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Before this film, I think the cinematic Narnia series was a little like Lucy, looking enviously at big-sister Susan. Maybe it was trying too hard to be the next Lord of the Rings or aspire to Harry Potter-level success. It worked so hard to be literary and spectacular that, just maybe, it forgot what the Narnia books were at their core: children's stories. Meaningful stories, yes. Good stories, absolutely, filled with allegorical heft and layers of meaning … but at their core, they're meant to be fun. Dawn Treader found the fun. For two hours, I was engrossed in a...

The studios behind the new "Narnia" movie are walking a tightrope in their quest to promote the third film in the fantasy franchise to a Christian audience and to general moviegoers. But they also are going out of their way not to pigeonhole the film as something that will appeal just to the world's 2.2 billion Christians. Case in point is Liam Neeson, who voices Aslan, the resurrected lion in the upcoming film. The actor said at a news conference last week that his character doesn't necessarily represent Christ. That might be news to Lewis, though, who wrote the opposite...

What newspapers do you read? It was the question that arguably did Sarah Palin the most harm during the 2008 election. When the Republican vice presidential candidate could not name for Katie Couric which magazines or papers she regularly read that informed her worldview, it fueled the perception among voters that she was not ready for national office. In an interview with Barbara Walters, Palin set the record straight. "I read anything and everything that I can get my hands on as I have since I was a little girl," Palin told Walters in an interview to air tonight on...

Political correctness has now raised its head is what one would have thought a stronghold of traditional Christianity -- the work of C.S. Lewis. To be precise, the new film of his Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of the best-selling "Narnia" series of children's books.The Dawn Treader is a revival of an old Irish form, the Immram, telling of a ship voyaging among islands, with the crew learning some lesson at each stopping place.The imaginary world of Narnia is, of course, under the rule of kings who acknowledge the rule of its Creator, the good lion Aslan, an attempt by Lewis...

The first official trailer for the third movie installment of the “Chronicles of Narnia” made its public debut Thursday morning, giving fans a peak at what some thought wasn't going to be after Walt Disney Pictures abandoned ship. Released at midnight, the two-minute trailer for "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" beckons Narnia fans to “Return to Hope,” “Return to Magic,” and “Return to Narnia” five years after the first film hit theaters to positive reviews and box office success. “You have returned for a reason. Your adventure begins now,” says the series’ central character, Aslan, in the trailer. Also...

Years ago, when our daughter attended a church- sponsored preschool, we were invited to an informal meeting about parenting techniques. After orientation by the school director, we broke into discussion groups. The topic was discipline, a burning issue for preschool parents, swerving naturally to "How do we teach them right from wrong?" One father in our group apparently wanted to stir the pot. Early in the conversation he asked, "But how do we know what's right and wrong? Do those words have any meaning?" If he was hoping for a Socratic discussion he didn't get it, neither the first time...

Although it might seem unlikely that anyone would wonder whether the author of The Lord of the Rings was Jewish, the Nazis took no chances. When the publishing firm of Ruetten & Loening was negotiating with J. R. R. Tolkien over a German translation of The Hobbit in 1938, they demanded that Tolkien provide written assurance that he was an Aryan. Tolkien chastised the publishers for “impertinent and irrelevant inquiries,” and—ever the professor of philology— lectured them on the proper meaning of the term: “As far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any...

In the past five years - before our very eyes - we have seen the nearly complete erosion and virtual extinction of conservative policies and programs in US politics. It seems that The United States is increasingly becoming more like a secular socialist State than the Representative Republic of "In God We Trust" that it was founded upon. Our Judean-Christian heritage, morality and values do not dominate our culture and society as they once did. Another reality is that many have never known any other kind of society than what presently exists. Accountability, responsibility and virtue are “hisses and by-words”...

From C. S. Lewis: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but ................ those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Not only do the findings of science have moral implications, the actual work of scientific research presupposes that the researcher himself is a man of virtue. When scientific research is divorced from, or worse opposed to, the life of virtue it is not simply the research or the researcher that suffers but the whole human family. Take for example, the scandal surrounding the conduct of researchers at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at East Anglia University in the UK. Whether or not the recently revealed emails and computer programs from undermine the theory of anthropological global warning (AGW), it is...

“…For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand. …”~W.B. Yeats First, my title is in no way intended to be a slight to C.S. Lewis, but rather a tribute and expression of gratitude for his many works that have profoundly influenced my intellectual and spiritual life these past years. Mimicry, it is said, is the sincerest form of flattery, and while I get the impression that Mr. Lewis was not particularly prone to vanity, I like to think he might be smiling down with the knowledge that my humble efforts here have grown out of thoughts and...

Almost 75 years after the death of G. K. Chesterton and 45 years after the death of C. S. Lewis, millions continue to read them as guides and gurus. New readers will pick up a book, or even just an essay or two, and become lifelong fans and devotees. These portly, homely, undramatic men are still the bookish Christian's rock stars.   Their new readers, having become fans, excitedly look up the lists of their books -- and stop dead. There's just too much to read, and too little time, and some of those books look like slow going....

No doubt many of you have seen the new movie based on the Chronicles of Narnia. The movie, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, is getting rave reviews from critics and viewers alike. Many churches are promoting the movie to its members. Although it is no secret, many young earth creationists who have enjoyed the movie probably do not realize that the author, C. S. Lewis, is an old earth creationist, who believed in evolution.1 Many people, including many young earth creationists, regard Lewis as one of the great theologians of the last century. For instance, a search of...

C.S. Lewis’ short but masterful The Great Divorce is about Ghosts in Hell who journey by omnibus up through a crack in the earth to meet Solid People and hopefully be guided into the mountains. As the Ghosts become substantive their feet are pricked by the sharp grass. Only a few overcome their problems and journey into the mountains while most board the bus and shrink into oblivion as it descends back down the crack from whence it came.

Nearly every Christian with a liking toward fantasy has their favorite Narnia book, Narnia scene, or Narnia character. But so do many non-Christians. C.S. Lewis' classic children's books are a milestone of literary consciousness for young readers of every background and persuasion: for some, a passport through the wardrobe into the real, living Kingdom of Christ. For others, a painful journey from delight to dismay. That was the experience of Laura Miller, columnist for Salon.com and regular contributor to The New York Times. In her early teens, Miller was stunned to realize that the stories that enchanted her childhood were...

Twentieth Century Fox has agreed to co-finance the third movie in the “Chronicles of Narnia” series, pending approval of the final script and shooting budget. If all goes as planned, Fox and Walden Media, which controls the movie rights to C.S. Lewis’ classic children's books, hope to be begin production on "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" by late summer so it will be ready for holiday 2010 release.

Some time ago, writer Andrew Klavan wrote a compelling review of the movie "Batman," comparing the caped hero to George W. Bush. Both figures gave of themselves on behalf of good in a knock-down, drag-out battle against pure, unmitigated evil, and neither was appreciated -- quite the contrary, they were often viewed as the bad guys by an ungrateful public. Klavan's analogy was right on. My mind, however, for several years now, has raced back to another movie when I think about George W. Bush -- actually, a scene in the movie, based on a scene in a book by...

Los Angeles - Disney confirmed Wednesday that it would not be involved in the third film of "The Chronicles of Narnia" fantasy series, dealing a blow to the franchise based on CS Lewis's classic books. A spokesperson for Disney confirmed in an e-mail that the company had chosen not to exercise an option to co-produce and co-finance the next Narnia film with producers Walden Media. The Hollywood Reporter cited "budgetary and logistical reasons" for Disney's decision, which leaves the third film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader facing an uncertain future. The film was due to...

The West is a mess, just as Lewis warned. With its decline we face the eclipse of true freedom. Lewis’ words in this book are timely: “And all the time – such is the tragicomedy of our situation – we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more ‘drive,’ or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or ‘creativity.’ In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue...

Ed. Note: this is the first instalment of a detailed critique of a major New Scientist anti-creationist diatribe. This one deals with a substantial section in the article, which tries to downplay the Nazi reliance on Darwinian theories, and instead tries to smear Christianity as a cause of the Holocaust...