Masterpiece of Christian Allegory

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, is a treasure trove of timeless Christian truths able to edify, enlighten, educate, and entertain both children and adults alike.

Christian theologian and author C.S. Lewis made his first foray into children’s literature in 1950 with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a beautiful tale, suffused with rich Christian imagery, about the adventures of four English children who find themselves involved in a fight between the timeless forces of good and evil in the magical land of Narnia. Narnia is in the thrall of the White Witch, an evil sorceress who has created perpetual winter in the once-verdant land, enslaving its inhabitants and turning many of them to stone. The arrival of the four children sparks a revolt among the Narnians, who have been told that when Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve appear in Narnia, the magical Lion Aslan will return to overthrow the forces of evil.

One of the four children, impetuous Edmund, is deceived by the White Witch, however, and betrays his friends, who must flee to escape capture. Fortunately, the Lion Aslan makes his appearance in time to rally the forces of good. But there’s a catch: The wily White Witch informs Aslan that she will not relinquish her claim on young Edmund, who by law must die for his act of betrayal. Aslan then offers himself to the Witch in Edmund’s stead; she and her motley band of evil followers promptly bind Aslan with ropes, lay him on an altar, and kill him. The children spend a night weeping beside Aslan’s body, bereft of hope. But with the coming of dawn, mice chew apart the ropes still binding the Lion’s body, and he himself comes back to life. The stone altar where his body lay is broken in half, and the resurrected Aslan triumphantly leads the forces of good in a decisive rout of the witch and her hellish minions.

This splendid allegory of Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection became wildly popular, prompting Lewis to write six more books in the Narnia series, all of which use fairy-tale metaphors to explore Christian themes. Through all seven volumes, the colossal Christ-figure of Aslan is the dominant presence, guiding the heroes and heroines to decisive, miraculous outcomes while holding evil in check. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the heroes travel to "the Very End of the World." There they encounter Aslan, who — in a scene recalling John 21, where the disciples meet the resurrected Christ at the sea of Tiberias — appears as a Lamb sitting near the seashore beside a fire where some fish are roasting. Upon being informed that they will never return to Narnia, the children ask Aslan if they can ever see him again in their own world:

The final two Narnia books written by Lewis chronicle the story of both the creation of Narnia and its end. The Magician’s Nephew tells of a group of awestruck children from Earth who watch as Aslan creates Narnia, first causing light to appear over a dark and desolate landscape and then causing plants and animals to spring from the dust. Unfortunately, one of the children has accidentally brought to Narnia the evil enchantress Jadis, who flees into the woods after an unsuccessful attack on Aslan. The Lion, knowing that Jadis will eventually cause trouble in Narnia as the White Witch, sends the boy to fetch an apple from a tree from a beautiful garden high in the mountains. A tree from the apple’s seeds will act as a protector of Narnia for many centuries. But on arriving at the secluded garden, the boy finds the evil Jadis already there. She tempts him to eat the fruit himself, which, she explains, will confer immortality not only on him, but on his dying mother back in London. The boy ultimately refuses and brings the apple back to Aslan.

Unfortunately, even in Edenic Narnia, evil eventually takes over. The final book, The Last Battle, is perhaps the most powerful story of all. The book opens with a crafty ape, Shift, discovering a lion’s skin in a forest pool. Lusting for power, Shift persuades his gullible friend, the donkey Puzzle, to masquerade as Aslan by wearing the skin. In this way, Shift quickly gathers a large following and overthrows the legitimate ruler of Narnia, young King Tirian, enslaving the animals and inviting idolatrous foreigners to share in the booty.

The imprisoned King prays to Aslan, who sends him two children from Earth to help. They free the King and attempt to cause an uprising, but it is too late; many of the citizens of Narnia have become cynical and have lost their faith in Aslan. Even when the Antichrist-like Shift and his false lion are exposed, many Narnians conclude that Aslan was a sham to begin with. They encircle and defeat the dwindling army of King Tirian and, with the help of savage mercenaries from barbaric Calormen, begin tossing the survivors into a shed housing the idolatrous god Tash. The children are thrown inside, only to be shielded from Tash by Aslan.

The shed becomes a sort of portal, where the children and other Narnians watch as the Lion decrees the end of the world of Narnia. Father Time awakens and blows his horn, bringing about a darkening of the sun and a shower of stars. The moon turns blood red along with the waters of the sea, and the world of Narnia passes away. As Aslan stands at the portal, the denizens of Narnia file past, the unbelievers disappearing into the shadow on his left side, the faithful joining him in a beautiful meadow on his right side. Finally, all seven children who have figured in the Narnia series, along with heroes from all seven books, follow Aslan through Elysian meadows and hills to a new Narnia, one where evil has no place and which is connected with a new Earth and other paradisiacal realms as well. The children discover that, in fact, they have left the "Shadow-lands," as Lewis terms mortal worlds, forever, having all "died" in a London train accident at the beginning of the book. They are overjoyed at the prospect of never again being separated from any of their loved ones, or from Aslan’s awesome presence and empyrean dominion.

The Narnia series has a timeless quality, due in no small measure to C.S. Lewis’ unstinting willingness to use his stories as vehicles for Christian theology. Their power to uplift as well as to entertain, unrivaled in children’s literature, make them genuinely worthy of inclusion in the home library of any Christian.

A group of children from Earth witness the glorious creation of Narnia by the great Lion-king Aslan. But trouble, in the form of the evil enchantress Jadis, is not far away in this newly fashioned paradise.

The evil White Witch holds Narnia in the frozen grip of perpetual winter, turning those who dare oppose her into stone. As for Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, four children from Earth who have made their way to Narnia, they can only hope that Aslan will return to defeat the White Witch.

A group of travelers seeking freedom in Narnia find their journey to be a race against time when they discover that the warlike land of Calormen is plotting the conquest of Narnia.

An imposter is afoot in Narnia, and the inhabitants of that magic realm — believing the imposter to be Aslan — submit to his unjust decrees. It is the moment of Narnia’s greatest peril; will the real Aslan emerge triumphant?

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are called back to Narnia from their homes in England by Prince Caspian, who seeks to reestablish liberty in the magical land created by Aslan.

Ten years ago Prince Rilian, the son of Caspian, disappeared. Now the great Aslan has sent two children, Eustace Scrub and Jill Pole, to find him.

Edmund and Lucy join an expedition aboard the ship Dawn Treader as it sails toward the uncharted waters of the "utter East" in search of seven banished lords of Narnia and the home of the great Lion Aslan.

Updated April 11, 2001 (First published July 1, 2000) (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The late British author C.S. (Clive Staples) Lewis (1898-1963) is extremely popular with Evangelicals today. According to a Christianity Today reader’s poll in 1998, Lewis was rated the most influential writer. Though Lewis died in 1963, sales of his books have risen to two million a year. In an article commemorating the 100th anniversary of Lewis’s birth, J.I. Packer called him "our patron saint." Christianity Today said Lewis "has come to be the Aquinas, the Augustine, and the Aesop of contemporary Evangelicalism" ("Still Surprised by Lewis," Christianity Today, Sept. 7, 1998). Wheaton College sponsored a lecture series on C.S. Lewis, and Eerdmans published "The Pilgrim’s Guide" to C.S. Lewis. In its April 23, 2001, issue, Christianity Today again praises C.S. Lewis in an article titled ãMyth Matters.ä Lewis, called ãthe 20th centuryâs greatest Christian apologist,ä wrote several mythical works, such as The Chronicles of Narnia, which Christianity Today recommends in the most glowing terms, claiming that ãChrist came not to put an end to myth but to take all that is most essential in the myth up into himself and make it real.ä I donât know what to say to this except that it is complete nonsense. In his Chronicles, Lewis depicts Jesus Christ as a lion named Aslan who is slain on a stone table. Christianity Today says, ãIn Aslan, Christ is made tangible, knowable, real.ä As if we can know Jesus Christ best through a fable that is vaguely based on biblical themes. Was C.S. Lewis a strong Bible believer? By no means. Christianity Today noted that he was "a man whose theology had decidedly unevangelical elements" (Ibid.). Lewis was turning to the Catholic Church before his death. He believed in prayers for the dead and purgatory and confessed his sins regularly to a priest. He received the Catholic sacrament of last rites on July 16, 1963. Lewis also rejected the doctrine of bodily resurrection (Biblical Discernment Ministries Letter, Sept.-Oct. 1996) and believed there is salvation in pagan religions. Lewis denied the total depravity of man and the substitutionary atonement of Christ. He believed in theistic evolution and rejected the Bible as the infallible Word of God. He denied the biblical doctrine of an eternal fiery hell, claiming, instead, that hell is a state of mind: "And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind--is, in the end, Hell" (Lewis, The Great Divorce, p. 65). D. Martin Lloyd-Jones warned that C.S. Lewis had a defective view of salvation and was an opponent of the substitutionary and penal view of the atonement (Christianity Today, Dec. 20, 1963). In a letter to the editor of Christianity Today, Feb. 28, 1964, Dr. W. Wesley Shrader, First Baptist Church, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, warned that ãC.S. Lewis... would never embrace the (literal-infallible) view of the Bibleä and ãwould accept no theory of the Îtotal depravity of man.âä In 1993, Christianity Today explained why C.S. Lewis is so popular among Evangelicals. Among the reasons given for his popularity was the following "Lewis’s … concentration on the main doctrines of the church coincided with evangelicals’ concern to avoid ecclesiastical separatism" (Christianity Today, Oct. 25, 1993). CT admits that C.S. Lewis is popular to Evangelicals today because, like them, he despised biblical separation. C.S. Lewis was very ecumenical. The following is an overview of his ecumenism and his influence on present-day ecumenical movement: Lewis was firmly ecumenical, though he distanced himself from outright liberalism. In his preface to Mere Christianity, Lewis states that his aim is to present ‘an agreed, or common, or central or "mere" Christianity.’ So he aims to concentrate on the doctrines that he believes are common to all forms of Christianity--including Roman Catholicism. It is no surprise that he submitted parts of the book to four clergymen for criticism--an Anglican, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, and a Roman Catholic! He hopes that the book will make it clear why all Christians ‘ought to be reunited,’ but warns that it should not be seen as an alternative to the creeds of existing denominations. He likens the ‘mere Christianity’ that he describes in the book to a hall from which various rooms lead off. These rooms are the various Christian traditions. And just as when you enter a house you do not stay in the hall but enter a room, so when you become a Christian you should join a particular Christian tradition. Lewis believes that it is not too important which room you enter. It will be right for some to enter the door marked ‘Roman Catholicism’ as it will for others to enter other doors. Whichever room you enter, says Lewis, the important thing is that you be convinced that it is the right one for you. And, he says, ‘When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors.’ Mention should also be made of Lewis’ views of the sacraments. The sacraments ‘spread the Christ life to us’ (Mere Christianity, book 2, chapter 5). In his Letters to Malcolm Lewis states that he does not want to ‘unsettle in the mind of any Christian, whatever his denomination, the concepts--for him traditional--by which he finds it profitable to represent to himself what is happening when he receives the bread and wine’ of the Lord’s Supper. What happens in the Lord’s Supper is a mystery, and so the Roman Catholic conception of the bread and wine becoming the actual body and blood of Christ might be just as valid as the Protestant view of the Lord’s Supper as a memorial (Letters to Malcolm, chapter 19). ... This enigma of C.S. Lewis was no more than a slight bemusement to me until recently three things changed my bemusement into bewilderment. In March 1994 the Evangelicals and Catholics Together movement produced its first document. This was a programatic document entitled Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium. It was rightly said at the time that this document represented ‘a betrayal of the Reformation.’ I saw no connection between this and C.S. Lewis until a couple of years later when the symposium Evangelicals and Catholics Together: Working Towards a Common Mission was published. In his contribution to the book, Charles Colson--the Evangelical ‘prime mover’ behind ECT--tells us that C.S. Lewis was a major influence which led him to form the movement (Billy Graham was another!). In fact Colson says that Evangelicals and Catholics Together seeks to continue the legacy of C.S. Lewis by focusing on the core beliefs of all true Christians (Common Mission, p. 36). The enigma took on a more foreboding aspect. The enigma darkened further when just last year (after becoming connected to the Internet at the end of 1996) I discovered, quite by accident, that C.S. Lewis is just as popular amongst Roman Catholics as he is amongst Evangelicals. Perhaps I should have known this already, but it had never struck me before. The third shock came last autumn when I read that Christianity Today--reputed to be the leading evangelical magazine in the USA--had conducted a poll amongst its readers to discover whom they considered the most influential theological writers of the twentieth century. You will have already guessed that C.S. Lewis came out on top! After these three things it came as no surprise to me this year to find that C.S. Lewis has exerted a major influence on the Alpha course, and that it quotes or refers to him almost ad nauseum. Could not the Alpha course be renamed the ‘Mere Christianity’ course? ... In conclusion I offer the following reflection. If it is true to say that ‘you are what you eat,’ then it is also true to say that ‘a Christian is what he hears and reads’ since this is how he gets his spiritual food. Thus if Christians are brought up on a diet of C.S. Lewis, it should not surprise us to find they are seeking ‘to continue the legacy of C.S. Lewis.’ The apostle Paul said, ‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump’ (Gal. 5:9--the whole passage is relevant to the present context); thus if evangelicals read and applaud such books as Mere Christianity it should come as no surprise if we find them ‘working towards a common mission’ with the enemies of the gospel. The young Christian should be very careful what he reads, and those in positions of authority (pastors, teachers, parents) should be very careful what they recommend others to read (Dr. Tony Baxter, "The Enigma of C.S. Lewis," CRN Journal, Winter 1998, Christian Research Network, Colchester, United Kingdom, p. 30; Baxter works for the Protestant Truth Society as a Wycliffe Preacher). In April 1998 Mormon professor Robert Millet spoke at Wheaton College on the topic of C.S. Lewis. In a recent issue of Christianity Today, Millet, dean of Brigham Young University, is quoted as saying that C.S. Lewis "is so well received by Latter-day Saints [Mormons] because of his broad and inclusive vision of Christianity" (John W. Kennedy, "Southern Baptists Take Up the Mormon Challenge," Christianity Today, June 15, 1998, p. 30).

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