The Writings of C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia, have been highly publicized through the production of the movies that have come out over the last few years. (I saw most of them twice and I think I enjoyed them even more than my children, though we all loved them).
But there is no substitute for reading the stories first hand. C.S. Lewis is and will always be one of my favorite authors.
In fact I distinctly remember reading the stories, (starting with The Magicians Nephew ) to my son. I was jumping around the room speaking with different voices and an English accent. I could see his eyes widen and his expression change as the stories characters were literally leaping of the page. ( well I was leaping). Several times as my wife was reading to my daughter in the other room or doing night-time prayers, I could hear them saying ” What on earth is going on in there” or What are they doing in there?” Chairs were falling over, I was leaping ,I would knock on the wall to represent the knock on a door and so on, to enhance the story’s imagery. ( I was often reminded that we were to be settling the children down, not winding them up). Sometimes my daughter would want to hear the story I was telling, not mom’s. She was always welcome but was more on the quiet side and would get up and leave if we were getting out of hand.
Reading both My sons expressions and the book I would heightened the sense of suspense at the appropriate times. Working with the words of Lewis, I made the bad characters sinister and the good characters noble. I made the children in the book wonder filled and Aslan, well there was no doubt who Aslan represented. He was Powerful, Good, Eternal and a Saving Lion, not a tame lion mind you, but a good Lion.
I loved that time.
C.S Lewis had a way of opening up the gift of imagination in the way he tells a story. He once was a thorough going atheist and I respect him for that because when he came to faith, he came to it in God’s timing through a mind that was willing to engage great truths without backing down. He was willing to accept where the evidences pointed him, and no doubt God was calling Lewis see Him as He is. He allowed the weight of the crisis ” That God indeed exists and can be known” to settle on him for his good.
Lewis once convinced and committed, then used his gifts to tell “The Great Story”.
Here is Lewis in His own words speaking about his allegorical writing in the time in which he lived,
“until the theologians and the ordained clergy begin to communicate with ordinary people in the vernacular, in a way that they can understand, I’m going to have to do this sort of thing.”
Today of course the pulpit does communicate to the ordinary people in the vernacular ( at least in the protestant denominations that I know) but C.S Lewis contribution to the fabric of Philosophical thought ,faith and story telling belongs to the church of believers, he is one of our dear brothers who I love to read.
If you ever want to get into some serious C.S. Lewis though you have to read his other works.
Here are a few suggestions
Mere Christianity http://www.amazon.ca/Mere-Christianity-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652926
Surprised by Joy http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Joy-Shape-Early-Life/dp/0156870118
The weight of Glory http://www.amazon.com/Weight-Glory-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060653205/ref=pd_sim_b2
A grief observed http://www.amazon.com/Grief-Observed-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652381/ref=pd_sim_b8
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