The Narnia Chronicles

[Anat]

These came up several times in the forums.

You know, I love the Narnia chronicles. I've read and re-read them as a child. I was never aware of any religous or Christian implications. Where do you see them?

Anat

[jamesglewisf]

Oh, boy. It's been a long time since I read those books. I'm sure some of the others can explain it better than I can.

Into The Wardrobe (http://cslewis.drzeus.net/papers/) has many papers on it. One such paper is called The Lion, the Witch and the Allegory: An Analysis of Selected Narnia Chronicles (http://cslewis.drzeus.net/papers/lionwitchallegory.html) by Matt Brennan.

[TWTCommish]

Oh mama! This is the kind of thing where, once you see it, you'll yell "D'oh!" - it's clear once you pick up on it.

Aslan is God...he is killed by the White Witch, and is risen from the dead. That's the big one, really. There's also the whole "Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve" thing.

If you've read "The Magician's Nephew", you'll probably notice that Aslan has a Godlike feeling - his words are always wise and deep, and the way the characters describe him implies fear, respect, love, and interest all at once. Definetly something symbolic of God.

There is also the matter of Uncle Andrew - who simply saw Aslan as growling, rather than talking...he simply did not believe and therefore only fear filled him.

Oh, and remember The Magician's Nephew and the scene with the Witch in the Garden? She tempts him to eat an apple! LOL.

And something I read from one of James' links: a couple of women came to visit Jesus' tomb when they discovered it was open, and they feared that his body had been taken off to be humiliated further.

In Narnia, Lucy & Susan came by the stone table to see Aslan's body gone...they also assumed that it was taken away to be tampered with even more.

[Anat]

Interesting stuff. I liked the last bit especially. I guess it never occured to me mainly because I don't consider Jesus and God to be one. I always thought they were father and son in Christianity. From you say, it appears as if C.S. Lewis is portraying Aslan as being God and Jesus at the same time. He created the world as is being very god-like, but he is also the one to be sacrificed on the stone and to be ressurected.

I'll think I'll go into them books again...

Anat

[41mama]

Well, Aslan represents Jesus, but to Christians, Jesus is God. The Trinity is a hard concept -- I remember I was taking a Hebrew class and the Rabbi brought up the Trinity and I said "It's a Mystery!" Anyway there are maybe thousands of references to the divinity of Christ in the New Testament, such as John 1 -- let's see if I can quote the first couple of verses -- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made -- without Him nothing was made that has been made." So like Aslan singing the Narnian world into existence, we believe Jesus was present and active at creation ("Let us make" See Genesis 1.) There are also references to the Emperor Beyond the Sea in Narnia, which I take to be God the Father. I don't know an equivalent to the Holy Spirit in the Narian Chronicles and as I said I'm reading them to my ds. We're going to start the Last Battle. Perhahps the Spirit of Aslan was present with Lucy when she was in the castle of the magician on the Island of the Dufflepuds in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Anyway this post is starting to deteriorate. I'm starting to sound like a C.S. Lewis groupie which I may have been once but hopefully I've sort of grown out of. Christie

[TWTCommish]

I think there a few places where you can interpret something as the "Spirit of Aslan" - If I'm not mistaken, he appears to people several times in visions and such.

[Debby]

Here's my take on this....for what it's worth....Aslan is Jesus...and even though Edmund betrays him....by going to the White Witch, and being so mesmerized by her (like we are sometimes with sin) Aslan still laid down his life for edmund, and let the white witch tie him to a table and kill him....but then he was gone!! And then they saw him again! (just like Jesus, when he reappeared to his desciples. And he forgave Edmund, when edmund begged his forgiveness...(just like us) I loved these books...it is too bad more people don't realize the signifigance of them. The second chapter of acts (they used to be a christain rock group) did an album based intirely on this book....called the roar of love....it brings tears to my eyes still, whenever I listen to it...I need to find it on cd somewhere though....my record is so old and scratched....does anyone know where I could get this on cd? It is very old....probably around 1979 i'm guessing when it came out.

[41mama]

I'm just reading The Last Battle to my 5 1/2 y/o ds. I'm having a really hard time getting through it without blubbering! Christie