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Christian subculture is spray-painting the 'Wardrobe'

Avatar by Dr Ransom at 07:28 PM ET , Sunday, Oct 30, 2005
Tags: Columns, Media: "Narnia: AWAKE", Deep Doctrine Magic: Subculture Shop



It’s coming. Far off in media-land comes the stirring of feet, the shouting of armies, and then — a glorious, powerful ROOAAARR that just might shake the cultural landscape for years to come.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (LWW), the epitome of all film adaptations of the classic fantasy by C.S. Lewis, arrives in theaters nationwide, midnight, Dec. 9. Directed by Shrek’s Andrew Adamson and starring mostly obscure actors, cast for their characters rather than their names, the film promises to be a blockbuster.

Demographics and common sense dictate LWW will draw in the same “nerd” factions who have enjoyed Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter so much, along with those who haven’t paid much attention to either one — particularly the thousands who’ve loved the Narnia books since childhood.

For some Christians, the opportunity seems perfect. Already many evangelical leaders are lining up to support the film and what they see as its evangelistic potential. And yes, they will be passing out tracts at theaters, writing new devotionals, and giving seven-part sermons on topics like C.S. Lewis and “The Real Stone Table, 2,000 Years Ago.” Count on it.

C.S. Lewis was of course a famed Christ-follower and apologetics warrior, noted for brilliant wit and satire and crossover success in his fantastic fiction and works on theology. Ergo, Lewis’s faith and evidence of Biblical symbolism imbues every leaf of the Narnia books — including, to be sure, Aslan, the series’ Christ-figure, and his sacrificial death for the rebellious and then repentant Edmund in LWW.

Yet in their zeal to promote the film, well-meaning Christians face another danger. And not only that of “spoiling” the intricate allegorical elements for those other Christians who would have been pleasantly surprised to find them automatically.

Instead, Christians who loudly proclaim all the “surprises” about LWW risk alienating the very secular culture they hope to reach — by proclaiming the Christian subtleties of Narnia that nonbelievers in Christ need to discover on their own and be curious about.

And what better way to illustrate this, than perhaps with an allegory of my own?



In the story, the Wardrobe is hidden away in a spare room in an old mansion. Four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, discover that inside the dusty, plain-looking cabinet lies an entryway to another world.

The Wardrobe, as it appears in the film, is carven with beautiful imagery from Lewis’s Narnia “Genesis” story, The Magician’s Nephew. Readers will recognize the images of an apple, the Wood Between the Worlds, the hilltop garden, the watchful Phoenix, and so on. (Imagine these carvings are actually from LWW; that would make the analogy almost fully intact.)

Without words, in a nearly universal language, these images tell a story.

It would take some probing to discover exactly what the story is about, but it is there nonetheless. And even for those who don’t wish to probe, or who haven’t reached the point of curiosity at which they would care — well, they’re still wonderful carvings, are they not? They are Art, crafted with care, and beautiful to look upon. Timeless.

And yet, some evangelical believers, in churches and in para-church organizations — pastors, authors, evangelists and otherwise — seem to be running to the Wardrobe to hastily add to the story.

Ssst. Ssssst-ssst. Sssst! With very bold, and sometimes even attractive, neon colors, their spray-painted messages spread and drip across the carvings, thus making their Message much more clear for those who haven’t yet figured it out:

Aslan = Jesus!

Aslan died for Edmund = Jesus died for you!

The White Witch = Satan!

Remember: Narnia is a Christian Thing, people!

The story is Analogous!

… Making it a little harder, perhaps, to see the depth of the original carven story, and slightly more annoying for those who haven’t probed for the message by themselves to have it proclaimed so loudly.

“I recall my own introduction to Narnia by a friend who ‘decoded’ … many of the spiritual elements of LWW before I even read it,” said one member of the popular NarniaWeb message board. “He meant well, but some of the magic of that first reading was lost.”

“I’m not Christian,” wrote another board member, “but I appreciate the themes of it in the Chronicles, having discovered them myself after what must be hundreds of re-readings since I was little, but I’m pretty sure if I hadn't experienced Narnia before and it had been ‘spray painted’ to me, I probably wouldn't be interested at all — it would put me off.

“I really hope that [‘spray-painting’] doesn’t happen,” the writer added. “It’d be a lot better to let people find out the Christian themes themselves.”



To a large extent, I agree with all the things being proclaimed by some mainstream evangelical leaders. I’m certainly a Christ-follower myself. I recognize the inherent analogous nature of much of Narnia (although the stories are not purely allegorical, by the author’s design), and Aslan, the White Witch, the Deep Magic and otherwise.

And for those disillusioned with Jesus (or perhaps really some false Christ or myth-conception of Christianity presented to them), discussing Narnia and the Lion can be very powerful.

Yet many people fail to recognize that all of this was not C.S. Lewis’s core idea. Evidently even during Lewis’s own time, enthusiastic Christians didn’t exactly understand the purpose behind Narnia. In Of Other Worlds, Lewis wrote:

“Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument; then collected information about child-psychology and decided what age group I’d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out ‘allegories’ to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn’t write in that way at all. Everything began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn’t even anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord.”

In late September, Prof. Peter Schakel, a Lewis fan, author and chair of Hope College's English department, spoke at Wheaton College in depth about the problems with reading from or expecting far too much (or actually, too little!) from the story.

Lewis wasn’t writing a philosophical treatise, Schakel said. And people shouldn’t need “help” to read The Chronicles of Narnia.

However, some adults sometimes feel they have to make a story much more simple for themselves, Schakel continued, often unnecessarily complicating things in the process. They want to make a story’s message “clear, tidy and simple,” ignoring the true depths of the meaning that are sometimes meant to be mysterious.

Instead of only trying to “use” the Chronicles to preach directly to others, he said, Christians would do better first to “receive” the deeper meanings for themselves.

I agree, with an additional reason: based in the storytelling techniques of the Lord himself.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” Jesus said after His parables, multiple times.

Often, while we’re studying or discussing Lewis, Tolkien or other writers, we forget that Jesus Himself was the first to speak of His truths in the form of stories and parables. The Word who became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14) was quite fond of telling others about His attributes and His kingdom through the use of drama and analogy. He was a master of metaphor. And he was also reluctant to put His messages forth so directly, even when his disciples asked Him.

The Deeper Spiritual “Magic,” Christ said — that is, the “secret” truths revealed by God — are in a sense closed-captioned for the spiritually repaired (Matthew 13:10).

Thus, non-believers should in some ways not be able to access these as readily: they should be confused by any Christ-centered artistic “carvings” and stories, whose meanings convey spiritual truths.

So why are some Christians nevertheless so eager to explain the “codes” to nonbelievers?

The first reason could be impatience. Christians, especially those with the zeal to spread their faith, can be quite impatient in expecting other people to listen and accept it. “Jesus died for you, He can give you new life, would you like to pray to accept Him right now?”

In some sense, these Christians are much less patient than God, Who will often spend years waiting for a person to respond to Him. (That can depend on your view of God’s sovereignty, of course, but someone else can write the column about that!)

But with Narnia, some well-intentioned believers just want to tell people immediately what all the deeper messages are, instead of letting people find them for themselves, more slowly.

The second reason could be that Christians feel they’ve spent much time getting pummeled by the Hollywood Left and the Establishment Media. Now, all of a sudden, especially after The Passion of the Christ and even Lord of the Rings, Christians in media may sense they’re becoming cool again. They’re a neglected demographic, a sleeping giant; they’re awaking and finding they’re strong. “Hey, hey, look at this, we’re getting real movies now, with Biblical messages in them, isn’t this great?!”

Naturally, some believers will overreact, especially in an age of super-institutionalized church and message marketing (and that also is another column).



Instead of using neon-colored, block capital letters spray-painted on the wondrous, carven story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I submit it would be much better for Christ-followers to use metaphorical modeling clay.

Give this clay to your friends and acquaintances, Narnia fans and otherwise, who don’t know the meaning behind the story carvings in the Wardrobe.

Reinforce their love for the stories. Carefully, shrewdly, hint toward the meanings.

Let them press the clay against the wood, filling in the curves and lines, and take away the messages for themselves to learn later, over time, even if they don’t fully understand them now. And provide closer-to-neutral education about what influenced the “carvings,” how they were made, what kind of wood was used and other fascinating, relevant background information.

This will get more people talking. They’ll be discussing the carvings and story at a level at which they’ll be truly receptive to learning the actual Meaning behind them. They’ll ask questions. They’ll really want to know. On their own.

From a spiritual perspective, the Holy Spirit could really be working now.

Then, if you’re a Christian to whom evangelism is rightfully very important — you can move in to tell more about knowing Christ here, after knowing of Aslan “there.” Yet only when nonbelievers are truly curious, with open hearts and minds.

We can leave our neon-colored, too-obvious cans of spray-paint for the graffiti artists.


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