Back to Narnia
Aside from the Bible, The Chronicles
of Narnia have been the most formative books in my life. My parents hung a
Narnia map in my nursery, and my dad started reading the books to me at age
three. Soon I was reading the books a couple of times a year.
Wheaton College houses C.S. Lewis's papers (and has the wardrobe),
and we students lovingly referred to him as St. Jack. My husband and I got to
know each other at the Wheaton Children's Literary Interpretation Society,
where we'd read children's books out loud during study breaks. The first
semester we read The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe. My husband was Aslan; I was the White Witch.
So regardless of the reviews, I am excited to go see the movie
version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The story
is an integral part of my faith journey and I love it. But it's strange to
encounter Lewis apart from the evangelical lens I've always seen him
interpreted through in the past.
Evangelicals tend to claim Lewis as their own, often
forgetting that he was an Anglican. Many progressive Christians are
uncomfortable with him because he's been appropriated by the evangelicals. Yet
as I return to his works, I am discovering complexities to his theology and
deeper mysteries that he hints at--layers I never knew existed. I'm beginning
to share Marcus Borg's view that progressive Christians need to take
another look at Lewis.
For instance, my favorite scene in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the undragoning of
Eustace. A most unpleasant boy, Eustace has been turned into a dragon because
of his selfishness and greed. Aslan, the savior figure, redeems Eustace's
humanity by ripping away the layers of dragon skin and washing him until he is
a boy again.
It is a poignant image of redemption, but when I read this
through my old evangelical lens, I saw only the individual story.
Now I see that Eustace isn't the only one saved in this act.
His friends and cousins find their relationships with him healed. Those on the
ship the Dawn Treader are able
to continue on their journey without the dragon holding them back. When Eustace
sheds his dragonish ways, the community becomes whole again.
I'm happy to return to these stories. Their deep truth has a
way of connecting with us regardless of how--or when--we come to it.
