I'll be very honest. I have very opposite feelings toward the reading titled "The Atonement in Narnia's Mistake." I don't disagree with everything the author had to say, but I'm not entirely fond of the treatment of Lewis's fiction. Lewis didn't intend the Narnia books to be a volume on redemption theology and it shouldn't be read as such. They aren't a sermon, they aren't theology, and they most certainly are not the Bible. That's not to say that I don't believe the books contain a great deal of Truth, but by Lewis's own admission they are fictitious novels before anything else. In my own opinion, the best way to approach such stories are with a basis of truth and beliefs that you have garnered from God's Word and see what aspects of the story match up to them. Don't expect a carbon copy comparison or for every minute detail to have deep theological implications.
I keep going back to our class discussion and the remarks about enjoying them with children as a parent. They are good stories, though I've read books with greater literary genius, some by Lewis himself. They're interesting, enjoyable, and imaginative. If we as Christians have an opportunity to weave Truth and our faith into something that is already good, I suppose my question would be "why not do it?" Stories can illustrate truths without being the basis for believing them. I think that is the Chronicles' greatest assest. Good stories + God's truth = great reading. I really do like these books, I just don't want to see them being misconstrued by anyone as Scripture, or even Lewis's interpretation of Scripture, and I'm fairly certain Lewis didn't want that either. That being said, happy reading!!!
I completely agree. Because Lewis wrote Narnia later in his career, I think he just wanted to write a story. Pure and simple. “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else” (C.S. Lewis). Lewis loved the stories and myths of his childhood and I think in some ways he was trying to recapture that. It’s not always necessary to dissect a story until it loses any trace of wonder and truth it had.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if The Chronicles would be received differently today had Lewis not written his other works, such as The Screwtape Letters or The Problem of Pain. Lewis first gained recognition as a writer for his works of theology and fiction with theological undertones. But what if he just wrote Narnia? People would still put their own interpretations on it (they always do), but I don’t think they would look to him as a cornerstone of apologetics, and I don’t think that’s what Lewis wanted when he wrote the simplistic, fantastic “children’s” stories of The Chronicles.
This is an interesting set of questions. I agree that we might take all the fun out of Narnia if we were to dissect every bit of it in looking for some hidden theological meaning. However, a lot of us have found these stories significant in our faith journeys. Certain moments resonate with us or open up new possibilities for us. For me, it's probably _The Last Battle_ that does that the most.
ReplyDeleteI think Lewis would reject the idea that we have to see Narnia either as a set of children's stories or as a source of spiritual insight. Why not both?
I should also say something about the purpose of the essays these philosophers have written about Narnia or Middle-Earth. Their primary purpose is to teach some philosophical material in the context of pop culture. Thus, they put a book or a film in conversation with the philosophical tradition. They don't mean to claim that Narnia is *best* read as philosophy or that Lewis meant us to read the Chronicles in this way or anything like that. Rather, they mean to try to convince you that Narnia can teach you some philosophy--and that philosophy might just teach you something about Narnia, too.