Narnia and "Mere Christianity"

Are the Chronicles of Narnia good reading for Catholic youth? Some might look at this askance: “What? With all the other junk out there? If my child wants to read these, of course!”

Can we take a step back from judging everything based on the reality that the culture is so bad? Relative judging has its place, but perhaps when we do this, we miss the reality of the thing itself that we are judging- and we accept more than we should. Therefore, we look at these books for the good that they offer, the richness of awakening faith; the beauty of a majestic Christ-figure- and for the weaknesses they hold; which, I think are important for Catholic parents to be aware of in reading the books with their children, and in going to the movie coming out 9 December.

The Chronicles of Narnia do not portray the fullness of the faith, because in large part, their author never, as his friend JRR Tolkien lamented, “…came all the way into the Church.” C.S. Lewis was born into a Protestant Irish family in 1898. Culturally, and religiously, this means that he grew up in a milieu of Christian hating Christian, in an era when people walked on the other side of the street from the local Catholic Church so as not to ‘get too near the idolatry’.

Lewis himself lost his faith as a young man; perhaps it was largely a cultural faith and not imbedded in his soul. But as Tolkien said later, “It seemed that he never quite lost the Ulster Protestant in him, and could not get past seeing anything but the negative from a priest” (my paraphrase). Yet perhaps the memory of the battling between Catholic and Protestant in the neighborhoods of Ireland lay buried in his memory, awakening later with his own awakening in faith. Lewis was a middle-aged bachelor and Professor of Literature at Oxford or Cambridge (honestly- I can never remember this tidbit!) when he met Tolkien. Among other things, it was their literary group and a late-night conversation about the reality of ‘mythos’ with Tolkien that changed Lewis’ soul. He suddenly saw everything as spiraling outward from the Great Myth, the True Myth of Christ; everything suddenly only made sense in the Light of the Lamb.

Lewis, passionate, supremely intelligent and of strong will and purpose, went on a Crusade of his own: like St. Francis of Assisi, he wanted to go and preach peace: especially among Christian folk. He crafted an idea of Christianity called “Mere Christianity”. He preached this on radio, book and lecture- and became quite famous in the process. Tolkien, meanwhile, Catholic genius that he was, describes both the genius of Mere Christianity and its weaknesses in one great play on one of Lewis’ own images. “Mere Christianity”, he said, “like the hallway running the length of a great house, does not encompass the rooms off itself. Instead of attempting to open those doors- to the Orthodox, Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, etc- it prides itself on being too simple for those conflicts of ‘complicated doctrine’. Yet, it remains in the hallway, missing perhaps the fullness and richness of Truth and Faith behind one of those doors.” I would extrapolate further to say that Lewis’ ultimate understanding of 'Mere Christianity' is what St. Paul calls "the milk of infants". The Apostle further calls us to grow beyond that simple milk, to eat the Food of Christ: the Eucharist, the Traditions and fullness of the Church: these being proper food for the maturity of Faith- the Faith of the Saints.

Thus, the Chronicles of Narnia are beautiful, but as milk for infants in the Faith. That is to say that the books are real tools for a child’s understanding of Christianity- the use of allegory (using symbolic figures to stand for real events and people) and the inclusion of cultural things like “Father Christmas” in the first book make the basic message of the Faith understandable to baby Christians (adults included).

Thus, there are many important things missing that will produce a stunt-growth effect, if the reader is not moved past Narnia. The idea of a Church, or priesthood continuing the Sacrifice of Christ are missing; the notion of intercessory prayer; the Mother of God; if one starts thinking of all the things not contained in the books, even symbolically, it is easy to understand the weaknesses of the Chronicles.

But do not, I think, underestimate the beauty, and the majestic presentation of Christ. Also, Lewis knows how to portray evil in its selfishness and banality, even so that children can be disgusted without being scandalized. My weakened faith kept its small spark alive, in large part, because Narnia had been a real place to me as a child; and I was in love with Aslan, and yet understood whom the lion was meant to portray. So whilst critiquing Lewis, I remain indebted to him and he has my prayers- prayers that he finally understood Tolkien when they met again- hopefully both in the right place!

Read the books, go to see the movies (if they are faithful renditions without any Disney Funny Business). But point yourselves and your children out of the hallway and into the door of Fullness: The Catholic Faith, by graduation to the great Catholic novels, the stories of the saints, and the spiritual classics.

Finally, talk about what is missing with your seven-year-olds and older. This will elicit their first experience in Catholic apologetics!