Transcript The Makings of Narnia
Slide 1
The Makings of CS Lewis’s
Enchanted World of Narnia
Professor Paulo F. Ribeiro
MBA, PhD, PE, IEEE Fellow
December 6, 2005 – 7PM
Student Activities Office
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Slide 2
Outline
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The Providential Timing of This Movie
Introductory Observations (speaker)
The Author: Jack - CS Lewis
The Makings of Narnia
A Taste of the Story
The Biblical Connections
Conclusion: The Magic Never Ends
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Slide 3
The Providential Timing of This Movie
• Disney passed the opportunity several times
– Too British, Too Christian, Too Costly
– It would have been a watered-down version
• The Passion and The Lord of the Rings
• Lewis’ Opposition to a Human Pantomime
• Advanced Computer Generated Imaging
– Technology (Impossible a few years ago)
– Lewis would approve of it.
• What Better Preparation for Christmas?
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Slide 4
• Fascination with Lewis
started in 1974
(University in Brazil)
• Started with Theological
writings – then my
children introduced me
to Narnia
• Spent Four years in
England & read
everything Lewis wrote
which consolidated my
appreciation
• Became a CS Lewis
freak (according to my
children)
Introductory
Observations
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Slide 5
The Author:
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CS Lewis
Born in Belfast in 1898.
Educated in England (prep school – Oxford University)
Army in 1917, saw front-line combat
Returned to Oxford, graduated in 1922 and became a fellow
of Magdalen college in 1925.
An atheist in his boyhood - converted to Christianity in 1931.
Wartime religious talks on the BBC, plus some other
theological books brought him fame (+Narnia)
Was part of the Oxford literary circle (the Inklings) whose
members also included J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams.
In 1957 he married Joy Davidman Gresham, an American
with whom he had corresponded with. Joy was suffering
from cancer at the time of their marriage – she died in 1960.
Died on November the 22nd 1963 - same day that John F.
Kennedy was assassinated.
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Slide 6
The Author: (Jack)
• Clear thinking and writing – Captivating.
• Came from the outside
• He has helped me to overcome chronological snobbery, postmodernism, etc. His writings: precise, penetrating logic, vivid,
lively, and playful imagination.
• Taught the English language to sing
– (Kreeft: “What Christian ever made Latin dance as Augustine
did? What Christian ever taught English to sing as Lewis
did? Their words are like diamonds, full of light yet full of
heaviness; full of grace and truth.”)
• I found the perfect marriage: Brazilian Music & Lewis’s English
• He always points to the ultimate source: Christ.
• His theology was not perfect, but his practice was exemplary
(almost Reformed)
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Slide 7
The Author: (Jack)
•Premature reader and writer (from a
bookish family)
•In Surprised by Joy Lewis tells of his
first stories of dressed animals”
•He was between 7 & 9 years old when
he wrote a full history of Animal-Land,
complete with map and colorful
illustrations (Boxen)
•Boxen, however, did not have much to
do with Narnia, except for the
anthropomorphic beasts, it had the
tiniest hint of wonder.
•Suffered from an undefinable desire
(romantic longing)
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Slide 8
The Makings of Narnia
•Fairy Tales – Tolkien’s
influence (the Gospels
contain a story of a kind
which embraces all the
essence of fairy-stories:
Marvels, beauty, mythical,
symbolic, allegorical, etc.)
•JRR Tolkien (-) and Roger
Lancelyn Green (+)
Reactions
•A Series Which Almost
Never Was
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Slide 9
The Makings of Narnia
•Jack: Not very familiar with
children (Letters to Children)
•What is it: Allegory, Fantasy,
Fairy Tales, Myth ?
•Jack: Defended Fairy Tales:
Fantastic Creations –
Mythological Figures & Father
Christmas
•How it all
Begun
(16 years old)
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Slide 10
The Makings of Narnia
Why Fairy-Tales?
“Hence a man who admits that dwarfs and giants and
talking beasts and witches are still dear to him in his
fifty-third year is now less likely to be praised for his
perennial youth than scorned and pitied for arrested
development. If I spend some little time defending
myself against these charges, this is not so much
because it matters greatly whether I am scorned and
pitied as because the defense is germane to my
whole view of the fairy tale and even of literature in
general.”
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Slide 11
The Makings of Narnia
How Effective are Fairy-Tales in Conveying Truth?
--- the giants and dwarfs and talking beasts. I believe these to
be at least an admirable hieroglyphic which conveys
psychology, types of character, more briefly than novelistic
presentation and to readers whom novelistic presentation
could not yet reach. Consider Mr. Badger in The Wind in the
Willows — that extraordinary amalgam of high rank, coarse
manners, gruffness, shyness, and goodness. The child who
has once met Mr. Badger has ever afterwards, in its bones, a
knowledge of humanity and of English social history which it
could not get in any other way.
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Slide 12
The Makings of Narnia
What about the Violence in the stories?
“Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least
have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are
making their destiny not brighter but darker. Nor do most of us find
that violence and bloodshed, in a story, produce any haunting dread
in the minds of children. As far as that goes, I side impenitently with
the human race against the modern reformer. Let there be wicked
kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons,
and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book. Nothing will
persuade me that this causes an ordinary child any kind or degree
of fear beyond what it wants, and needs, to feel. For, of course, it
wants to be a little frightened.
For in the fairy tales, side by side with the terrible figures, we find the
immemorial comforters and protectors, the radiant ones; and the
terrible figures are not merely terrible, but sublime. It would be nice
if no little boy in bed, hearing, or thinking he hears, a sound, were
ever at all frightened. But if he is going to be frightened, I think it
better that he should think of giants and dragons than merely of
burglars. And I think St George, or any bright champion in armor, is
a better comfort than the idea of the police.”
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Slide 13
The Makings of Narnia
Are These Books for Children or Adults?
• "No book is really worth reading at the age of
ten which is not equally worth reading at the
age of fifty. The only imaginative works we
ought to grow out of are those which it would
have been better not to have read at all."
• “The boy does not despise real woods because
he has read of enchanted woods: the reading
makes all real woods a little more enchanted."
The child reading the fairy tale is delighted
simply in desiring, while the child reading a
"realistic" story may establish the success of its
hero as a standard for himself and, when he
cannot have the same success, may suffer
bitter disappointment.”
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Slide 14
Is It Right to Mix Theology and FairyTales? (Personal)
The
Makings
of Narnia
• “I thought I saw how stories of this kind
could steal past a certain inhibition which
had paralyzed much of my own religion in
childhood. Why did one find so hard to
feel as one told one ought to feel about
God or about the sufferings of Christ? I
thought the chief reason was that one was
told one ought to. An obligation to feel
can freeze feelings … But supposing that
by casting all these things into an
imaginary world, stripping them of their
stained-glass and Sunday School
associations, one could make them for the
first time appear in their real potency?
Could one not steal past these watchful
dragons?” I thought one could.”
• Fantasy has the power to reach all ages,
regardless of educational background or
intellectual ability!
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Slide 15
The Makings of Narnia
Is It Right to Mix Theology and Fairy-Tales? (Literary)
From a theological perspective Lewis saw true myths and stories as
memories or echoes of God Himself and our imagination as their
receptor. He explained this relationship as a mythological
expression of the Gospel story:
"It was he [the imaginative man] who, after my
conversion, led me to embody my religious belief in
symbolical or mythopoeic form, ranging from
Screwtape to a kind of theological science fiction.
And it was of course he who has brought me, in the
last few years, to write the series of Narnian stories
for children; not asking what children want and then
endeavoring to adapt myself but because the fairy
tale was the best fitted for what I wanted to say."
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Slide 16
The Makings
of Narnia
• Relation to our world
– Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve
• The British humor
– Is Man a Myth
– Tea Parties
– “Huge Jug of Beer for Mr. Beaver”
• The Idea of Aslan
– Lewis’s Greatest Religious Achievement
– Analogies: symbol of power, lion, king in an animal
world
• LWW Fall 1950 – Cautious Reviews – The Future
– The New Movie is Creating Controversies
– Philip Pullman, Charles McGrath (New York Times)
• Pre-Baptism of Imagination.
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Slide 17
he Makings
The Dedication of the LWW:
f Narnia My Dear Lucy,
I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had
not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a
result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by
the time it is printed and bound you will be older stil
But some day you will be old enough to start readin
fairy tales again. You can then take it down from
some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think
of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old
to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be
Your affectionate Godfather,
C.S. Lewis
The Irony: Lewis did not live long after all and Lucy – a young
ballet dancer, musician and teacher was struck with
paralysis and unable to reach any upper shelves at all. Her
long winter came early in life.
But when Aslan shakes his mane, we shall have
spring again.
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Slide 18
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
Nature
1 – Romantic Appreciation: Reverent and Insatiable Delight
“This is no thaw; this is spring” LWW
2 – The Supernatural
“But do you really mean, Sir,” asked one of the boys, “that there could be
other worlds – all over the place, just round the corner – like that?” LWW
3 – Fallen Nature: Evil was not an abstract but a reality
Watch Edmund and the White Witch to see evil in operation
“We find ourselves in a world of transporting pleasures, ravishing
beauties, and tantalizing possibilities, but all constantly being destroyed.
Nature has all the air of a goof thing spoiled.”
Nature is more than a background setting for the action of his characters
“Either there is significance in the whole process of things as well as in
human activities, or there is no significance in human activity itself.”
C.S. Lewis, The Personal Heresy, 1939.
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Slide 19
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
God
1 – Aslan: Simple / Powerful Image
“And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew
who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver
had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has
sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says
something which you don't understand but in the dream it feels as if
it had some enormous meaning---either a terrifying one which turns
the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely
to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you
remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into
that dream again. It was like now. At the name of Aslan each one of
the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a
sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and
adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful
strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you
have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the
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beginning of the holidays or beginning of summer.” LWW
Slide 20
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
God
2 - Bodily Form
"Is-is he a man?" asked Lucy.
"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King
of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don't you
know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel
rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs Beaver; "if there's anyone
who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either
braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said
anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell
you."
"I'm longing to see him," said Peter, "even if I do feel frightened when it
comes to the point.“ LWW
"Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed.
Rev. 5:5
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Slide 21
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
God
3 – Authority
"Will you promise not to- do anything to me if I do come?" said Jill.
"I make no promise," said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a
step nearer.
"Do you eat girls?" she said.
"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and
emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion.
It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as
if it were angry. It just said it.
"I daren't come and drink," said Jill.
"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.
"Oh dear!," said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I
should go and look for another stream then."
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"There is no other stream," said the Lion. (Silver Chair)
Slide 22
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
God
4 – Love
"I asked, are you ready?" said the Lion.
"Yes," said Digory...But when he had said "Yes," he thought of his
Mother, and he thought of the great hopes he had had, and how they
were all dying away, and a lump came in his throat and tears in his
eyes, and he blurted out:
"But please, please--won't you--can't you give me something that
will cure Mother?"
Up till then, he had been looking at the Lion's great feet and the
huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face.
What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life.
For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of
wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion's eyes. They were
such big, bright tears compared with Digory's own that for a
moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother
than he was himself.
"My son, my son," said Aslan. "I know. Grief is great. Only you and I
in this land know that yet. Let us be good to one another...“
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Magician Nephew
Slide 23
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
God
5 – Justice and Mercy
Aslan used physical affliction to
affect the cure of sin as well as the
punishment of sin. In the VDT
Eustace is turned into a dragon
because of his irresponsibility.
Aslan dies for Edmund in the LWW
The
Makings of
Narnia
6 - Creativity and Care
"Creatures I give you yourselves,"
said the strong, happy voice of Aslan.
"I give you this land of Narnia. I give
you the woods, the fruits, the rivers. I
give you the stars and i give you
myself. The Dumb Beasts whom I
have not chosen are yours also. Treat
them gently and cherish them but do
not go back to their ways lest you
cease to be Talking Beasts. For out of
them you were taken and into them
you can return. Do not so.“
Magician N
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The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
Humanity
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and
goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most
uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature
which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to
worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now
meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some
degree, helping each other to one or other of these
destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming
possibilities that we should conduct all our dealings with one
another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere
mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization--these are mortal But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub,
and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses
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Slide 25
The Makings of
Narnia
• Consequently ----• Moral education. . . does not look much like teaching. One cannot have
classes in it. It involves the inculcation of proper emotional responses
and is as much a "knowing how" as a " knowing that." . . . The picture
we get when we think of “knowing how" is the apprentice working with
the master. And the inculcation of right emotional responses will take
place only if the youth has around him examples of men and women
for whom such responses have become natural.
• Lewis, like Aristotle, believed that moral principles are learned
indirectly from others around us, who serve as exemplars. . . .
• This is also the clue to understanding the Chronicles within Lewis's
thought. They are not just good stories. Neither are they primarily
Christian allegories (in fact, they are not allegories at all).
• The Chronicles serve to enhance moral -education, to build character. .
To overlook the function of the Chronicles of Narnia in communicating
images of proper emotional responses is to miss their connection to 25
Lewis’s moral thought.
Slide 26
A Taste of the Story
-(1-4)London Children being evacuated to the country during WW II. Children
Transported from this world into a world of fairy-tale creatures belonging to a great
lion (four books on this scheme). The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince
Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Silver Chair)
- (5)The tale of two native children of that world who are also chosen by the great lion
to serve the land of Narnia and to know him in a special way (Horse and His Boy).
-(6)The beginning of the world of Narnia - the intrusion of two Victorian children into
the newborn world begins the complications which give rise to all the later
adventures. (The Magician’s Nephew)
-(7)The end of Narnia (Last Battle)
Each story complete in itself - Fragmented - Strong unity of philosophy and
consistency of doctrine.
Lewis remained faithful to his original intention to write stories for children while
adding in subtle moral and spiritual complexities.
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Slide 27
A Taste of the Story
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Slide 28
The LWW - Main Theme: Winter to Spring
1. Lucy accidentally found herself in Narnia via the wardrobe
2. Visit with Mr. Tumnus the Faun - returned to England
3. Edmund finds Narnia and meets the Witch
A Taste of the Story
4. Edmund became addicted to Turkish Delight
5. Peter and Susan assumed that Lucy’s Narnia was unreal
6. All four children found themselves in Narnia
7. The four learned about Narnia by visiting Mr. And Mrs. Beaver
8. Edmund betrayed the others to the White Witch
9. Edmund made his way to the Witch’s castle and became captive there
10. As the children and the Beavers fled, Father Christmas arrived with gifts
11. The Witch discovered that her perpetual winter was beginning to thaw
12. Aslan appeared, greeted his friends and knighted Peter
13. The Witch demanded her right to kill Edmund
14. Aslan gave himself to the Witch to die in Edmund’s place
15. Aslan came back to life
16. Aslan revived all victims of the Witch that she had turned to statues
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17. The children ruled Narnia for years before returning to England
Slide 29
A Taste of the Story
Where It Was Always Winter
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Slide 30
A Taste of the Story
But Not For Very Long
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Slide 31
The Biblical Connection
The LWW and the Bible
Chapter 1 – The Learning / Discovery Mandate
Ecclesiastes: 11:9
(every square inch of Narnia is claimed by Aslan)
B e h a p p y , y o u n g m a n , w h ile y o u a re y o u n g , a n d le t y o u r h e a rt g iv e
y o u jo y in th e d a y s o f y o u r y o u th . F o llo w th e w a y s o f y o u r h e a rt
a n d w h a te v e r y o u r e y e s se e , b u t k n o w th a t fo r a ll th e se th in g s
G o d w ill b rin g y o u to ju d g m e n t.
Chapter 2 – Integrity
Jeremiah 9:8
T h e ir to n g u e is a d e a d ly a rro w ;
it sp e a k s w ith d e ce it.
W ith h is m o u th e a c h sp e a k s co rd ia lly to h is n e ig h b o r,
b u t in h is h e a rt h e s e ts a tra p fo r h im .
Chapter 3 – Reality of Evil
Proverbs 11:12
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Slide 32
The Biblical Connection
The LWW and The Bible
Chapter 4 – Temptations
Proverbs 9:17
"Stolen w ater is sw eet;
food eaten in secret is delicious!"
Chapter 5 – Courage to Stand on Your Own
Proverbs 12:18
Chapter 6 – Responsibility
Proverbs 4:18
T he path of the righ teous is like the first gleam of daw n,
shin ing ever brighter till the full lig ht of day .
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Slide 33
The Biblical Connection
The LWW and The Bible
Chapter 7 – Permanent Values & Rewards
Isaiah 26:8
Y e s, L O R D , w a lk in g in th e w a y o f y o u r la w s ,
w e w a it fo r y o u ;
y o u r n a m e a n d re n o w n
a re th e d e sire o f o u r h e a rts .
Chapter 8 – Deception
Isaiah 40:28
D o you not know ?
H a v e y o u n o t h e a rd ?
T h e L O R D is th e e v e rla stin g G o d ,
th e C re a to r o f th e e n d s o f th e e a rth .
H e w ill n o t g ro w tire d o r w e a ry ,
a n d h is u n d e rsta n d in g n o o n e ca n fa th o m .
Chapter 9 – The Inner Ring Deals with the Devil
Romans 8:5
T h o se w h o liv e a cco rd in g to th e sin fu l n a tu re h a v e th e ir m in d s se t o n
w h a t th a t n a tu re d e sire s; b u t th o se w h o liv e in a cco rd a n ce w ith th e
S p irit h a v e th e ir m in d s se t o n w h a t th e S p irit d e sire s
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Slide 34
The Biblical Connection
The LWW and The Bible
Chapter 10 – Restoration
Isaiah 52:7
Chapter 11 – The Power Behind it All
Songs of Songs 2:11-12
Chapter 12 – Our Own Battles
1 Kings 2:2
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Slide 35
The Biblical Connection
The LWW and The Bible
Chapter 13 – A Committed Commander
Psalm 51:4
Chapter 14 – The Apparent Victory of Evil
John 15:13
Chapter 15 – Unfolding and Restoration
Matthews 28:2
Chapter 16 – Subversive Restoration
Amos 3:8
Chapter 17 – Assurance of God’s Presence
James 1:12
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Slide 36
Conclusion: The Magic Never Ends
When I say ‘Magic’ I am not thinking of the pathetic techniques by
which fools attempt to control Nature. I mean rather what is
suggested by fairy-tale sentences like: 'This is a magic flower, and
if you carry it the seven gates will open to you of their own
accord." I should define magic in this sense as ‘objective efficacy
which cannot be further analyzed.’
Magic, in this sense, will always win a response from a normal
imagination because it is in principle so ' true to nature'. Mix these
two powders and there will be an explosion. Eat a grain of this and
you will die.
Now the value of the magical element in Christianity is this. It is a
permanent witness of the heavenly realm -Enlightened people want to get rid of this magical element in favor
of what they would call the' spiritual ' element. But what remains is36
only morality, or culture, or philosophy.
Slide 37
Conclusion:
The Magic
Never Ends
• The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located
will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came
through them, and what came through them was longing. These things
- the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what
we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn
into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are
not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not
found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we
have never yet visited . . . .
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Slide 38
“And the elderly lady in my adult education class on
the Chronicles of Narnia who answered my
question about what had attracted each of the
students to the Narnia books and to a course on
them by saying that they had saved her sanity and
her daughter's soul. When she was "sweet sixteen"
her daughter had said to her, "Mother, I hate you
and this whole family. I especially hate your God. I
never want to see you again," left for California,
and became a drug addict and a prostitute. Her
mother said, "I knew she would come back to us
and to God because I had read her the Chronicles
of Narnia when she was ten, and she had loved
them. And she did.”
Peter Kreeft
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The Makings of CS Lewis’s
Enchanted World of Narnia
Professor Paulo F. Ribeiro
MBA, PhD, PE, IEEE Fellow
December 6, 2005 – 7PM
Student Activities Office
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Slide 2
Outline
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The Providential Timing of This Movie
Introductory Observations (speaker)
The Author: Jack - CS Lewis
The Makings of Narnia
A Taste of the Story
The Biblical Connections
Conclusion: The Magic Never Ends
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Slide 3
The Providential Timing of This Movie
• Disney passed the opportunity several times
– Too British, Too Christian, Too Costly
– It would have been a watered-down version
• The Passion and The Lord of the Rings
• Lewis’ Opposition to a Human Pantomime
• Advanced Computer Generated Imaging
– Technology (Impossible a few years ago)
– Lewis would approve of it.
• What Better Preparation for Christmas?
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Slide 4
• Fascination with Lewis
started in 1974
(University in Brazil)
• Started with Theological
writings – then my
children introduced me
to Narnia
• Spent Four years in
England & read
everything Lewis wrote
which consolidated my
appreciation
• Became a CS Lewis
freak (according to my
children)
Introductory
Observations
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Slide 5
The Author:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
CS Lewis
Born in Belfast in 1898.
Educated in England (prep school – Oxford University)
Army in 1917, saw front-line combat
Returned to Oxford, graduated in 1922 and became a fellow
of Magdalen college in 1925.
An atheist in his boyhood - converted to Christianity in 1931.
Wartime religious talks on the BBC, plus some other
theological books brought him fame (+Narnia)
Was part of the Oxford literary circle (the Inklings) whose
members also included J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams.
In 1957 he married Joy Davidman Gresham, an American
with whom he had corresponded with. Joy was suffering
from cancer at the time of their marriage – she died in 1960.
Died on November the 22nd 1963 - same day that John F.
Kennedy was assassinated.
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Slide 6
The Author: (Jack)
• Clear thinking and writing – Captivating.
• Came from the outside
• He has helped me to overcome chronological snobbery, postmodernism, etc. His writings: precise, penetrating logic, vivid,
lively, and playful imagination.
• Taught the English language to sing
– (Kreeft: “What Christian ever made Latin dance as Augustine
did? What Christian ever taught English to sing as Lewis
did? Their words are like diamonds, full of light yet full of
heaviness; full of grace and truth.”)
• I found the perfect marriage: Brazilian Music & Lewis’s English
• He always points to the ultimate source: Christ.
• His theology was not perfect, but his practice was exemplary
(almost Reformed)
6
Slide 7
The Author: (Jack)
•Premature reader and writer (from a
bookish family)
•In Surprised by Joy Lewis tells of his
first stories of dressed animals”
•He was between 7 & 9 years old when
he wrote a full history of Animal-Land,
complete with map and colorful
illustrations (Boxen)
•Boxen, however, did not have much to
do with Narnia, except for the
anthropomorphic beasts, it had the
tiniest hint of wonder.
•Suffered from an undefinable desire
(romantic longing)
7
Slide 8
The Makings of Narnia
•Fairy Tales – Tolkien’s
influence (the Gospels
contain a story of a kind
which embraces all the
essence of fairy-stories:
Marvels, beauty, mythical,
symbolic, allegorical, etc.)
•JRR Tolkien (-) and Roger
Lancelyn Green (+)
Reactions
•A Series Which Almost
Never Was
8
Slide 9
The Makings of Narnia
•Jack: Not very familiar with
children (Letters to Children)
•What is it: Allegory, Fantasy,
Fairy Tales, Myth ?
•Jack: Defended Fairy Tales:
Fantastic Creations –
Mythological Figures & Father
Christmas
•How it all
Begun
(16 years old)
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Slide 10
The Makings of Narnia
Why Fairy-Tales?
“Hence a man who admits that dwarfs and giants and
talking beasts and witches are still dear to him in his
fifty-third year is now less likely to be praised for his
perennial youth than scorned and pitied for arrested
development. If I spend some little time defending
myself against these charges, this is not so much
because it matters greatly whether I am scorned and
pitied as because the defense is germane to my
whole view of the fairy tale and even of literature in
general.”
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Slide 11
The Makings of Narnia
How Effective are Fairy-Tales in Conveying Truth?
--- the giants and dwarfs and talking beasts. I believe these to
be at least an admirable hieroglyphic which conveys
psychology, types of character, more briefly than novelistic
presentation and to readers whom novelistic presentation
could not yet reach. Consider Mr. Badger in The Wind in the
Willows — that extraordinary amalgam of high rank, coarse
manners, gruffness, shyness, and goodness. The child who
has once met Mr. Badger has ever afterwards, in its bones, a
knowledge of humanity and of English social history which it
could not get in any other way.
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Slide 12
The Makings of Narnia
What about the Violence in the stories?
“Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least
have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are
making their destiny not brighter but darker. Nor do most of us find
that violence and bloodshed, in a story, produce any haunting dread
in the minds of children. As far as that goes, I side impenitently with
the human race against the modern reformer. Let there be wicked
kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons,
and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book. Nothing will
persuade me that this causes an ordinary child any kind or degree
of fear beyond what it wants, and needs, to feel. For, of course, it
wants to be a little frightened.
For in the fairy tales, side by side with the terrible figures, we find the
immemorial comforters and protectors, the radiant ones; and the
terrible figures are not merely terrible, but sublime. It would be nice
if no little boy in bed, hearing, or thinking he hears, a sound, were
ever at all frightened. But if he is going to be frightened, I think it
better that he should think of giants and dragons than merely of
burglars. And I think St George, or any bright champion in armor, is
a better comfort than the idea of the police.”
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Slide 13
The Makings of Narnia
Are These Books for Children or Adults?
• "No book is really worth reading at the age of
ten which is not equally worth reading at the
age of fifty. The only imaginative works we
ought to grow out of are those which it would
have been better not to have read at all."
• “The boy does not despise real woods because
he has read of enchanted woods: the reading
makes all real woods a little more enchanted."
The child reading the fairy tale is delighted
simply in desiring, while the child reading a
"realistic" story may establish the success of its
hero as a standard for himself and, when he
cannot have the same success, may suffer
bitter disappointment.”
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Slide 14
Is It Right to Mix Theology and FairyTales? (Personal)
The
Makings
of Narnia
• “I thought I saw how stories of this kind
could steal past a certain inhibition which
had paralyzed much of my own religion in
childhood. Why did one find so hard to
feel as one told one ought to feel about
God or about the sufferings of Christ? I
thought the chief reason was that one was
told one ought to. An obligation to feel
can freeze feelings … But supposing that
by casting all these things into an
imaginary world, stripping them of their
stained-glass and Sunday School
associations, one could make them for the
first time appear in their real potency?
Could one not steal past these watchful
dragons?” I thought one could.”
• Fantasy has the power to reach all ages,
regardless of educational background or
intellectual ability!
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Slide 15
The Makings of Narnia
Is It Right to Mix Theology and Fairy-Tales? (Literary)
From a theological perspective Lewis saw true myths and stories as
memories or echoes of God Himself and our imagination as their
receptor. He explained this relationship as a mythological
expression of the Gospel story:
"It was he [the imaginative man] who, after my
conversion, led me to embody my religious belief in
symbolical or mythopoeic form, ranging from
Screwtape to a kind of theological science fiction.
And it was of course he who has brought me, in the
last few years, to write the series of Narnian stories
for children; not asking what children want and then
endeavoring to adapt myself but because the fairy
tale was the best fitted for what I wanted to say."
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Slide 16
The Makings
of Narnia
• Relation to our world
– Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve
• The British humor
– Is Man a Myth
– Tea Parties
– “Huge Jug of Beer for Mr. Beaver”
• The Idea of Aslan
– Lewis’s Greatest Religious Achievement
– Analogies: symbol of power, lion, king in an animal
world
• LWW Fall 1950 – Cautious Reviews – The Future
– The New Movie is Creating Controversies
– Philip Pullman, Charles McGrath (New York Times)
• Pre-Baptism of Imagination.
16
Slide 17
he Makings
The Dedication of the LWW:
f Narnia My Dear Lucy,
I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had
not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a
result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by
the time it is printed and bound you will be older stil
But some day you will be old enough to start readin
fairy tales again. You can then take it down from
some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think
of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old
to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be
Your affectionate Godfather,
C.S. Lewis
The Irony: Lewis did not live long after all and Lucy – a young
ballet dancer, musician and teacher was struck with
paralysis and unable to reach any upper shelves at all. Her
long winter came early in life.
But when Aslan shakes his mane, we shall have
spring again.
17
Slide 18
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
Nature
1 – Romantic Appreciation: Reverent and Insatiable Delight
“This is no thaw; this is spring” LWW
2 – The Supernatural
“But do you really mean, Sir,” asked one of the boys, “that there could be
other worlds – all over the place, just round the corner – like that?” LWW
3 – Fallen Nature: Evil was not an abstract but a reality
Watch Edmund and the White Witch to see evil in operation
“We find ourselves in a world of transporting pleasures, ravishing
beauties, and tantalizing possibilities, but all constantly being destroyed.
Nature has all the air of a goof thing spoiled.”
Nature is more than a background setting for the action of his characters
“Either there is significance in the whole process of things as well as in
human activities, or there is no significance in human activity itself.”
C.S. Lewis, The Personal Heresy, 1939.
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Slide 19
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
God
1 – Aslan: Simple / Powerful Image
“And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew
who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver
had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has
sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says
something which you don't understand but in the dream it feels as if
it had some enormous meaning---either a terrifying one which turns
the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely
to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you
remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into
that dream again. It was like now. At the name of Aslan each one of
the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a
sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and
adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful
strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you
have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the
19
beginning of the holidays or beginning of summer.” LWW
Slide 20
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
God
2 - Bodily Form
"Is-is he a man?" asked Lucy.
"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King
of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don't you
know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel
rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs Beaver; "if there's anyone
who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either
braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said
anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell
you."
"I'm longing to see him," said Peter, "even if I do feel frightened when it
comes to the point.“ LWW
"Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed.
Rev. 5:5
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Slide 21
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
God
3 – Authority
"Will you promise not to- do anything to me if I do come?" said Jill.
"I make no promise," said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a
step nearer.
"Do you eat girls?" she said.
"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and
emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion.
It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as
if it were angry. It just said it.
"I daren't come and drink," said Jill.
"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.
"Oh dear!," said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I
should go and look for another stream then."
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"There is no other stream," said the Lion. (Silver Chair)
Slide 22
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
God
4 – Love
"I asked, are you ready?" said the Lion.
"Yes," said Digory...But when he had said "Yes," he thought of his
Mother, and he thought of the great hopes he had had, and how they
were all dying away, and a lump came in his throat and tears in his
eyes, and he blurted out:
"But please, please--won't you--can't you give me something that
will cure Mother?"
Up till then, he had been looking at the Lion's great feet and the
huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face.
What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life.
For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of
wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion's eyes. They were
such big, bright tears compared with Digory's own that for a
moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother
than he was himself.
"My son, my son," said Aslan. "I know. Grief is great. Only you and I
in this land know that yet. Let us be good to one another...“
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Magician Nephew
Slide 23
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
God
5 – Justice and Mercy
Aslan used physical affliction to
affect the cure of sin as well as the
punishment of sin. In the VDT
Eustace is turned into a dragon
because of his irresponsibility.
Aslan dies for Edmund in the LWW
The
Makings of
Narnia
6 - Creativity and Care
"Creatures I give you yourselves,"
said the strong, happy voice of Aslan.
"I give you this land of Narnia. I give
you the woods, the fruits, the rivers. I
give you the stars and i give you
myself. The Dumb Beasts whom I
have not chosen are yours also. Treat
them gently and cherish them but do
not go back to their ways lest you
cease to be Talking Beasts. For out of
them you were taken and into them
you can return. Do not so.“
Magician N
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Slide 24
The Makings of Narnia
Lewis’s Fundamental Concepts
Humanity
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and
goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most
uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature
which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to
worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now
meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some
degree, helping each other to one or other of these
destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming
possibilities that we should conduct all our dealings with one
another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere
mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization--these are mortal But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub,
and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses
24
Slide 25
The Makings of
Narnia
• Consequently ----• Moral education. . . does not look much like teaching. One cannot have
classes in it. It involves the inculcation of proper emotional responses
and is as much a "knowing how" as a " knowing that." . . . The picture
we get when we think of “knowing how" is the apprentice working with
the master. And the inculcation of right emotional responses will take
place only if the youth has around him examples of men and women
for whom such responses have become natural.
• Lewis, like Aristotle, believed that moral principles are learned
indirectly from others around us, who serve as exemplars. . . .
• This is also the clue to understanding the Chronicles within Lewis's
thought. They are not just good stories. Neither are they primarily
Christian allegories (in fact, they are not allegories at all).
• The Chronicles serve to enhance moral -education, to build character. .
To overlook the function of the Chronicles of Narnia in communicating
images of proper emotional responses is to miss their connection to 25
Lewis’s moral thought.
Slide 26
A Taste of the Story
-(1-4)London Children being evacuated to the country during WW II. Children
Transported from this world into a world of fairy-tale creatures belonging to a great
lion (four books on this scheme). The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince
Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Silver Chair)
- (5)The tale of two native children of that world who are also chosen by the great lion
to serve the land of Narnia and to know him in a special way (Horse and His Boy).
-(6)The beginning of the world of Narnia - the intrusion of two Victorian children into
the newborn world begins the complications which give rise to all the later
adventures. (The Magician’s Nephew)
-(7)The end of Narnia (Last Battle)
Each story complete in itself - Fragmented - Strong unity of philosophy and
consistency of doctrine.
Lewis remained faithful to his original intention to write stories for children while
adding in subtle moral and spiritual complexities.
26
Slide 27
A Taste of the Story
27
Slide 28
The LWW - Main Theme: Winter to Spring
1. Lucy accidentally found herself in Narnia via the wardrobe
2. Visit with Mr. Tumnus the Faun - returned to England
3. Edmund finds Narnia and meets the Witch
A Taste of the Story
4. Edmund became addicted to Turkish Delight
5. Peter and Susan assumed that Lucy’s Narnia was unreal
6. All four children found themselves in Narnia
7. The four learned about Narnia by visiting Mr. And Mrs. Beaver
8. Edmund betrayed the others to the White Witch
9. Edmund made his way to the Witch’s castle and became captive there
10. As the children and the Beavers fled, Father Christmas arrived with gifts
11. The Witch discovered that her perpetual winter was beginning to thaw
12. Aslan appeared, greeted his friends and knighted Peter
13. The Witch demanded her right to kill Edmund
14. Aslan gave himself to the Witch to die in Edmund’s place
15. Aslan came back to life
16. Aslan revived all victims of the Witch that she had turned to statues
28
17. The children ruled Narnia for years before returning to England
Slide 29
A Taste of the Story
Where It Was Always Winter
29
Slide 30
A Taste of the Story
But Not For Very Long
30
Slide 31
The Biblical Connection
The LWW and the Bible
Chapter 1 – The Learning / Discovery Mandate
Ecclesiastes: 11:9
(every square inch of Narnia is claimed by Aslan)
B e h a p p y , y o u n g m a n , w h ile y o u a re y o u n g , a n d le t y o u r h e a rt g iv e
y o u jo y in th e d a y s o f y o u r y o u th . F o llo w th e w a y s o f y o u r h e a rt
a n d w h a te v e r y o u r e y e s se e , b u t k n o w th a t fo r a ll th e se th in g s
G o d w ill b rin g y o u to ju d g m e n t.
Chapter 2 – Integrity
Jeremiah 9:8
T h e ir to n g u e is a d e a d ly a rro w ;
it sp e a k s w ith d e ce it.
W ith h is m o u th e a c h sp e a k s co rd ia lly to h is n e ig h b o r,
b u t in h is h e a rt h e s e ts a tra p fo r h im .
Chapter 3 – Reality of Evil
Proverbs 11:12
31
Slide 32
The Biblical Connection
The LWW and The Bible
Chapter 4 – Temptations
Proverbs 9:17
"Stolen w ater is sw eet;
food eaten in secret is delicious!"
Chapter 5 – Courage to Stand on Your Own
Proverbs 12:18
Chapter 6 – Responsibility
Proverbs 4:18
T he path of the righ teous is like the first gleam of daw n,
shin ing ever brighter till the full lig ht of day .
32
Slide 33
The Biblical Connection
The LWW and The Bible
Chapter 7 – Permanent Values & Rewards
Isaiah 26:8
Y e s, L O R D , w a lk in g in th e w a y o f y o u r la w s ,
w e w a it fo r y o u ;
y o u r n a m e a n d re n o w n
a re th e d e sire o f o u r h e a rts .
Chapter 8 – Deception
Isaiah 40:28
D o you not know ?
H a v e y o u n o t h e a rd ?
T h e L O R D is th e e v e rla stin g G o d ,
th e C re a to r o f th e e n d s o f th e e a rth .
H e w ill n o t g ro w tire d o r w e a ry ,
a n d h is u n d e rsta n d in g n o o n e ca n fa th o m .
Chapter 9 – The Inner Ring Deals with the Devil
Romans 8:5
T h o se w h o liv e a cco rd in g to th e sin fu l n a tu re h a v e th e ir m in d s se t o n
w h a t th a t n a tu re d e sire s; b u t th o se w h o liv e in a cco rd a n ce w ith th e
S p irit h a v e th e ir m in d s se t o n w h a t th e S p irit d e sire s
33
Slide 34
The Biblical Connection
The LWW and The Bible
Chapter 10 – Restoration
Isaiah 52:7
Chapter 11 – The Power Behind it All
Songs of Songs 2:11-12
Chapter 12 – Our Own Battles
1 Kings 2:2
34
Slide 35
The Biblical Connection
The LWW and The Bible
Chapter 13 – A Committed Commander
Psalm 51:4
Chapter 14 – The Apparent Victory of Evil
John 15:13
Chapter 15 – Unfolding and Restoration
Matthews 28:2
Chapter 16 – Subversive Restoration
Amos 3:8
Chapter 17 – Assurance of God’s Presence
James 1:12
35
Slide 36
Conclusion: The Magic Never Ends
When I say ‘Magic’ I am not thinking of the pathetic techniques by
which fools attempt to control Nature. I mean rather what is
suggested by fairy-tale sentences like: 'This is a magic flower, and
if you carry it the seven gates will open to you of their own
accord." I should define magic in this sense as ‘objective efficacy
which cannot be further analyzed.’
Magic, in this sense, will always win a response from a normal
imagination because it is in principle so ' true to nature'. Mix these
two powders and there will be an explosion. Eat a grain of this and
you will die.
Now the value of the magical element in Christianity is this. It is a
permanent witness of the heavenly realm -Enlightened people want to get rid of this magical element in favor
of what they would call the' spiritual ' element. But what remains is36
only morality, or culture, or philosophy.
Slide 37
Conclusion:
The Magic
Never Ends
• The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located
will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came
through them, and what came through them was longing. These things
- the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what
we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn
into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are
not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not
found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we
have never yet visited . . . .
37
Slide 38
“And the elderly lady in my adult education class on
the Chronicles of Narnia who answered my
question about what had attracted each of the
students to the Narnia books and to a course on
them by saying that they had saved her sanity and
her daughter's soul. When she was "sweet sixteen"
her daughter had said to her, "Mother, I hate you
and this whole family. I especially hate your God. I
never want to see you again," left for California,
and became a drug addict and a prostitute. Her
mother said, "I knew she would come back to us
and to God because I had read her the Chronicles
of Narnia when she was ten, and she had loved
them. And she did.”
Peter Kreeft
38