December 5, 2005: Did you surf here from Google? Visit my new blog, Fantasy Fiction for Christians. 
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While reading articles on the Harry Potter phenomenon, I found myself intrigued by the “Christian” elements of children’s literature.
I assume most people have at least heard of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, part of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia series, if not read the book or watched the movie versions on TV. Disney is releasing a movie version of the book in December, and the story is as old as time: the battle between good and evil.
Nutshell: Four kids (siblings) are living with a professor during WWII, and while exploring the house they find a spare room with a wardrobe. They walk through it and enter a mythical land called Narnia, ruled by a lion named Aslan and cursed by the White Witch. Similar to some people’s reaction to the name of Christ, one of the children, seduced by the White Witch, recoils at his name, while the other three feel delight.
Aslan is considered a Christ-like figure because he sacrificed himself to pay for the crimes of another and is resurrected from the dead. The witch is defeated, and good once again triumphs over evil. It is the sacrifice of the innocent in place of the guilty, some argue, that determines whether a work can be considered “Christian.”
David Van Biema, writing for TIME, says that the upcoming movie will have retained the book’s “Christian” element if four sentences from the book make it into the movie:
[E]ven Aslan’s sacrifice on a huge stone table (not a cross; and performed with a stone knife, Aztec-style), and his subsequent miraculous recovery could have been borrowed from any number of world religions.
It is the book’s explanation for this key sequence that makes it exclusively Christian. After Edmund Pevensie betrays Aslan and his brother and sisters, the Witch claims his blood in accordance to the laws of “Deep Magic.” Aslan concedes this and offers himself up in proxy, announcing glumly, “I have settled the claim on your brother’s blood.” Miraculously revived, he explains, “the Witch knew the Deep Magic. But if she could have looked a little further back…she would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards.”
This is Christianity in a kid-lit veil. (Source)
True, but there are many Hollywood movies that could be called “Christian” on that basis. For instance, actor Keanu Reeves (who comes to mind for some reason) has played Christ-like characters in which it’s up to him to “save the world” from destruction by sacrificing himself (Johnny Mnemonic, The Matrix, Constantine), and I certainly wouldn’t call those movies “Christian.”
I’ve read the Harry Potter books and found them to be very charming. As a Christian, however, I struggle with the magical elements of the series. I can appreciate the complexity of the plot, the emphasis of good over evil, and renewed love of reading among children, but I hesitate to call such literature, including the Narnia books, “Christian.”
Exploring these issues is much more interesting than complaining about politicians, don’t you think?
