C.S. Lewis and Narnia: faith inside the wardrobe

Millions of people who grew up reading C.S. Lewis’s classic The Chronicles of Narnia have every reason to be thrilled with the December 9 release of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. But many of those lifelong fans may not know that they’re watching a film heavily laced with Christian ingredients, thanks to its deeply religious author.

The movie, its Christian author and the religious symbolism of the movie and books are featured in the December issue of St. Anthony Messenger in an article entitled, “C.S., Lewis and Narnia: Faith Beyond the Wardrobe.” Visit www.AmericanCatholic.org.

With a keen understanding of children and literature, C.S.Lewis, then a professor at Oxford, wrote The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1950. The story, about four siblings who stumble upon an enchanted and perilous world called Narnia and fight for its freedom alongside the great lion Aslan, became a classic among children and adults alike. The religious symbolism behind the book charmed Christian readers as well. Author Mary Margaret Keaton writes, “Aslan represents Christ who offered his life in place of ours, whose death and resurrection won our freedom and redemption. In Aslan’s loneliness, we recognize Jesus’ agony in the garden; and in Aslan’s resurrection, the Easter story.”

Although the Christian ingredients within Lewis’s books are unmistakable, the greater theme of goodness is what anchors the story and the film. “It is a reaffirmation of humanity, of all that is good and important in human beings. C.S. Lewis valued and felt it was important to nourish the imagination. Like eating and drinking, the imagination needs nourishment no matter how old a person is.

To help Catholics unlock Narnia's many secrets, the editors of the NY Times bestseller A Guide to the Passion of The Christ, have released the definitive Catholic travel guide to Lewis' fictional land. A Guide to Narnia: 100 Questions about The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is available through Ascension Press and Catholic bookstores nationwide.