By Harry L. Poe
In
conversation one night with his friend J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis raised this objection
to the truth of Christianity. Tolkien replied that Christianity certainly was
another myth of the dying and rising god, with one exception. It was the myth
that actually happened in time and space: in Bethlehem, Galilee, and Jerusalem
between the time that Augustus sent out a decree to tax the world (when Quirinius
was first governor of Syria) and the time when Pontius Pilate was governor of
Judea and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee (during the high priesthood of Caiaphas
and Annas).3
Shortly
after the late night talk with Tolkien, Lewis realized that he did believe that
Jesus Christ was God incarnate. The stories had come to Lewis as preparation
for the gospel, but they came at him “under the radar” of his intellectual
defense mechanisms. Lewis would remark that, “A young man who wishes to
remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful about his reading.”4
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Tolkien’s
remark about Christianity being the myth that really happened would clash with
Rudolf Bultmann’s understanding of myth, but it also gave Lewis an insight
into why the same story appears in so many unconnected cultures around the world.
In
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader the children ask Aslan if he is in their
world too. He replies that he is known by another name in their world, but that
by knowing him a little in Narnia, they will know him better in their world.
It is as though God placed the stories in every culture as stories that raise
expectations but do not satisfy in and of themselves. The Chronicles of Narnia
are like these myths, though most of the details have a direct correspondence
to the Christian story. They are not, however, for teaching Christian doctrine
but for recognizing human longing that only the gospel satisfies.
Lewis
observed that a journey provides the best vehicle for exploring human spiritual
struggles.5 John Bunyan understood this principle when
he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, as did Dante when he wrote The
Divine Comedy. The stories in The Chronicles of Narnia, as in Tolkien’s
The Lord of the Rings, involve a journey in which people change. The
only ones who remain unchanged are the ones who do not undertake the journey.
The
narrative foundation for Lewis’s Narnia stories and his space trilogy is
the Christian understanding that life involves a journey. Consider the place
of journey and its spiritual implications in the Bible:
Adam and Eve
leaving Eden
Cain going to the Land of Nod
Noah’s voyage on the flood
The dispersion of people from Babel
Abraham and Sarah leaving Ur and going to Caanan
The children of Jacob going down to Egypt
The nation of Israel leaving Egypt