Religious Themes in

1
Religious Themes in The Lion, The Witch, And the
Wardrobe
2
Religious Themes inThe Chronicles of Narnia

• Divine Law
• Fall from Grace
• Last Judgement
• Heaven
• Afterlife

3
Religious Themes inThe Chronicles of Narnia

• Divine Creation
• In the beginning God created the heaven and the
  earth. And the earth was without form and void
  and darkness was upon the face of the deep...And
  God said, Let there be light and there was
  light.
• "In the darkness, something was happening at
  last. A voice had begun to sing...The Voice rose
  and rose, till the air was shaking with it. And
  just as it swelled into the mightiest and most
  glorious sound it had yet produced, the sun
  arose...The Lion was pacing to and fro about that
  empty land and singing his new song...And as he
  walked and sang the valley grew green with grass.
  It spread out from the Lion like a pool... " The
  Magician's Nephew

4
Religious Themes inThe Chronicles of Narnia

• Good vs Evil
• In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, evil
  is the current state of the world - Eden after
  the Fall.
• How does evil enter into Narnia originally?
  Through human sin
• Good and Evil are the result of choices people
  make
• choose good, the world becomes good (Christmas
  and spring arrive when the Pevensies arrive)
• Choose evil, the world responds with evil -
  Lewiss answer to natural evil?

5
Religious Themes inThe Chronicles of Narnia

• Fall from Grace
• Sin is introduced from outside - the result of
  human choice
• Temptation
• Redemption
• Forgiveness is possible
• Evil is necessary as a result of Fall, but all
  world will be redeemed in the end.

6
Religious Themes inThe Chronicles of Narnia

• Heaven/Afterlife
• Aslans true country turns out to be heaven
• Those who love Aslan get to go there after death
• Those who hate him, dont.
• Atheists dont get an afterlife?

7
Religious Themes in The Chronicles of Narnia The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

• Faith - beavers
• Devotion - Lucy and Susan
• Sacrifice - Aslan
• Resurrection - Aslan
• Transformation/kingdom of God - Santa/spring
• Sin - Edmund
• Forgiveness Aslan/edumund
• Redemption Edmund

8
Aslan as Christ - Sacrifice

• He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he
  opened not his mouth he is brought as a lamb to
  the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
  is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Isaiah 537
• "But Aslan made no noise, even when the
  enemies, straining and tugging, pulled the cords
  so tight that they cut into his flesh." The
  Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

9
Aslan as Christ - Resurrection

• After that he appeared in another form unto two
  of them, as they walked, and went into the
  country. Mark 1612
• "Susan and Lucy looked round. There, shining in
  the sunrise, larger than they had seen him
  before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently
  grown again) stood Aslan himself." The Lion, the
  Witch, and the Wardrobe

10
Aslan as Christ - Provider/Comforter/Lamb

• As soon as they were come to land, they saw a
  fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and
  bread.John 2112
• "The water was warm and all the time it got
  shallower. At last they were on dry sand, and
  then on grass... Then they noticed for the first
  time that there was a fire lit on the grass and
  fish roasting on it." The Voyage of the Dawn
  Treader
• Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. John 2112
  
• " Come and have breakfast,' said the Lamb in its
  sweet milky voice." The Voyage of the Dawn
  Treader

11
Aslan as Christ - Judge

• When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and
  all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit
  on his throne of glory And before him shall be
  gathered all nations and he shall separate them
  from one another, as a shepherd divideth his
  sheep from the goats And he shall set his sheep
  on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
  Then shall the King say unto them on his right
  hand, Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the
  kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
  the world...Then shall he say also unto them on
  the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into
  everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
  angels. Matthew 2531-34,41
• "The creatures came rushing on, their eyes
  brighter and brighter as they drew nearer and
  nearer to the standing stars. But as they came
  right up to Aslan one or other of two things
  happened to each of them. They all looked
  straight in his face...and when some looked, the
  expression of their faces changed terribly - it
  was fear and hatred...All the creatures who lookd
  as Aslan in that way swerved to their right, his
  left, and disappeared into his huge black shadow
  which...streamed away to the left of the doorway.
  But the others looked in the face of Aslan and
  loved him, though some of them were very
  frightened at the same time. And all these came
  in at the Door, in on Aslan's right." The Last
  Battle

12
Aslan as Christ

• Aslan as Numinous (fear and trembling)
• Aslan as Trinity?
• Aslan as Supreme Good
• Aslan as Redeemer