The impending release of Narnia has reignited the debate over C.S. Lewis' legacy. Tonight Nightline asked: Does Aslan represent Jesus?
Have you read the books?
Of course Aslan represents Jesus, and there's not much subtlety in the portrayal. Here's C.S. Lewis:
I thought I saw how stories of this kind could steal past certain inhibitions which had paralyzed much of my own religion in childhood. Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or about the sufferings of Christ?
I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings. And reverence itself did harm. The whole subject was associated with lowered voices, almost as if it were something medical.
But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could.
The Narnia books are filled with all sorts of mythological creatures, and the stories are engaging, even without reference to religious metaphor. But I understand why Christians would seize on the film as an outreach opportunity. I also understand why non-Christians might be less enthusiastic about the movie.
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8345157d569e200d83464277253ef
Links to weblogs that reference Narnia: An Evangelical Tract?:
1. Posted by nerd on December 8, 2005 @ 9:52 | Permalink
Disney is creepy on this one. Many stories have a Christ-like character. Should churches have whipped up viewers for Oliver Stone's Platoon? Of course Sgt. Elias represents Jesus (http://www.destgulch.com/images/plat06.jpg)The main Charlie Sheen character's name is Chris Taylor - ChrisT, etc.
Anyway, Lewis also wrote: "If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality however he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, 'What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all."
2. Posted by Peter Maughan on December 9, 2005 @ 13:31 | Permalink
I'm really curious to see this movie...I'm wondering if it is going to be inspiring to me, as a Christian, or whether it will end up being something that was too forced and too anticipated.
Plus I might find that the weird creatures were better described in book form than on a screen.
3. Posted by Kelly on May 19, 2008 @ 0:09 | Permalink
I think that what C.S Lewis really intended when writing the Chronicles of Narnia was not to teach children about the bible, but to teach children about good and evil. But how can you teach about good and evil w/o talking about God/Jesus, or even the devil? Though I do believe in God, I believe that the stories in the bible are fabricated, yet more or less they are there to teach us a lesson.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
