January 8, 2001
50 years later, C.S. Lewis'
Great Lion still roaring
___By Steve Rabey
___& Cecile Holmes
___Religion News Service
___WASHINGTON (RNS) --Once upon a time--and long before Harry Potter--a childless, bookish British bachelor created a series of best-selling and wonder-inducing children's books featuring now-familiar literary elements like witches, magic and battles between good and evil.
___The time was 1950, and the writer was C.S. Lewis, an instructor of English literature atMagdalen College Oxford who was best known for scholarly works of literary criticism and popular books on Christian theology.
THE WORLD OF NARNIA was fascinating children and adults alike long before Harry Potter.
___Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" surprised his academic peers but wowed readers of all ages, including an American youngster named Douglas Gresham.
___"I was fascinated by the books and enthralled with Narnia itself," explained Gresham, who would become Lewis' stepson in 1956 after his mother married Lewis in a slow-blooming romance explored in both Lewis' "Surprised by Joy" and the acclaimed 1993 film "Shadowlands."
___Today, Gresham is a consultant to The C.S. Lewis Co., which oversees the literary legacy of the prolific author, who also wrote volumes of poetry and science fiction before he died Nov. 22, 1963--the same day John F. Kennedy was killed.
___Many share Gresham's fascination with Lewis' work. Every year, people around the world buy an estimated 2 million copies of his books, with the Narnia series accounting for about half these sales.
___Over the past year, publishing giant HarperCollins has been doing everything it can to make sure people keep buying and reading Lewis, issuing new editions of six of his most popular theological works, including 1942's "The Screwtape Letters" and 1952's "Mere Christianity."
___The company also released new 50th anniversary full-color editions of all seven Narnia books, featuring Pauline Baynes' original cover art and introducing inside illustrations recently colored by the artist. (For information, visit the publisher's website at www.narnia.org).
___Lewis, who grew up near Belfast, Northern Ireland, said he wrote the Narnia series because they were the kinds of stories he would have enjoyed when he was a child.
___Children have been devouring them ever since. Like the Harry Potter books, they make for exciting reading. In addition, youthful Narnia characters like Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy--who appear in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and other volumes in the series--are both lifelike and likable.
___Adults enjoy the stories but are also attracted to the allegories Lewis weaves out of Christian themes of sin and redemption. For example, Narnia's talking lion king, Aslan, is seen as a symbol for Christ, complete with a sacrificial death and resurrection, while the White Witch is a devil figure.
___Lewis loved myth and fantasy, as did fellow Oxford professor J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote the best-selling "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and who joined Lewis for meetings of the Inklings, a small group that regularly met in Oxford pubs to drink, smoke, share recent compositions and heatedly debate theology and literary theory.
___Hailed for his depth of intellect, Lewis argued that it was not the mind but the imagination that allowed people to receive spiritual truth. And his fantastical stories were designed to baptize readers' imaginations.
___Many readers--including Gresham--believe Lewis' substantial literary talent and skill were aided by divine inspiration. "I believe that while he was the writer of the works, their true author was the Holy Spirit from whom all wisdom comes," Gresham said.
___Although Lewis wasn't a card-carrying evangelical, evangelicals have been some of his most devoted fans. The magazine Christianity Today even called Lewis "our patron saint."
___Over the years, the series has been translated into 29 languages. It also has been adapted for video, movie and audio theater versions. But the real appeal of Narnia remains the same. It is the world Lewis created that draws you in.
___"Each of the Narnia tales has multiple entry points for readers, young and old, that is, the youngest reader and the oldest adult reader can find themes, characters and storylines that appeal to them," said Bruce Edwards, an English professor and associate dean at Bowling Green State University's College of Arts and Sciences.
___The Narnia tales begin in a story featuring Peter, Susan, Edmond and Lucy, four children who enter Narnia through a wardrobe found in the attic of an old professor's house. Once in Narnia, the children meet Aslan, and their adventures begin.
___"There is no sexism here," Edwards said. "Lewis has female and male heroes and the stories are enjoyed by girls and boys alike. Further, while based on Scripture, they really do tell their own, compelling versions of the lost Eden, the need for redemption from sin, the importance of a personal relationship with God, the triumph of good over evil and the promise of eternal life in their own unique Narnia terms."
___Putting universal ideas into language and concepts erudite enough for scholars and forthright enough for laypeople was one of Lewis' special gifts," said Jerry Root of Wheaton College in Illinois. "He wrote the kind of stories that he himself loved to read. The stories touch the reader at a deep level."
___Lewis' goal was to tell his story by means of what he called "supposals," Root added. "Suppose there was a land where animals lived with men and women and boys and girls, and they had the capacity to think and reason and feel as we do? And suppose God were to come to that world to reveal his love to those creatures as he has in ours. What would that be like?"
___In Narnia, according to students of Lewis' work, he connects to readers' hearts by retelling an archetypal story. For parents, the stories help teach great moral truths, Edwards said.
___"Parents no doubt appreciate the 'virtues' that Lewis imbeds unobtrusively throughout the adventures of the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve. More than anything else, I do believe that the character of Aslan, the mighty Lion who created Narnia, stands out as a noble, endearing and trustworthy character."
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