Weekly Christian Opinion Roundup

The BBC online is running an article by Steve Tomkins, author of A Short History of Christianity, that offers a couple of nice reminders about what Lewis was trying to accomplish with Narnia: first, that he wasn't really wanting to offer a retelling of the Christian story, but was rather hoping to capture what he felt the feeling of the Christian story ought to be; and second, that he wasn't hoping to bring children to the Christian story through Narnia, but rather expected children to already be familiar with the story. Technically, this article doesn't really represent "Christian opinion" about Narnia, but does adequately and accurately relate the very Christian ideas of Lewis himself about art and Narnia. It's a worthwhile read.

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Today's Christian is running a couple of articles related to the Narnia film. The first is fairly short piece on Doug Gresham and his involvement in the project. The second is a pretty lengthy article by Christin Ditchfield, author of a couple 0f books on Narnia. Ms. Ditchfield's article is pretty representative of Christian thought about the significance ofLewis and The Chronicles.

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A Mission America Coalition newsletter this week included the reminder that Lewis' aim in writing The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe was recapturing the feeling of wonder we're supposed to have about the story of Christ—a feeling of wonder we often lack because we're just too familiar with it, or we're too reverent. The newsletter concludes,

Let's take the kids to see the movie, for sure, but let's take the adults too. This will be one of those rare opportunities, for both family and friends, to not just be entertained by a magnificent cinematic production, but to talk about a movie—and perhaps the 'story within the story'—with our guards finally down. Lewis himself thought so, and we agree! In his words: 'The inhibitions which I hoped my stories would overcome in a child's mind may exist in a grown-up's mind too, and may perhaps be overcome by the same means.' Please join the Mission America Coalition in encouraging your church or ministry to make the most of the opportunities offered by the release of film December 9.

Aside from the assumption that this will be a "magnificent cinematic production"—that may well be, of course, but it's not a given—this serves as a great reminder of Lewis' purpose.

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BreatheCast has got details about a major multi-week Narnia-themed multimedia festival running in NYC. It's being hosted by Trinity Church-St. Paul's Chapel, and the program will include the premiere of the Hallmark Channel's upcoming special program on Lewis (I've seen this program, by the way; it's excellent). "This is the first time Trinity has ever held a multimedia event involving webcast, workshops and a film screening," says the article. "We wanted to take advantage of a lot of interest in the movie," said a spokesperson for the church. The program of events begain the 15th of November.

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ToTheSource is running a pretty decent article on Lewis and Narnia. It's written by Dr. Anne Carson Daly. While I ordinarily find ToTheSource articles to be excessively church-bound, I can recommend this one pretty heartily.