Parallel between Chronicles of Narnia and the Bible

[Archbob]

So I've just read all seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia. I was looking for something with great richness and depth of history in the world like LOTR and was a bit dissapointed in that respect, but now I am currently working on drawing parallels between Narnia and the bible.

I think all of us who have read or have knowledge of both can see that Asylan is Jesus and his father, the Great Emperor over the Sea, is God.

Now on the subject of Satan. Those of you who have only read the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will say its the white Witch. But I rather think its the Calormen God, Tash, that represents Satan.

The Children are more like prophets than anything else, coming in the best times to deliver Narnia from her enemies.

The theme that to be a true king of Narnia(as Asylan said), you have to be a true Son of Adam or Daughter of Eve, shows that Asylan is saying that Humans were meant to be supreme in Narnia just like God gave Humans dominion over the other creatures of earth.

The end of the last battle is also similiar to Judgement day.

Do you guys think C.S. Lewis wrote Narnia with the comparisons in mind?

 

[shortguy]

Noting that he was a well-known and popular Christian apologist, I would say that he most certainly did.

EDIT: Or, I could be wrong. A quote of his, from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia:


"Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument, then collected information about child psychology and decided what age group I'd write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write in that way. It all began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord."

 

[Archbob]

Yes, but the parallels are too prominent to ignore.

 

[MobBoss]

So I've just read all seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia. I was looking for something with great richness and depth of history in the world like LOTR and was a bit dissapointed in that respect, but now I am currently working on drawing parallels between Narnia and the bible.

I think all of us who have read or have knowledge of both can see that Asylan is Jesus and his father, the Great Emperor over the Sea, is God.

Now on the subject of Satan. Those of you who have only read the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will say its the white Witch. But I rather think its the Calormen God, Tash, that represents Satan.

The Children are more like prophets than anything else, coming in the best times to deliver Narnia from her enemies.

The theme that to be a true king of Narnia(as Asylan said), you have to be a true Son of Adam or Daughter of Eve, shows that Asylan is saying that Humans were meant to be supreme in Narnia just like God gave Humans dominion over the other creatures of earth.

The end of the last battle is also similiar to Judgement day.

Do you guys think C.S. Lewis wrote Narnia with the comparisons in mind?

Of course he did. Throngs of my fellow churchgoers are lining up to see this movie. FYI Jesus Christ is often referred to as the "Lion of Judah".

 

[blindside]

This is quite an established and well known fact.

 

[bhsup]

Of course he did.

So you're calling C.S. Lewis a liar in that quote shortguy gave above? Obviously a parallel was made, but according to that quote it was not his intent to do that from the beginning.

 

[MobBoss]

So you're calling C.S. Lewis a liar in that quote shortguy gave above? Obviously a parallel was made, but according to that quote it was not his intent to do that from the beginning.

Noooo. Pay Attention! Here is a part of the quote for your benefit:

that element pushed itself in of its own accord."

To me, that is an admission that a parallel was made in the story with christianity. Perhaps not in the initial stages of forming the story idea. But it was "worked in". No ifs, ands or butts.

I went on to read more of the wikipedia article than the cut and paste had. Lewis said that the stories themselves were not allegorys in the true sense, but stories of how Jesus would have represented himself in a world like Narnia...thus the parallels between our worlds christianity and Narnias. Pretty interesting stuff.

 

[bhsup]

But the OPs question was "Do you guys think C.S. Lewis wrote Narnia with the comparisons in mind?" According to that quote, Lewis didn't write it with a comparison in mind, it just happened.

By the by, if anybody wants to read a great C.S. Lewis book, I highly recommend "The Screwtape Letters".

 

[MobBoss]

But the OPs question was "Do you guys think C.S. Lewis wrote Narnia with the comparisons in mind?" According to that quote, Lewis didn't write it with a comparison in mind, it just happened.

Well, he also wrote it as a play on a "what if" idea if Christ had been in Narnia as opposed to Earth. He said that if you read further into the wikipedia article. That doesnt sound like "it just happened" to me. Does it to you?

 

[El_Machinae]

A lot of 'intellectual' Protestants recommend CS Lewis as good reading. I've never read him, but apparently he had rather intelligent concepts regarding his religion.

And I much prefer interacting with religious people when they've put intelligent thought into their worldview. We might not agree, but it's much easier to 'agree to disagree'.

 

[RoboPig]

So I've just read all seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia. I was looking for something with great richness and depth of history in the world like LOTR and was a bit dissapointed in that respect, but now I am currently working on drawing parallels between Narnia and the bible.

I think all of us who have read or have knowledge of both can see that Asylan is Jesus and his father, the Great Emperor over the Sea, is God.

Now on the subject of Satan. Those of you who have only read the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will say its the white Witch. But I rather think its the Calormen God, Tash, that represents Satan.

The Children are more like prophets than anything else, coming in the best times to deliver Narnia from her enemies.

The theme that to be a true king of Narnia(as Asylan said), you have to be a true Son of Adam or Daughter of Eve, shows that Asylan is saying that Humans were meant to be supreme in Narnia just like God gave Humans dominion over the other creatures of earth.

The end of the last battle is also similiar to Judgement day.

Do you guys think C.S. Lewis wrote Narnia with the comparisons in mind?

while most of whta you say i agree with, i do think the white witch is satan and that the kids are more like crusader figures, fighting for aslan against his enemies. it will be interesting to see if Disney will eep this christian aspects of the story in their upcoming film.

I have to brush up on the series and try to make comparisons too now.

 

[Souron]

while most of whta you say i agree with, i do think the white witch is satan and that the kids are more like crusader figures, fighting for aslan against his enemies. it will be interesting to see if Disney will eep this christian aspects of the story in their upcoming film.

I have to brush up on the series and try to make comparisons too now.

I believe the two kings and queens paralell the Desiples.

But yes the which is satan.

 

[Saga of Gemini]

So I've just read all seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia. I was looking for something with great richness and depth of history in the world like LOTR and was a bit dissapointed in that respect, but now I am currently working on drawing parallels between Narnia and the bible

Dude..didnt you know that Narnia is a kids tale?? dont tell me you actually thougth youll get the lord of the rings :S or dragonlance :S or whathave you..

Anyway C.S. Lewis is a famous christian and apologists it shouldnt be a surpirse to find any simillarities between the bible and narnia.

Edit: forgot to say that tolkien firstwrote the hobitt as a fairy tale for his son then someone pressed him to create the mithology of the lords of the rings O.o

 

[Archbob]

I believe the two kings and queens paralell the Desiples.

But yes the which is satan.

I don't agree with the witch being satan. The witch only appears in one opf the seven books. At the end of the last battle Aslan says of the Calormen God Tash "Tash and I are exact opposites, when you do something good and swear in the name of Tash, it is I who accept the offering. When you swear something evil by me, it is Tash that accepts the offering". Therefore I reason that Tash is the true representation of Satan and no the witch.

You can't make a judge on Satan's counterpart in Narnia based on just Lion, witch, and wardrobe.

 

[DBear]

I guess I'll have to look at the books again--I always took the Calormenes to be Muslims and Tash to be Allah...

 

[RoboPig]

I guess I'll have to look at the books again--I always took the Calormenes to be Muslims and Tash to be Allah...

you hit it on the head DBear! i forgot they were called the Calomenes. they have a very Arabic Culture and CS Lewis was so fanatically christian that he saw Allah as evil. thats why the kids are crusader figures too, they fight the other religion which is supposed to bear a resemblance to the Arabic World.

 

[Archbob]

I guess if you put it that way, but Allah is not the opposite of Jesus and anyone who knows anything about religion knows that Allah does not represents everything that is vile, Satan does.

When Aslan says him and Tash are exact opposite and that no unvile thing can be done in service to Tash, it puts Tash more at Satan than Allah.

Also Edmund probably represents the fall of man and Aslan had to be killed in order to redeem man and then he himself was resurrected in Book 2 of the series(Magician's Newphew was the first book). I'd still that kids were more of prophets than crusaders, being called in by Aslan in times of need. As was the case in the bible when God spoke at oppurtune times to Samual, Elijah, Elisha, etc.

 

[RoboPig]

I guess if you put it that way, but Allah is not the opposite of Jesus and anyone who knows anything about religion knows that Allah does not represents everything that is vile, Satan does.

When Aslan says him and Tash are exact opposite and that no unvile thing can be done in service to Tash, it puts Tash more at Satan than Allah.

Also Edmund probably represents the fall of man and Aslan had to be killed in order to redeem man and then he himself was resurrected in Book 2 of the series(Magician's Newphew was the first book). I'd still that kids were more of prophets than crusaders, being called in by Aslan in times of need. As was the case in the bible when God spoke at oppurtune times to Samual, Elijah, Elisha, etc.

i dont think that comparisons can be made so literally considering the characters are very mixed and therefore not similar enough to compare to biblical characters. and btw, CS Lewis probably didnt study Islam and therefore saw muslims as evil.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I don't agree with the witch being satan. The witch only appears in one opf the seven books. At the end of the last battle Aslan says of the Calormen God Tash "Tash and I are exact opposites, when you do something good and swear in the name of Tash, it is I who accept the offering. When you swear something evil by me, it is Tash that accepts the offering". Therefore I reason that Tash is the true representation of Satan and no the witch.

You can't make a judge on Satan's counterpart in Narnia based on just Lion, witch, and wardrobe.

If one is to press it into a evangelical framework, I suppose the Witch is the temporal and spiritual authorities - the Romans and the High Priests.

I never actually read the last book; I found that the series was going downhill in the preceeding ones.


Interesting piece on the guy behind the new movie.

 

[Archbob]

Definately not literal translations of characters to those in the bible, but I'm just saying those that they most closely resemble.

On an offshoot that scene in the two towers where Gandalf appears all in white charging down on the orcs at helm's deep sure made him look Jesus-Glorius, did it not?