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
Same here. I never realized there was a controversy.
here's a cool trailer for the movie.
http://www.narniaweb.com/trailers.asp
Duh.
The story is older still...
"His step-son said....."
Well, if one plainly examines C.S. Lewis' writings, and has a basic understanding of Jesus Christ, as well as allegorical style, it's truely a "no brainer."
What has escaped C.S. Lewis' step-son's understanding is beyond me.
It could very well be genuine, in which case it was already known but is just now being made public to generate some extra hype for the film.
Sharp as an orange.
Yep. Interestingly, he was an atheist in his early adult life. Here's more from Wikipedia.
Although an atheist for the early part of his adult life, Lewis began investigating the claims of Christianity during the twenties. In 1929 he came to believe in the existence of God, later writing "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed", describing himself later as "the most reluctant convert of all time". In 1931, influenced by his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, he became a Christian and a member of the Church of England. He was later to write an account of his journey of faith under the title Surprised by Joy.
maybe you should get buckhead on it.
if ya ask me, there are probably several places you could find similar comments from CS himself. No one really bothered to look until folks started whining...
I wonder if they knew that, laugh!
bump
"It's not a Christian film and the Narnia books aren't Christian novels....Jack didn't intend the Narnia books to be an evangelistic fantasy... The myths of Narnia are partly those of the great man-made religions - Norse mythology, Hindu mythology, as well as the true myth of Christ. Exposure to man's myths will make young viewers ask questions about themselves - and only later will the seed of faith take root.
h/t http://clivedavis.blogs.com/clive/2005/12/in_out_of_the_w.html
I should say in reply to my own post, that Lewis' stepson has been agitating for years for the Christ references, metaphors, etc., be expunged from the Narnia series. Some recent print runs of the book series have actually complied with this.
It is to Disney's credit that they resisted this pressure, and did not flinch from including the messianic portions of LWW. (I'm not doubting that their considerations included monetary issues, mind you...;)
Duh, ya think?
Nooooo, really?
Can you post a source confirming this? A few months ago I bought the series to re-read (Read them originally in Jr. High). I dont remember if anything was different, as it had been a while between readings. If its true, Im surprised there hasn't been more criticism of it.. but then again, Im sort of not surprised :P
Its not like this was a secret or something before the letter
what ever happened to the ENDER'S GAME film??
Of course the story is about Christ. However, I'm finding the timing of this "find" just a little too convenient.
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