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Wednesday, September 11, 2019

It all began with a picture

At first I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time. Apart from that, I don't know where the Lion came from or why He came. But once He was there He pulled the whole story together, and soon He puled the six other Narnian stories in after him. C. S. Lewis, "It All Began With a Picture…" Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories (Harvest Books 2002), 42.

The Chronicles of Narnia are immensely popular and immensely influential fiction for kids. And that's more significant now than it was at the time–given the increasing antipathy to the Christian faith in contemporary Western society. Mind you, it would lay a firmer foundation if kids got their theology from Bunyan (The Pilgrims Progress, The Holy War)–in contrast to the "mere Christianity" that Lewis allegorizes in The Chronicles of Narnia. Nevertheless, The Chronicles of Narnia probably expose many unchurched children to rudimentary Christian theology–planting seeds to bloom later on. 

It's interesting that the stimulus wasn't just mental images, but dreams. Given the new covenant promise in Acts 2:17-18, perhaps this was a revelatory dream. Maybe God gave Lewis that key character because the resultant novels would have a generally salubrious effect in reaching many for the Gospel, or preparing their minds. God uses vessels of clay to achieve his aims. 

3 comments:

  1. I'm an immigrant to the US from non-English speaking nation. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the very first book I ever read in English. (At least the very first one I recall reading in English.) I loved it so much I read the rest of the series. It made a tremendous impression on me. I wasn't a Christian at the time, and I had no idea the story was a Christian one either. And in my case I think it did plant seeds to bloom later in me.

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  2. --And that's more significant now than it was at the time–given the increasing antipathy to the Christian faith in contemporary Western society.--

    CS Lewis already saw the seeds being planted of what our current Bizarro-world would become - in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, horrid cousin Eustace is described as being raised by 'very up-to-date and advanced' parents and attending a 'modern school'.

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