Comments on: Christian Review - Chronicles of Narnia

By: Chalieg123

Chalieg123 — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:41:51 +0000

I thank you so much for this post! I remember reading the books for school while growing up, and thought nothing of it. But as I’ve matured in my christianity, my eyes are also being opened and renewed every day. Someone had bought the Narnia series on CD for my children a few years back, but they were too young to understand them. Now that they are getting older, I also find myself thinking about what I’ll be actually teaching them if I let them listen. I dont get a lot of support in my thoughts that maybe this isnt the best way to teach my children christianity, so am thankful for your post. I see I am not alone in my conviction, and I too will wait until my children are older and I can fully explain what parts don’t match up with God’s word!

By: Paul R. Vaughn

Paul R. Vaughn — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 21:24:08 +0000

Vitil, Thank you for your encouragement.

I intended to post this link to the follow up and only just now realized that I had failed to include it in this thread.

Please see the following link for additional discussion of Narnia and Lewis.

http://www.josiahproject.com/2006/01/20/chronicles-of-narnia-follow-up/

By: Vitil

Vitil — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 03:23:41 +0000

Good job.

By: Daniel Grady

Daniel Grady — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 03:13:25 +0000

I can certainly appreciate the knowledge, and advice of any man who investigates and uncovers the many different views of any form of media for the protection of his family. Praise be to God that He has supplied to us this example, shown by His love and actions. I personally had never read any C.S. Lewis material in my life, and now at the age of 34 I have seen the movie “The chronicles of Narnia; the lion witch and the wardrobe” and I must say that I appreciated his works and his (from my finite view) ever so slight “christian” similarities. I dont think that the question is of his “theological” background, or lack of, but his appearance to include small sililarities of his faith and what he believed to be “Christian character”. This set of books, as well as, “A pilgrims progress” show evidence of his belief in the Christian idea and more specific of his understanding of God. In the 1930’s he wrote other religious books, some having more profound application to character than others, yet he had application to a christian lifestyle. These books included, “The screwtape letters”, and “The problem of pain”. If there are more, I am not aware of them, as I have not investigated him too intensely. However, I do see these as “highly imaginative” stories, with certain christian application that many could pull from. Christian thoughts were there, in fact he applied many of these principles to his everyday life. He gave away nearly two-thirds of his income throughout his life, sat at bedside with the sick, and personally served and gave to the poor. If we were to examine these actions, and know of what he wrote, how could we not come to any other conclusion, except that there could have been some Christian application in his works?

By: Nicholas J. Stojakovich

Nicholas J. Stojakovich — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 17:11:04 +0000

The chronicles of narnia was never intended to be a theological treatise and apologetic for chritianity it was and is a highy imaginative and allegorical story intended for children. Lewis always demonstrated his humility by acknowledging in both his fiction and non-fiction works that he was not a theologian. You miss entirely the overall purpose of the work if you attempt to put it under a “biblical microscope” and critique it as a theological treatise on christianity. Lewis and his works are not beyond criticism and critical thinking however his non-fiction works are the place to start if you must pick his bones to save the church and society from errant doctrine.

By: Watchful

Watchful — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 05:41:05 +0000

Thank you for the response. I certainly was not disputing that Lewis did not start as an enemy of the cross of Christ. And I would not dispute that Lewis had some strange carry overs certainly, but that is for a different conversation that I don’t have the energy for at this time ;-).

I did wonder how you would relate the all inclusiveness in your statement though and thank you for clarifying. I would totally agree that we are all born into original sin (in other words, born with the guilt of Adam), and there is nothing we can change about that. We didn’t have the choice to not be born into original sin. But what we hope to accomplish by the grace of God is to prevent our covenant children from being like Lewis was in the beginning of his life, an enemy to the cross of Christ. We are instead passing on the work of kingdom building to our children and to their children after them.

This is the burden God has placed on my heart, to raise up a Godly seed that will serve Him with all of their heart and mind and soul. I pray that the Lord will bless my wife and I with many of his little disciples, and may he grant us the grace to train and nurture them as His disciples.

BTW, thank you for this encouraging blog.

By: Paul TN

Paul TN — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 05:16:55 +0000

Watchful:

Here I had in mind that we are all born into sin. Our sin nature, makes us an enemy of Christ.

Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

In Lewis’ case he did not convert until later in life, and was in fact an open enemy of Christ, even though he was born into a Christian home. This is by his own admission. During this time, Lewis was serving his own interests, not those of God.

Phi 3:18-19 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

Because you are born into a covenant, does not mean that you are exampt from being an enemy to Christ.

Col 1:21-23 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;

While Lewis did repent and serve Christ the point was he did not start that way as many of us don’t.

By: Watchful

Watchful — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 04:39:32 +0000

This is my first time posting a comment on this blog, and am not sure exactly how it works… it’s a little different from blogger’s software.

Thanks for addressing this issue, I can understand where you are coming from even if I would not quite agree with your final analysis. But have any of us ever agreed completely on all things in this life?

I was wondering however, if you could clarify what you meant by the following statement?

“In fact, like all of us, he was an enemy of Christ for the early part of his life.”

I’m a little confused as to exactly what you meant by this. How does this statement affect those who are raised in the covenant and who have not been enemies of Christ in their early years, but who were instead raised as His disciples?

Thanks!