(urth) Lupiverse(es)

[Matthew Weber]

On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 4:22 PM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:

> For the record, I never had any problem seeing the allegorical parts in
> LWW or the Silver Chair (the most allegorical of all the stories). TLB is
> not even allegorical. It's merely eschatological. Given who Aslan was
> revealed to be in "The Magician's Nephew", it is inevitable that he would
> play the role he did at the end of the the Narnian world.
>
> If one sees materialism as an "oppositional identity" to Christianity (and
> all young materialist in the West do because that is almost always their
> only counter-example), then you are likely to feel chaffing at Aslan's role
> in TLB. But Aslan's plays the same role in TLB as he does in ALL the other
> book. He shows up at the end to sort things out and sends the characters on
> their way. But only if one  associates End-of-the-World stories SOLELY with
> Christianity would one suddenly realize in TLB  that Aslan is Jesus.
>
> But there is sooo much more to Narnia than the Christian allegory. Almost
> all of it is, as Lewis called it, a stew with lots of familiar flavors
> rather than a lock-and-key allegory. It's just that there are a few clumps
> of beefy allegory in there as well.
>
> In fact, being young and recognizing the allegories in the story made "The
> Last Battle" quite confusing for me, I think.  Because Lewis has a very
> idiosyncratic theology (it certainly wouldn't jive with Presbyterianism).
>  If, because of one's youth, he is unaware that there are so many subtle
> shades of Christian belief, he will surely have a WTH reaction. And I did.
>
> So TLB would be better if it were read by an older, more worldly person
> who can both recognize how different Aslan is from our Standard Jesus and
> is willing to accept that that is okay. Or someone who has had the time
> between the first book to the last to familiarize himself with some of
> Lewis's other writers ("The Great Divorce", "Til We Have Faces", "Pilgrims
> Regress")
>
> J.
>
> ______________________________**_________________
>
>
Lewis' theology, idiosyncratic?  I'd characterize it as broadly catholic
and orthodox, though I can see where the hyper-Reformed might have problems
with it.
-- 
Matt +

Is he, therefore, who goeth groveling upon his face, better directed than
he who walketh upright in a straight way?
    The Koran, Chapter 67, verse 22
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