Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of fantasy books written by CS Lewis. Our family has read this whole series during family reading twice now. The first time was when Ron and I just got married and Marissa was learning that he was part of the family and got to participate in family times. Sharing mom was a new and unwelcome experience for nine-year old Marissa.

I have enjoyed this series since I was first introduced to it as a child. The books chronicle the adventures of children, as they become major players in history of Narnia, a fictional parallel universe. Children are attracted to this strange but magical place where you can have tea with a faun, defeat a witch and an evil Calormene Lord and triumph over a donkey impersonating Aslan, the Lion that represents Christ.

The first time we read the series, we read it for fun and to experience a shared adventure. This time, we paid close attention to the worldview that is presented in The Chronicles of Narnia. It is a good primer to use when teaching your children to read from a worldview perspective. It was quite easy for my daughter to identify the God character, Aslan, and to recognize that God was portrayed as infinite, personal and good. She readily identified Aslan’s role in the creation of the Narnian Universe.

Lewis makes many allusions to Christ and the gospel throughout the series. So you can use this book to discuss more abstract doctrines. Marissa and I talked about what it means to be a new creature in Christ after reading about the horse, Strawberry, becoming a ‘new creature’ as he was transformed from an ordinary horse into a talking, winged-horse named Fledge.

I would recommend reading this to your children. It is a wonderful reading out-loud book that can be enjoyed by kids of all ages! I did find one of the books in the series rather controversial. The final book, The Last Battle, is the tale of the end of Narnia. When we were just reading the series for fun (and Marissa was younger) it didn’t cause a problem. However, after examining the series in the light of God’s word, the final book contained allusions to doctrines upon which I would take issue with CS Lewis. First, one of the main characters, Susan, seems to have walked away from her faith and lost her salvation. I don’t believe people who are truly saved and indwelled by the Holy Spirit can lose their salvation. Second, anyone that upheld the Narnian standard of morality, even those that believed in and worshipped Tash (presented in the series as a Pagan diety) were allowed to spend eternity in heaven. I am glad we read this together and could dialogue about these issues and go back to the Bible and look at Biblical truths.