Ordinary Eve
Narnia - Christian or not?
‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’ is due to hit the movie screens on the 8th of December. CS Lewis’s classic story ‘The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe’ was first written in 1950 but has been dramatized for television several times since then. Andrew Adamson’s version is much more impressive, visually and technically, than previous adaptations and has the feel of a fantasy film, aimed to appeal at a wider audience than just children.
Not Christian?
Despite the widely acknowledged allegorical interpretations of the story, the director and the cast have played down the Christian symbolism of the book. The director said “it is open for the audience to interpret”. Tilda Swinton who plays the White Witch told the BBC News website that “faith is in the eye of the beholder” and that “ you can make a religious allegory out of anything, if that’s what you’re interested in.”. Producer Mark Johnson states that CS Lewis denied any religious implications.
Christian?
This is not in fact true, n 1954 Lewis wrote in response to questions from some 5th graders in Maryland about The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe the following“'I did not say to myself 'Let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in Narnia'; I said 'Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as he became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen'.
Loving it
I read the Narnia books as a child and though I did not register the Christian meaning I loved them so I agree that you can enjoy the book and watch the film without reading any Christian message into it. But it is an inescapable fact that Lewis’s Christian beliefs were implicit in his writing. He was a leading Christian writer and thinker of his day and his faith impacted everything he did. The themes of the book go far beyond the fight between the powers of good evil, so well played out by fantasy films and fairy tales. Aslan sacrifices himself for a human boy ‘the son of Adam’. The manner of his murder by his enemies, where he is mocked and hurt but does not try to fight back, is more than a little bit reminiscent of Christ’s crucifixion. Aslan’s ensuing resurrection features the grief-stricken Lucy and Susan not being able to find him where they left him and then encountering him alive, a reference to the women who went to Jesus’ tomb and were the first to see him risen from the dead. To quote Aslan in the book (page 14) “when a willing victim who has committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards”. Aslan later rallies his troops to fight an epic battle against the Witch’s forces.
2 reasons
So what can we make of the insistence on the idea that this film has nothing to do with Christianity when it blatantly does?I think there are 2 key reasons why the director and cast and behind the scenes the studio have taken this tack. Firstly, for those working on the film if they are not Christian they may well be uncomfortable with the idea of actively promoting something they don’t believe in and have negative associations with. Secondly, though it might be lucrative one level for those involved in the project to court the Christian audience, primarily the American Christian Right, it might in the long term be a bad thing for profits. Call me cynical? We are dealing with a deeply cynical industry.
So what's the decision?
So where does this leave us? It leaves us with a film we can truly enjoy not just on level of a great story that reminds us of the magic of Christmas and childhood but also of the retelling of the greatest story of good triumphing over evil that has ever been acted out on earth. One of the reasons why The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is so loved the world over is that it speaks to something very deep in our make up. Our longing for the world to be right, for God’s promises to be true for good to triumph over evil. Let’s not be bothered by the disavowal of the Christianity in this story, let’s respond to it on all its levels and watch others doing the same whether they want to or not!
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe opens in the UK on the 8th of December
Kate Orr
