Previously published as "'Christian' Elements in Fiction" at La Shawn Barber's Corner.
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? 
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Original WP theme Copyright Mike Little
December 5th, 2005 at 7:44 pm
I think there's something more about C. S. Lewis' books that makes them "Christian" than the storyline or a few semi-biblical phrases. I believe the author of a story being a Christian and telling a story with some Christian elements gives such a story the depth that you find in the Chronicles of Narnia. It's more than the characters in the story, but the character of the creator of that story. Just like our lives our worth nothing in themselves, but when put up against the creator of those lives we see their depth.
This is something that Rowlings and others can't compete with. Their books will never be Christian, no matter how they might try (and I'm not saying they do) to make them Christian. I started to read the first Harry Potter book a couple of years ago but it just wasn't spiritually enticing.
On the other hand, Ted Dekker's Circle Trilogy ("Black", "Red", and "White"), is every bit the Christian fantasy.
December 6th, 2005 at 3:41 pm
There was an interview with Doug Gresham, Jack Lewis's stepson, on the BBC's "Songs of Praise" this Sunday. He described Jack's intention in the book - he imagined a world in which animals could talk, and mythical creatures walked around. If there were such a world, and evil had come into it through a fall, how would God redeem that world - how would Christ appear? And thus Aslan came - the Son of the Emperer over the Sea, whose song created Narnia, whose arrival was heralded (just for the children) by the visit of Father Christmas!
At the end of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, they arrive by boat at the shores of Aslan's country and are met by a lamb who serves them fish. The lamb turns into Aslan, and tells them that as they have come to know him in this form in Narnia, so they need to learn to know him in another form in our world. Could this be any more explicit? Well, yes it could - at the end of the Last Battle, when Aslan returns to judge the world, they find that "Aslan's Country" is at the high place where all the true worlds (the heavenly Narnia, the heavenly image of world, and so on) meet.
Yes, Virginia, the Narnia books are Christian.
December 6th, 2005 at 8:52 pm
I think that there is quite a bit of Christianity in the books.
I think that even the "Aztec style" sacrifice of Aslan is still Christian. Did the Aztecs believe in redemption, in grace, in sacrifice for another? I don't think so. But that is the story of the sacrifice of Aslan.
I remember in Voyage of the Dawn Treader how the boy turns into a dragon, because of his greed, and is unable to free himself without help. Several layers of skin have to be peeled away, painfully, before he can become again as he was made. I thought the allusions were wonderful and helpful as a metaphor for attempting to live the Christian life.
I even see the talking animals as Christian, since Balaam's donkey and the snake both talk in the Bible. Granted Narnia has far more talking animals, but it is Narnia.
The only book that I saw few Christian references in was A Horse and His Boy. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some, even if I didn't see them.
December 7th, 2005 at 4:55 am
That's because THAHB is a "calling" or Exodus story. Like Ruth, Aravis is called from another people to join Aslan's folk. Cor (or Shasta) is helped to escape to the promised land (his original home and family, of course), and with Aslan preventing him (in that wonderful old-fashioned meaning of going before) throughout the journey. Note that Shasta walks with Aslan over the mountains, and descends to the valleys of the Archenland, just like the Israelites descending to the promised land.
December 8th, 2005 at 11:15 am
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was written by C.S. Lewis as a gift to his god-daughter, Lucy. (A primary character in the book is named for her.) It was a very specific attempt to create an allegory of the Christ story that a child would be able to grasp — I believe Lucy was 7 or 8 when the story was written for her, though I could be off on her age. In any event, the subsequent six books were written over time as a result of the overwhelming positive response to the publication of the first book, and tell other versions of stories and themes from scripture — The Magician's Nephew, for example, is a retelling of the creation story from Genesis.
So yes, I believe the Narnia books are explicitly, intentionally, and unapologetically Christian in nature. It will be very interesting to see how the movie handles the book's more overtly Christian elements.
December 8th, 2005 at 9:10 pm
Lewis specifically denied that he intended to "preach" to children in the Chronicles. What he was trying to do (Lewis said it far better) was to entertain and awaken their imaginations and "smuggle" Christian concepts into their worldview without being explicit about it. This is why millions of children and adults have read the Chronicles without ever making the connections which are so obvious to a Biblically educated reader. My favorite example is in The Silver Chair, Jill's conversation with the Lion (she has no idea who Aslan is) at the beginning of the book when she first appears in Aslan's Country. She is desperately thirsty; she hears a running stream and goes seeking a drink of water. There follows an awesome conversation about that stream…and the reality that only Jesus has the water of life. But the reader would not know this if he/she has never read the Bible.
Narnia is all about the baptized imagination. It's about the Story that shows up again and again and again in the heart of man, each repetition a mere reflection of the True Story. Tolkien and Lewis knew that the Gospel is the greatest fairy tale of all, because it is TRUE.