When a former Archbishop of Canterbury sits down to write a book that delves into the theology of your literary career, one would not expect the primary texts analyzed to be the series of children’s stories you penned during the Eisenhower administration. Rowan Williams’s newly released The Lion’s World: A Journey into the Heart of Narnia is a relatively brief, thoroughly insightful study of C. S. Lewis’s epic seven-part work of fiction that, among other things, reinforces the subtle genius of the late, great Cambridge Don.
This book is no exhaustive, in-depth treatment of Lewis’s expansive career; rather, a highlighting and quick excavation of what exactly has made the Chronicles of Narnia such an enduring, endearing collection of spirituality-infused fantasy tales. The explanations offered up by Williams may not be the ones that devoted Lewis fans necessarily want to hear, and they may not be the ones that Lewis skeptics have ever considered.
C. S. Lewis did not write fiction to trick people into believing in God. The stories comprising the canon of Narnia were not penned to be Christian tracts that a faithful, church-going believer might hand out on the corner of a busy metropolitan city. Lewis wrote because he believed he had a story to tell; one worth telling. Sensitive to the realities of attempting to produce original narratives in such a highly combative-to-anything-religious academic and literary world, Lewis both embraced the challenge and refused to apologize for the very real influence Christianity had on every facet of his life.
People of faith and traditional, conservative values would do well to heed such a stellar example as we strive to re-stake a claim in the popular culture of our own day.
The key insight Williams offers in his analysis of the worldview of Narnia and Lewis’s tactics in telling such compelling stories is found in a phrase that Lewis apparently used himself to describe certain books one encounters in the course of his/her life: “mouthwash for the imagination.”
Whether religious or not, we’re all walking around in an invisible cloud of presuppositions about faith in general and Christianity in particular. Partial understanding, hearsay, hurt feelings, bruised egos, bad experiences, and mankind’s default position of pride make it difficult to have real, meaningful discussions about something–faith in a Higher Power–that billions of humans consider to be the most important thing about their lives. This isn’t solely the fault of “haters” (i.e., militant atheists) or secular professors at your local university. People of faith regularly do a rotten job of articulating what it is that means so much to them, and why it might matter to the broader culture they find themselves in.
Through the Narnia saga, C. S. Lewis offers any reader of any background an intellectual and emotional re-boot (amidst a fascinating and imaginative story). Again, this highly valuable service Lewis renders is only possible because he has a story to tell. As Williams points out in The Lion’s World, anyone even vaguely familiar with Christian doctrine and stories from the Bible is able to identify that some spiritual message is being communicated in Narnia, but by telling a magnificent, layered story, Lewis welcomes all readers with open arms.
I want to capture something of what Lewis is trying to do in communicating – to a world that frequently thinks it knows what faith is – the character, the feel, of a real experience of surrender in the face of absolute incarnate love. Because that is what matters most: the possibility Lewis still offers of coming to the Christian story as if for the first time. Whether for the jagged believer or contended unbeliever, the surprise of this joy is worth tasting.
As a contented believer and avid Lewis reader, I found the most poignant insight offered up by Williams to be the identification of the counterbalancing way Lewis deals with the Christian concepts of humility and being made “in God’s image.” In the land of Narnia all of the humans are at once equals of the talking animals and also their superiors and rulers. Small creatures like a group of mice play key parts in the story (for example, chewing through Aslan’s bindings) while at the same time fearsome animals like giant bears and leopards bow low to King Peter and Queen Susan as they reign from their thrones in the castle at Cair Paravel.
Humility does not remove duty or design. The different creatures were created for different purposes, but to remain in proper and healthy relation to one another, they needed enough humility to show respect and complete their respective appointed tasks.
Think of what a much-needed douse of Listerine to the polluted mouth of modern American culture such thinking would be!
Rowan Williams’ The Lion’s World is a must-read for any admirer of C.S. Lewis’ story-telling abilities.
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