Chronicles of Narnia

Well, whether an allegory or not, there's no denying that certain aspects of the books, and in particular the whole resurrection scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, are strikingly similar to the Christian belief of Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection.

As a side note, the group that Lewis, Tolkein and a few other Oxford scholars formed was called the "Inklings".

Lewis was a Christian, a member of the Church of England to be exact. He and Tolkien were also very close friends and critics of one another. They and some other writers had a club of sorts. They would meet in a pub or someone's house and read their writing to each other. Lewis and Tolkien both believed that stories were best told out loud.

A point that must be clarified is that The Chronicles of Narnia is not allegory. Lewis (and Tolkien) disliked allegory, and, although several readers and reviews have labeled it as such, these books neither are nor were intended to be an allegory for the Passion of Jesus Christ.

There is a great deal of Christian themes in the Chronicles, yes. To Lewis, though, Narnia was another world in the universe we live in. His stories are--what would have happened if there had been another world in need of creation, redemption, and destruction. How would God address the issue of sin and salvation in another world, separate but linked to ours.

Go to the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. On the border of Aslan's country, they meet a Aslan in the form of a lamb. The lamb (a symbol of Jesus) tells them that they must learn to seek him, Aslan, in their own world.

Take this passage from wikipedia (which is actually a quote from A Companion to Narnia, a Narnia encyclopedia) --

Lewis, an expert on the subject of allegory, maintained that the books were not allegory, and preferred to call the Christian aspects of them "suppositional". This is similar to what we would now call fictional parallel universes. As Lewis wrote in a letter to a Mrs Hook in December of 1958:

“If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair [a character in The Pilgrim's Progress] represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality, however, he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, ‘What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia, and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?’ This is not allegory at all” (Martindale & Root 1990).

The Narnia series is not an allegory, because allegories have an overarching figurative level of meaning tied to the literal level, and the Narnia series has a literal level of meaning without any overarching figurative level, though there are figurative elements. The misconception that the Narnia series is an allegory is the result of the disjunction caused by the narrative taking place across parallel universes[citation needed]. There are similarities between the world of Narnia and our own, but these are literal manifestations of the same phenomena in multiple worlds, not allegorical abstractions. For example, the character Aslan is not an allegorical representation of Christ, but a literal representation of Christ only in another body, in another universe, and by another name. Aslan and Jesus are the same character in two different worlds. There is no allegory involved. As Lewis has Aslan say at the end of Dawn Treader, "There I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name."

I'm not creating a suspicion...CS Lewis said it himself.

Evangelina wrote:Does everyone know that C.S. Lewis was a Christian and wrote this books, like Aslan was god or Jesus or something..I read an entire report but it seems to have slipped my mind. He was great friends with Tolkein, too.

I knew Lewis was friends with Tolkien. I read somewhere they would meet in a pub or something??
LOL, figures. Friends. Writing Geniuses. Both two of my favorite authors.

Does everyone know that C.S. Lewis was a Christian and wrote this books, like Aslan was god or Jesus or something..I read an entire report but it seems to have slipped my mind. He was great friends with Tolkein, too.

Hum...that's weird that you couldn't get into the last one, but I kinda know what you mean. I didn't like that way The Last Battle begins--with that stupid, greedy ape and the poor donkey Puzzle. But, for, me, once that beginning ended, I got right into it.

One of my favorite parts in the whole series is in The Last Battle. After the door has been shut and the Friends of Narnia are in paradise, they come upon the brave Calormen, Emeth. I've always loved the story that he tells--how Aslan tells him that every good deal he did in Tash's name was actually done in Aslan's name. Yeah, I cried. It's a very sweet and beautiful message.

I really, really enjoyed the books. They were all very engaging in my opinion. Except for the last one, I couldn't quite get through it really. *shrugs* I don't know. It's weird that I read all of them but didn't finish the last one.


MM

The Chronicles of Narnia are some of the best books I've ever read. I can reread them over and over and each time I get some more out of them.

I used to not like The Silver Chair, mostly I think, because it didn't have the Pevensies in it. But, now that I've gotten older, I reallyl like.

Has anyone hear read other Lewis works? Space Trilogy? Screwtape Letters? If you have, you will have recognized the difference in Lewis's writing. Narnia is written for children; the style is much simpler, but, the intensitiy, passion, and skill is still there. Just a notice.

CS Lewis is one of my favorite authors ever. For his style, content choice, and life.

I really liked them as a small child, but rereading them they're really good. What did people think in terms of religious metaphor compared to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials? they're basically the complete opposite.

I read Narnia for the first time last year...talk about a deprived childhood. I love C.S. Lewis. The Dawn Treader is my favorite...the part where Aslan is peeling off Eustace's dragon skin always makes me cry. Okay, it sounds wierd, but it is really symbolic and touching.

th eentire series is truly enchanting. the concept of fantasies wa sreally brought out well here. i loved the ending too and teh way Aslan sang to begin Nrnia.

i am a true Narnian at heart.

i have never seen the BBC versions.

Personally the BBC adaption was much better. Everything about it except small things. Though BBC did an amazing job. My favourite The Dawn Treader.

I like the Chronicles of Narnia. It's not my favorite series, but I like it a lot!

Of course I've read Chronicles of Narnia! How could I call myself a fantasy reader/writer without having gone through those? Actually, to be honest, I didn't read them myself... start when I was about 8 my dad read a chapter (or sometimes, if I begged, two) a night from each one until we finished the entire series.

I got to see the movie with my dad, too. It was kind of a special bonding moment for us.

My brother introdced them to me and i didn't think i would enjoy them, but i did. I think that the book are much better than the film though.

I have the whole series in one book.
At first it seemed all sooo boring, i didnt even glance at it. then after reading every other book i had i thought i'd try reading it. I like it so much i read the whole series in less than a week.

yeah. I love those books too. obviously.

i love those books. i don't even critique them, i love them so much. they're above criticism for me. they're classics. they're about unicorns and kids who become royalty in a mythical land. what's not to love?

I only have read the lion, the witch and the wardrobe book I thought it was compelling but not all that great in narrative :p

Everyone is different.

I don't like how they changed the order to make them chronological, I like they way they were published. Might just be me, though,

Yeah. i was piss when i found that out.

I liked the books, despite them being a tad outdated. I also thought the movie was one of the most accurate book-to-film adaptions they've done. Apparently they're just releasing the movies in order of the books' publication dates, which is just stupid. They may not even get to The Magician's Nephew, which, in my opinion, is one of the better ones.

The movie is awesome and the books are even better. I hope that they make them all this time, including the magician's nephew because no one has attempted that one as a movie before.

I didn't enjoy the movie as much as the books, although I think they did a pretty decent job on it. There were some things that i forgot about the book because i've seen the movie so many times. (At least 20 something)