For your considerations: the musings of a guy who hadn't visited Narnia until this last week.
I sometimes wonder if Aslan is like something out of Peter Pan or the Polar Express; if you're not a child, you sort of lose the mystery and wonder of the entire story. I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wadrobe this last week, and, quire frankly, I'm a little confused. Not with the story, because it's a basic good overcomes evil affair (with a resurrection thrown in for good measure), nor for finding the glaring allegories that stared me down at times (although I might have had a little trouble finding the more subtle ones). No, none of those things were too much to wrap my college-level brain around.
The problem, I've found, is Aslan. The intimidating head honcho? Sure. The god-mode superhero that swoops in an kicks butt? Fine. The... Christ figure? Well... let's talk about that. You see, in the reading that I've done, and granted, I haven't read all of the Narnian lore there is to explore, I'm mostly puzzled with how much Aslan is not like Christ at times.
Upon looking at some articles on the ever-credible internet, I've found that the opinion of many seemingly Evangelical Christians is that Aslan is a perfect Christ figure because of his undeserved death on behalf of the treachorous Edmund (www.talesofnarnia.com, for example). I don't contest this point. The two figures' deaths were pretty similar, as were the nature of Aslan and Jesus at times (very compassionate, kind).
My problem is that Lewis seems to "suppose" that the Narnian Christ-figure (not the allegorial Christ) did not have the humanistic aspect of Christ that I believe Jesus possessed, thus not being anywhere near an accurate representation of Christ. Now, of course, there are varying theological opinions on 'how human' or 'how God-like' Jesus actually was, but I didn't find that Aslan lived a life that was similar to the one that Jesus did while he was "in the flesh and dwealt among us (1 John 1:14)."
Before I give my exact thoughts on this, however, I'd like to know if you guys are tracking with me, and if so, what your opinion is on how closely the symbolism of Aslan and Christ are related.
---CJ
I sometimes wonder if Aslan is like something out of Peter Pan or the Polar Express; if you're not a child, you sort of lose the mystery and wonder of the entire story. I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wadrobe this last week, and, quire frankly, I'm a little confused. Not with the story, because it's a basic good overcomes evil affair (with a resurrection thrown in for good measure), nor for finding the glaring allegories that stared me down at times (although I might have had a little trouble finding the more subtle ones). No, none of those things were too much to wrap my college-level brain around.
The problem, I've found, is Aslan. The intimidating head honcho? Sure. The god-mode superhero that swoops in an kicks butt? Fine. The... Christ figure? Well... let's talk about that. You see, in the reading that I've done, and granted, I haven't read all of the Narnian lore there is to explore, I'm mostly puzzled with how much Aslan is not like Christ at times.
Upon looking at some articles on the ever-credible internet, I've found that the opinion of many seemingly Evangelical Christians is that Aslan is a perfect Christ figure because of his undeserved death on behalf of the treachorous Edmund (www.talesofnarnia.com, for example). I don't contest this point. The two figures' deaths were pretty similar, as were the nature of Aslan and Jesus at times (very compassionate, kind).
My problem is that Lewis seems to "suppose" that the Narnian Christ-figure (not the allegorial Christ) did not have the humanistic aspect of Christ that I believe Jesus possessed, thus not being anywhere near an accurate representation of Christ. Now, of course, there are varying theological opinions on 'how human' or 'how God-like' Jesus actually was, but I didn't find that Aslan lived a life that was similar to the one that Jesus did while he was "in the flesh and dwealt among us (1 John 1:14)."
Before I give my exact thoughts on this, however, I'd like to know if you guys are tracking with me, and if so, what your opinion is on how closely the symbolism of Aslan and Christ are related.
---CJ
posted by CJWurpts at 11:16 AM
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