C.S. Lewis, Kids' Book Clubs, and Christ

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I run a children's homeschooling book club and haverecently had the honor or leading the discussion of C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew. Some members ofour club are not Christian, so I felt I must keep away from Christian themesand symbolism. Easier said than done.

The more I struggled to see past the Christian themes,the more they stood out for me. You have the struggle of good vs. evil, a manseeking power for power's sake who can't recognize God when he's standing infront of him, a Genesis creation story, temptation in the garden, a forbiddenapple, and the promise of a savior. I'll tell you how I skirted these topics ina moment.
I know neo-pagans, new agers, atheists, and even anti-Christianatheists who love the Narnia books. Why would they be drawn to them when thebooks so obviously deal with Christian themes? Sure, they are good stories. Butthey're only great stories if you seethe deeper meaning that is hidden (or at times, not so well hidden) within them.A child unaware of the Christian elements might enjoy them, but a grownup who'snot only non-Christian, but anti-Christian?


I have a theory.  Thoughsociety tells us to love self, in ourhearts, we want to love God and imitate Him by loving our fellow human beingsin a selfless manner. We are made to love and know God. This is why Narnia ispopular. It's why we admire self-sacrificing heroes in books and films. It'swhy we grow disgusted at villains using power to step on others as they striveto rule the world.  It may be why mynon-Christian friends and family celebrate Christmas. I'd thought it was acultural tradition thing; now I'm not so sure.
Still, the loving selfthing pops up in a couple of ways in our society. One has a bad reputation--theover consumption of goods, such as expensive cars, jewelry, and other luxuryitems. The one that is gaining in popularity (at least in my sphere) is themore new-agey idea that you are your own god or goddess. An atheist relative ofmine posted on Facebook, "Be your own savior."
Of course we should love and respect ourselves. Godcreated each of us as unique human beings. We have an inherent dignity as hischildren. But when self-centeredness gets in the way of loving God and others,there's a problem.
But back to the topic. What did we discuss at book club? Good and evil (because everybody understandthat dichotomy), the similarities between Uncle Andrew and the witch and whatmakes them villains, the nature of the Cabby (aka King Frank), the children, thehorse, and we also touched on Aslan. We discussed the similarities between theWood Between the World and the attic tunnel (both being in-between places, notreally places where things happen), and the similarities of Charn and how thecharacters feel about London. Both were described as hard, cold places.
So, I thank the Lord for the works of C.S. Lewis. Theirpopularity fills me with hope for our society.

Plaque on the Unicorn Inn

BTW IMDb says the film The Magician's Nephew is in production and might not be out until 2014.

If you enjoyed this post, you might like the post I wrote on self-sacrificing mothers in books and film.