Tag: Narnia

Developing the Ransom Trilogy

  

While I cannot recall the precise order of my initial reading of C. S. Lewis’s books, I do know that his science fiction offerings must have been near the beginning. First, I have always loved science fiction; second, the realization that a Christian author wrote such things had to have piqued my interest. It’s possible The Screwtape Letters came first, but I had to have read what is commonly called “The Space Trilogy” during that same period. I, along with… Read more »

We Shall Get In

  

I concluded my class, “C. S. Lewis on Life, Death, and Eternity,” this past Monday evening. In the previous session, we looked at Lewis’s poignant thoughts after the death of his wife, Joy, in A Grief Observed. As significant as that reading is—and it affects many people deeply—I didn’t want to end the class on that note. I preferred that we finish with a joyful glimpse into the essence of the Christian life and the hope of eternity. For that… Read more »

Narnia for Adults (and Other Maturing People)

  

Nearly every Wednesday evening since last September, I’ve been teaching a class at my church on The Chronicles of Narnia. Using the traditional order, I’ve completed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair. Last Wednesday, we began The Horse and His Boy. When I started this spiritual journey (and that seems an appropriate description for it), I wondered if adults truly would see the depth C. S. Lewis… Read more »

Narnia: Layers of Meaning

  

All summer I worked on developing courses on C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. In one sense, it was labor, but some labors provide spiritual satisfaction. This was one of those labors. I’m now presenting the fruit of that labor to a room of seventy people at my church who seem eager to learn what Lewis has given us in these presumably “children’s” tales. What they are discovering, I trust, is that they are just as meaningful to adults. I’m… Read more »

“I Was the Lion”

  

In my ongoing preparation for teaching C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia at my church, I’ve now completed five of the seven books, the latest being The Horse and His Boy. This book is unique as being the only one where no one from our world enters Narnia; rather, it focuses on two young people, Shasta and Aravis. The former is a slave seeking the freedom he heard exists in the land of Narnia; the second is a girl fleeing… Read more »

Depth in The Silver Chair

  

I wrote in a earlier post that I’m preparing to teach C. S. Lewis’s entire Narnia series (in the published order) on Wednesday evenings at my church—the first three in the fall quarter and the last four in the winter (although here in Florida the word “winter” is more like “far less humid and much more comfortable”). My goal is to finish this preparation during the summer, as I will be quite busy when the new semester begins at my… Read more »

Teaching Narnia

  

I’m now a member of a church that has a strong education program. On Wednesday evenings, for an hour and a half each week, I’ve had the joy of teaching C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity (along with my book, America Discovers C. S. Lewis). I’ve now been asked—and have readily agreed—to teach The Chronicles of Narnia. I won’t try to cram them all into one semester; instead, I’ll divide them into a two-semester format, covering the… Read more »