Posted on 12/07/2005 7:37:30 PM PST by xzins
Newly Discovered Letter Reveals Narnia Story is About Christ
Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2005 Posted: 8:51:21PM EST
This Friday, when tens of thousands head to the theaters for the motion picture release of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” church groups will have with them a new piece of evidence that the children's story tells a Christian message.
This Friday, when tens of thousands head to the theaters for the release of ''Narnia,'' churchgoers will have with them a new piece of evidence that the children's story tells a Christian message.
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Recent reports revealed the discovery of a letter written by the famed author in 1961. The letter, addressed to a child fan, reads: "The whole Narnian story is about Christ," according to The Sunday Times of Britain. It was found by Walter Hooper, literary adviser to the Lewis estate.
Christians and secularists have been tugging at their ends in debating Lewis' message in the popular children's series. Churches have cited allusions to the gospel and Jesus while others, including Douglas Gresham, Lewis' stepson, simply regard it as an adventure story.
Professor Andrew Quicke, professor of Cinema Television at Regent University, said Narnia was not written as "an evangelical religious tract" but rather "as a story."
"The nonbelievers and believers are getting much too uptight about this," he said.
Speaking more to the literary art of the allegory, Quicke quoted T.S. Eliot, who he said "summed up the discussion perfectly."
"Literary criticism (for us film criticism) should be completed by criticism from a definite ethical and theological standpoint," he said.
"The subject of literature was too important not to be completed from a theological perspective," he added.
Quicke attributed credibility to the recent letter finding.
"I'm sure the letter is genuine. I don't disagree with it at all," he said.
However, he clearly stated, "C.S. Lewis writes allegory and we should judge his stories in terms of their literary merit when we look at the story and cinematic merit when we look at the film."
While Narnia is not written as a way of promoting the gospel, Quicke says Lewis wrote stories "very much within the Christian tradition with strong Christian undertones and overtones."
Lewis converted to Christianity as an adult after having abandoned it as a child.
A volume of Lewis letters is slated for publishing in 2006.
Lillian Kwon lillian@christianpost.com
say what??
Wow, I wonder what all those 'sleeper muslims' we have spread throughout America think about movies like this. This movie should have fantastic patronage throughout certain parts of Michigan.
You have the appropriate screenname -- LOL!
Ahh. Ballam's Ass Speaks.
I haven't been to their website in years.
I remember visiting about 8 years ago and reading that Promise Keepers was a "phallic cult from Hell."
Thanks, but was this ever in doubt? I read biographies of Lewis and Tolkein last year, and it was abundantly obvious in both of these that Narnia was about Jesus.
"And this just in...fire is hot"
And so is Hell!
'Till We Have Faces'
That would make an awesome movie!
And yes I am Psyche, too!
I thought it was about Kirk Cameron.
"However, I'm finding the timing of this "find" just a little too convenient"
Well you have to ask your-self..was the find genuine and to whom was it convenient for? And you also have to ask your-self, what agency or Force engineered such a convenience?
What man may propose, God may dispose...or perhaps IMPOSE!
In other news, it now appears as if Bush won Ohio.
And researches seem poised to announce definitively that bears poop in the woods.
researchERS, Taliesan, you knucklehead
Actually, Lewis emphatically denied it was an allegory of Christ's life....in the strictest sense. It was a story of what Christ would be, were he in a different place.
I just read a whole National Geographic article on how Narnia was not about Christ, and they made a big deal about the mythological creatures such as minotaurs and satyrs.
I think liberals want to see it, and know it will be a big movie, so they have to find a way to convince themselves it isn't Christian.
The passion they attacked because it was too violent. (I remember one critic lamenting why do Christians go to see this movie, when there are so many better films about Christ like the "The Last Temptation of Christ"? Ha!)
This they know kids will want to see, so they are just going to pretend it isn't Christian at all.
LOL! Let's just say it's a "holiday" movie.
Is there a link to the Nat'l Geographic article? If not, can you give the date and article title? Thanks. I'd like to ping a few dozen folks who wonder why it's significant to nail down Lewis' intent.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1209_051209_narnia_lewis.html
Here it is - I had to hunt for it.
It's not so much as they say it's not Christian, but they really downplay Christian influence. You'll see when you read it.
Thanks. I appreciate your help.
No, it is nothing like the 'Screwtape Letters'.
'The Taste for the Other' is a book on C.S. Lewis' "social and ethical" thoughts.
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