I just read an article entitled “The Imagination of C.S. Lewis” which talks about how to read the Narnia books from the perspective that the author intended. It is a good article, but I feel there are a couple of small problems in the way it encourages readers to understand and view Narnia and its characters.
Here is the critique that I sent as a comment to the website that posted the article:
I love the Narnia books, but I am not sure that I agree with the following:
“The parts of the stories in which Aslan is an active participant can thus be read devotionally, and in fact this is how Christian readers intuitively assimilate the stories.”
Unlike the Bible, the stories are not infallible, and Lewis (in all likelihood) could not and did not make the ‘perfect Aslan’ that was in all ways like the Christ that we serve. We should read the stories, and especially the parts where Aslan’s attributes and words become very clear, with discernment and understanding of what the scriptures do tell us very clearly about Christ.
Also, a couple of what historical Christian doctrine would define as errors in C.S. Lewis’s theology are also found in the Narnia stories:
1. Lewis disbelieved the doctrine of total depravity and the article seems to insinuate that when it says “people have a dual capacity for great good and great evil”. The only good we can do is not within our own ‘capacity’, but by the grace of God.
2. Nothing is mentioned in the article about the scene in “The Last Battle” where a heathen is accepted into heaven even though he did not know Aslan and had actually lived his whole life in opposition to him. Aslan is quoted as saying that all the service the man had done to Tash had actually been done to him. This is not the historical Christian view. I believe it is known as the ‘wider mercy’ view of salvation and many conservative Christians would deem it as heresy and very dangerous.
These are the reasons that I do not agree that the stories should be read in any devotional sort of way. Rather, they should be read with much discernment and enjoyed for the stories they are. The truths that do resound as being true and undeniable Christian beliefs should be rejoiced in and gleaned from.
