Introduction, Overview, and Apology

Introduction
- Six week course covering The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe – the first book (in the orthodox ordering) of the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
- Me, Brant DeBow
  - I’ll be teaching the first two classes. Next week’s class will be on Edmund and the White Witch
  - These are probably my favorite works of fiction. If you see me choked up when talking about them, I hope you’ll come to understand why.
- All outlines from the class on my blog, Sarcasmagorical.com
  - I’ve borrowed and collected some other people’s ideas, so I’ve tried to cite them on the outline even if I forget to cite them verbally here
- Please, please, please ask questions
  - This is meant to be a discussion, not a diatribe
  - This is especially true next week, after we’ve read the book.
  - I’m going to re-read the book this coming week and prepare for next week’s class, so I promise it can be read in a week.

Overview
- How to approach the book
  - The difference between allegory and fiction
    - Allegory has a direct one to one correspondence with what the author is teaching.
      - In Pilgrim’s Progress, the pilgrims (Christian and Faithful) are put on trial in the Town of Vanity in the courtroom of Judge Hate Good and testified against by Envy, Superstition and Gainglory. It’s not hard to figure out that the author is telling us that as Christians we will be persecuted by vain people who hate God and have set themselves against good.
      - R.C. Sproul, Jr. : “On the continuum between non-fiction and fiction, allegory is closer to non-fiction than it is to fiction.”
    - Mythical fiction, on the other hand, is more interested in the story than in the message it is trying to tell.
      - It is less a set of lessons and principles hidden in a story and more a story that embodies a theme.
      - There are two temptations to misread this work
        
        The first, is to assume that because its not an allegory, Lewis didn’t intend Christian ideas to come through and just read it as simple story
        
        The opposite error is to read every single thing as though it had some sort of hidden message
    - C.S. Lewis, from ‘Of Other Worlds’ (h/t Joshua Claybourn):

Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument, then collected information about child psychology and decided what age group I’d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out ‘allegories’ to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn’t write in that way. It all began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn’t anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord…

If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality however he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, ‘What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?’ This is not allegory at all.

Lewis and The Inkling’s ideas about Myth Made Fact
- Tolkein was instrumental in bringing Lewis to Christ, by talking about Christianity as the Myth that was true. He contended that our myths contained fragments of our being made in the image of God, and hence each contained some truths.
- Lewis, from God in the Dock (h/t Cor ad cor loquitur):

First, to setup… Lewis has been developing the idea that myth transcends thought. In other words the idea “heroism is good” is a good thing, but Aragorn valiantly leading a hopeless charge on Mordor’s very gate in an effort to give his friend Frodo (who he is not sure is even still alive) enough cover to complete his mission is better.

Now as myth transcends thought, Incarnation transcends myth. The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens—at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate.

Apology
- Why study Lewis? Why study Narnia?
  - Reasons against studying Lewis
    - His Arminianism
    - Universalism? No, but it does appear so in some cases (TLB)
  - Reasons for studying Lewis
    - Lewis is a great example of a man who simply did his vocation, and became great.
    - Lewis’ profound sense of humility
    - Lewis gives us possibly the best picture of what a childlike faith is, and the best contrast to a child-ish faith.
      - Lewis’ sense of wonder
      - The professor’s use of reason in believing the fantastical story Lucy tells. He retains his powerful logic and argumentation, and yet is still childlike enough to believe the fairytale
  - Reasons for studying Narnia
- Why devote our Bible study hour to studying a work of fiction?