C.S. Lewis wrote the following letter to the mother of an American nine-year old who feared he loved Aslan more than Jesus.
“Laurence can’t really love Aslan more than Jesus, even if he feels that’s what he is doing. For the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the things Jesus really did and said. So that when Laurence thinks he is loving Aslan, he is really loving Jesus: and perhaps loving Him more than he ever did before.”
I assume all of you have seen The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by now. If not, I hope you’ll see it soon. If you’ve seen it, you certainly noticed its Christian vision–a vision that as Lewis said “pushed itself in of its own accord.”
I thought I’d comment briefly on four theological realities that Lewis’s book embodies and espouses. Ryken and Mead’s A Reader’s Guide: Through the Wardrobe highlights these four as a reflection of Lewis’s worldview–or as Lewis would have termed it, “the habitual furniture of his mind.”
I would argue that the same furniture ought to make up our own system of beliefs and values as Christ-followers.
First, Ryken and Mead argue that the most important theological fact about Lewis’s novel is its christological focus. The figure of Aslan dominates our experience of the book and movie. The redemptive acts of Aslan, coupled with his coming back to life after an atoning death, symbolically render the story of Christ’s passion and resurrection. The story is told with both theological precision and with the continuous dependence on the Gospel accounts of the life and death of Jesus.
Our worldview–the furniture of our minds–ought also to have a christological focal point. As many argue, we must continually preach the gospel to ourselves.
The second overarching theological reality of Lewis’s book is the great spiritual conflict between good and evil. Lewis claimed that in a Christian worldview of the world “there is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.” Aslan claims Narnia; his claim is countered by the White Witch. This conflict between good and evil and the story of evil–its self-destructiveness and its ability to infect a whole society should help fill out our worldview as well.
Third, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe teaches that there is a possibility of goodness in the universe, in human society and in individuals. We see it primarily in Aslan, but we also see it in memorable pictures of good persons in their best moments. While Edmund’s betrayal reflects a universal condition, Lewis wants us to believe that under Aslan’s influence we can make a difference. Our world view must contain a similar hope of making a difference in our world.
Fourth, the book also gives us glimpses of the eschaton–the final end with its accompanying destruction of evil and triumph of good. The turning of statues back into people, a gigantic and decisive last battle, coronations at a great hall, living in great joy and remembering “life in this world . . . only as one remembers a dream” all have the eschatological feel of John’s Revelation about them. Lewis wants us to know the hope that Christ brings, even as we battle on.
