narnia. My son's interest in the series was renewed when a gentleman from Walden Media visited their school this week in order to promote the Movie to the school's "Narnia Book Club". His name escapes me, but he is Vice President of Educational Marketing for Walden Media... I think. I'll dig his card out if anyone is interested. The point of all this? I'm not sure, really. I'm delighted that my son has a renewed interest in these books. They are invaluable in shaping the imagination of children. I love that my children have been led to love a land that they've never seen, and that they fearfully adore a heroic "savior" - Aslan - who sacrifices himself for a rebel, and that they marvel as he "resurrects" himself from the dead and breaks the curse that had long been upon Narnia. One cannot help but notice the overtly Christian worldview in a story like this. At least that's what I thought.

I attended the lecture given by this gentleman to a group of middle schoolers. I was very impressed - not only with the lecturer, but also with the children. Children are very excited about this movie and that gives Christians a great opportunity to share the story of their own "Hero", the Lord Jesus Christ. I spoke with the gentleman after the lecture and he mentioned that he would be giving a presentation later that evening to local English teachers on "C.S. Lewis' Morality". When I showed an interest in attending, he was happy to extend to me an invitation. I was excited about the prospect. The presentation turned out to be little more than an expanded version of what I'd witnessed that morning. There was not much said about C.S. Lewis's "morality". In fact, the very thing which informed his moral compass, that which supplied the foundation of his morality, namely Christianity, was not even mentioned. Well, I take that back, Christianity was mentioned as the lecturer denied that the story was especially "Christian" in any way. I was amazed. How can one discuss C.S. Lewis and not discuss the fact that he was perhaps one of the greatest and most influential Christian thinkers of the 20th Century? How can anyone deny that the story is written from a distinctively Christian worldview? This can only be done in a world being held under the spell of its own "White Witch" - Satan. Not merely our eductional system, but, by and large, our entire world system has been deceived by the (in) "tolerance", "politically correct", "anti-Christ" crowd. To this crowd anything that looks or smells Christian is a "neevil" (see Magicians Nephew to see how a "neevil" entered Aslan's newly created Narnia - "an evil has entered Narnia").

The lecturer mentioned a recent questioin posed by someone in Walden Media's Narnia Forum asking whether the books were "Christian in nature" (I read the posts myself and the poster wanted to make sure that the movie retains the Christian message of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe). Gasps from the audience were telling as they reacted to such a "simple-minded" question. Although they didn't say those exact words, they certainly meant them. The lecturer shared their reaction. It was then that I posed the following question, "Can you see how someone who reads this book from a Christian perspective might have a deeper appreciation of the books? After all, C.S. Lewis was a notable Christian author and wrote from a distinctively Christian perspective." Wow! His response was quick, passionate and confusing. He denied my assertion without even attempting to address Lewis's Christianity. Go figure.

While Lewis himself denied that these books were allegories, he did not deny that they were written from a Christian perspective. He even recognized that these books were "Christian". In his Letters to Children, A young mother wrote to Mr. Lewis expressing her concern that her young child might "love Aslan more than he loves Jesus". He did not respond by denying the Christian element in the stories nor did he deny that Aslan was a Christ-figure. Rather, he relieved her concerns when he responded to her by assuring her that the qualities the young child adored in Aslan were the same qualities one finds in Jesus. He assured her that the One her child was truly in love with was not a fictitious lion, but the Lord Jesus himself. I'll track down the quote and post it if your interested.

Not surprisingly, there are quite a few who do not share the same view of Aslan as did Lewis. How unfortunate! No one will love these books more, no one will love Aslan more, no one will love Narnia more than the one who sees in Aslan the same qualities of our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ!

Pick up the series and begin reading them with your children. You will not regret it and your children will be forever greatful! "Narnia and the North!"

Tom