The Chronicles of Narnia have been a puzzle to C. S. Lewis scholars for decades. Most of them admit that the books are excellent children's stories, full of rich fantasy, memorable characters, and vivid settings. But there is a lingering concern behind the praise: What is the organizing framework? While the reader may find the golden Aslan, courageous children, and talking creatures throughout the Narnian corpus, there seems to be no guiding theme, no pervasive arc that holds them all together. Moreover, how does one account for the seemingly random appearances of characters like Father Christmas, Bacchus, or the Snow Queen into the Narnian landscape? In fact, J. R. R. Tolkien called them a mish-mash of "various mythologies... carelessly and superficially written" (8) and, for this reason, disliked the Chronicles altogether. Yet in spite of the criticism, Lewis's books continue to delight new generations of readers, both young and old. So what is their secret? Planet Narnia has finally proposed an existentially and intellectually satisfying answer.
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Jordan Easley is an M.Div. student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, and a graduate of Wheaton College, Illinois.
Issue: "The Imitation of Christ" March/April Vol. 18 No. 2 2009 Pages 43-44
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