Okay, so this post might be a little controversial to some - if you couldn't tell just by the title. So, I have been in conversations with people of many different "Christian beliefs". Some say they love Narnia, Lord Of The Rings, and Harry Potter. Others say they think the first two are great, but despise Harry Potter. I have yet to hear someone tell me they don't like the first two. I can understand why they don't like Harry Potter, but we won't go into that - at least not in this post, but I promise I will have a post dedicated to Harry Potter. I won't really be talking much about Lord Of The Rings either, but we might touch on those flicks (originally books) at a latter date, too. Right now I will focus on The Chronicles of Narnia - specifically the first book, as I have neither read, nor watched the movies of the others. Although this post may seem like I am Narnia Bashing, I am not....I loved the movie...never read the book...some in school, I think, but that was over 20 years ago or so.
So, Every believer I have heard say that they love Chronicles Of Narnia always says pretty much the same thing. They love it because it was written by a believer and it has a Christian Message. The one thing that I don't think they realize - or maybe they do, but choose to overlook it because it was written by a Christian author - is the fact that almost EVERYTHING about Narnia (at least in the first book) is PAGAN. We have magic (which some Christians would hold up a cross to), then we have a witch, minotaur's, a faun, Centaurs, Gryphons, Dryads, a Phoenix, Dwarfs, Satyrs, and Cyclops' to name a few. There are a plethora more of mythological creatures gathered during Aslan's death. We even have Santa Clause in this book. Now I have met people who refuse to tell their children of Santa Clause - granted it is few and far between - not because he is fake, but because he is pagan. So with all this said of all the creatures there are only about 5 that are not pagan. Humans, Aslan (represents Christ) and a few of the talking animals. So, If you think about it, we believers - if we truly think pagan mythology is bad or even evil, then we should HATE The Chronicles Of Narnia -but we don't. Why is this? Despite it being almost entirely a "pagan book/film" much like that of Harry Potter and others we love it so much. The only answer I have is that it was created by a Christian - yes it does have a "Christian" message.....but I dare to argue that so does Harry Potter. Lets take the author out of the equation, or substitute the author for say....J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter creator) would we still hold Chronicles Of Narnia with such reverence, or would we simply throw it into the pile with other non-Christian books as pagan? I think many would.
So what makes a book with such blatant and outright paganism acceptable or unacceptable? The author, Undoubtedly. Narnia is a great book/movie and I love it, but what tends to frustrate me is that we as Christians so often tend to ignore the obvious because we think the author is Christian or a good person, and vice versa if we think the author is a bad person or intending to steer people away from Christ. I argue that Harry Potter is just as "Christian" as Lord Of The Rings, or The Chronicles Of Narnia.
Please, leave a comment on what you thought of this post.
Until next time.
C. J. Korryn