C.S. Lewis, Narnia and a Fallen World

Spirituality Column #85
June 24, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

C.S. Lewis, Narnia and a Fallen World
By Bob Walters

Prince Caspian, the recent second movie installment of the seven-book “Chronicles of Narnia” series by C.S. Lewis, is
· breathtakingly beautiful in its photography,
· tear-harkeningly tender in its presentation of the lion Aslan as Christ,
· and – for a Disney movie based on a children’s book by perhaps the 20th century’s greatest Christian apologist – almost disturbingly violent as a fallen world metaphor.

Lewis wrote the series in the 1950s. The seven books read the way you expect third or fourth-grade level literature to read. Prince Caspian the book is nowhere near as violent as the movie. The book develops the talking animals as characters of great depth.

One might suppose the movie’s violence is just the heavy hammer of Hollywood, itself a comment on what it takes to entertain us these days since so much of the original Narnia stories unmistakably and entertainingly parallel the teachings of the Bible.

Peter, the oldest of the four children, lurches into the breach of any fight the way one might envision the Apostle Peter. Lucy, the youngest child, is the first to see Aslan (read Matthew 11:25), and is the child that leads the way (Isaiah 11:6).

Alas … these days, more of us understand violence than the Bible.

Lewis, a professor at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England, was not just a theologian of towering intellect; he was also renowned for his unparalleled knowledge of literature. That so advanced a scholar could write so clear and simple a set of stories as Narnia reveals unusual genius.

Despite the movie’s being “juiced” with Hollywood action steroids, what Narnia’s violence represents, in a most pointed way, is that the mayhem, strife and sickness we all encounter is a function of our sin problem in a fallen world. Some of us readily admit our sin, and some of us shockingly and self-righteously dismiss the very idea.

Narnia’s capacity for violence and evil is every bit as stunning as its potential for beauty and heroics.

Think of it this way: we have a sin problem, but a Christ opportunity.

Just like Narnia.

We’re better off when we “get” the fallen part of our earthly experience. It often explains the unexplainable.

Walters' (rlwcom@aol.com) faith was heavily informed by Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters, two Lewis classics. Read them if you haven’t.