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News | Nate Talks: Decoding Narnia
22 April 2009
Nathan Morgan Locke, Christianity Explored's Youth Evangelist, reflects on the latest claims that CS Lewis's Narnia Chronicles contain a hidden meaning
When I first began to watch The Narnia Code last night (16 April) on BBC One I thought it was a joke.
I expected it to be like one of those programmes written by satirists Armando Iannucci or Chris Morris, in which a particularly easy target (often evangelical Christians) is mocked for its simplistic worldview and earnestness. The opening narration and editing led me to believe that the secret to be revealed was that Clive Staples Lewis had somehow hidden a Christian message in his series of children’s books, so I was waiting to see a line-up of caricatured and amusingly named experts discuss, with utmost seriousness, the delight they found upon discovering that, “Aslan was intended to be a Christ figure!”
In actual fact, a particularly interesting literary denouement was described and discussed. The suggestion is that the Narnia Chronicles outline a theological astronomy, and Dr Michael Ward (the man who ‘broke the code’) was able to present his findings in a succinct and genuine way.
I must repent of my over-sensitivity and lack of faith in the BBC.
CS Lewis was my favourite author as a child; my siblings and I were (like so many) treated to a chapter or two of a Narnia book before bed on a regular occasion. Their names and utterances were part of our common language as a family and the house in which we grew up is even named ‘Narnia II’. So when I received several answerphone messages encouraging me to watch the programme, I was more than happy to oblige.
Ward argued in the documentary that each book in the Narnia Chronicles represents one of the seven heavens of the medieval cosmos: the moon, the sun, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. He claims that each planet’s symbolism and meaning is woven thematically through the narrative of Lewis’ stories.
Though people may disagree with these claims, and others will believe the documentary to be a crass attempt to boost book sales, what was being presented was genuinely interesting and thought provoking.
In a previous “Nate Talks” I used a quotation from CS Lewis, found in an essay from God in the Dock:
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
The Narnia Code documentary and (it would appear) the book Planet Narnia provide us with CS Lewis’ conviction that his God must be all or nothing. If the cosmos were His creation, then it would be strange to think that it did not reveal something of who He was and what He had done.
As Dr Ward suggested, perhaps Psalm 19 would be good to ponder:
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.”
It all seems a little too intricate to be passed off as a joke.
More
Watch The Narnia Code now on BBC iPlayer [external site, UK only, expires 23 April 2009]
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