“Hidden” Symbols All Around

Extremist has been bugging me to post, so here goes…

While Googling an obscure bit of information from The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, I came across this article by Ted Byfield. Byfield is the general editor of The Christians, a twelve-volume history of the Church. We have the first six volumes and highly recommend them.

Since I first heard that Disney would be making the classic children’s story into a real, honest-to-goodness movie, I’ve been expecting this. Byfield writes:

Canada’s liberal press has greeted Disney’s coming movie version of C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” with a delicate note of caution. “Be alert for hidden Christian messages,” warns the Toronto Globe and Mail’s movie reviewer Liam Lacey.

No question, this is a man sensitive to religious innuendo. …[T]here could definitely be “hidden Christian messages,” perhaps because Lewis wrote the whole series for the express purpose of putting them there. In reading Bunyan’s “A Pilgrim’s Progress,” one must be similarly on guard against “hidden messages” about the Christian life pilgrimage, and in watching Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” one must watch out for “hidden allusions” to the Passion and the Christ.

A devout liberal cannot be too cautious these days. God might jump out at him from the most improbable books, and ever since Gibson’s opus took in $84 million on its opening weekend, movies, too, may become downright dangerous.

Then there’s this item from the New Zealand Herald:

To millions of readers of the original C. S. Lewis books, the story is a childhood tale of wonder and triumph, but a celebrated fantasy author, Philip Pullman, has warned they are stories of racism and thinly veiled religious propaganda that will corrupt children rather than inspire them.

* * *

“It’s not the presence of Christian doctrine I object to so much as the absence of Christian virtue,” Pullman told the Observer. “The highest virtue, we have on the authority of the New Testament itself, is love, and yet you find not a trace of that in the books,” he said.

Really? Not a trace? So Aslan’s sacrifice for Edmund isn’t an expression of love? The siblings forgiveness of their brother for his mistake doesn’t show love? The utter hatred and cold meanness of the White Witch doesn’t give us a stark contrast to the love of the others?

Indeed, even the tales of witches and wizards at Hogwarts are “suspect.” The upcoming release of the fourth Harry Potter movie has renewed my interest in the Christian themes employed by J. K. Rowling. I haven’t read much by the author herself on the topic, but so many Christian symbols and parallels are unlikely to be accidental.

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By the way, if you’re in the D.C. metro area this might be interesting:

Coming November 15 to Fair Oaks Mall, be transported into the movie as you go through a spectacular, fully interactive holiday experience in larger than life snow globes. This new holiday set includes a walk-through magic wardrobe that simulates the snowfall in Narnia, life-like figures from the movie and a green-screen photo opportunity.

BACKGROUND: The Lion, the Witch, and the General Lee

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2005 at 4:55 pm and is filed under The Culture, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.