Aslan's World

Extraordinarily magical, Narnia is filled with talking beasts and other creatures. While Aslan is king of Narnia, he also has some characteristics of God. Created by a god, Narnia's nature is very like our world. Narnia is affected by evil just as our world is because of man’s choice.

Being the perfect example of God, Aslan, who created Narnia, is also the God of that world. Fully loving, Aslan feels grief for Diggory in The Magician’s Nephew and gives his life for Edmund in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, just like Jesus gave his life for us. While having loving characteristics, Aslan is also omnipresent. He knew what happened in the world of Charn and what Charn had become. Aslan also says in the book the Dawn Treader that he is also the God of our world.

Similarly, Narnia and our world are created by a God and have seen and unseen portions. Being created, Narnia was not an accident, which means Aslan, the creator, is in control. During the White Witch’s rule, the animals still believe in Aslan even though Aslan isn’t visible, which shows great faith in the unseen. The deeper magic from the dawn of time also shows how the invisible things have great power.

In Narnia, the causes of evil and suffering are human choice and Queen Jadis. Waking Jadis up, Diggory had a choice, but he chose to do the wrong thing which eventually led to evil in Narnia. As in our world, humans have choice and so does Diggory.

Madly evil and violently cruel, Queen Jadis hates Narnia because she feels a greater power there (Aslan) than she possesses, which makes her even more insane and she runs off to the mountains. Queen Jadis becomes Queen of Narnia many years later and her rule ends with her death; she is killed by Aslan, who saves Narnia.

Narnia is a world existing alongside ours and also having meaningful sequences of events. Existing beside our world Narnia, is much different from our world. In one way Narnia has its own time. In Narnia some of the meaningful things are Diggory bringing Jadis to Narnia, which is how evil enters Narnia. Briefly, here are some meaningful things that happened in Narnia: Narnia was created, evil entered Narnia, Aslan died and was resurrected, the Golden Age, new Narnia. While Narnia has many similar events it is also a very different world than ours.

Obviously Narnia is very like our world with a god like ours, man having a nature like ours, and finally that free choice is the reason for evil. The most significant thing about Narnia is Aslan and how holy and mighty he is.

Jack's Imagination and the World of Narnia

Who was the first to enter Narnia? Some might say Lucy or some might say Polly and Diggory, but the first to enter Narnia was C.S. Leiws. Born in 1898, C.S. grew up in Ireland. As a child, Lewis already had an exceedingly extraordinary imagination. Probably the books that he’s most famous for writing, The Chronicles of Narnia, soared to the top book sales in the 1950’s. When C.S. Lewis was an older man, he fell in love with Joy Gresham, who was also a writer.

In 1898 on November 29 the writer, Clives Staples Lewis was born on outskirts of Belfast, Ireland. His family consisted of his father, Alfred Lewis, his mother, Flora Hamilton Lewis, and his older brother, Warren Lewis. Assuredly deciding, when he was four that his name didn’t suit him, Clives changed his name to Jack. Growing up, Jack was always incredibly close to his older brother, although his brother was three years older than him. They were best friends. When Jack was young he didn’t go to school but was taught at home by a tutor until he was nine years old. Unlike most young boys, they enjoyed using their exceedingly grand imaginations to write stories and draw pictures to accompany them. They created their own medieval world called animal land. Using these characters, Jack also wrote a three act play. As a young Irish boy, Jack was a unique and passionate writer already.

Imagining a snowy wood, Jack pictured a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels. Suddenly appearing to Jack, this image would form into the brilliant story known as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When Jack wrote The Chronicles of Narnia he said that if no one else would write the sort of books he wanted to read, then he would write them himself. In 1950 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was published. Immediately, the book soared to the top sales along side The Lord of the Rings, which was written by his friend J.R.R. Tolkien. After writing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Jack went on to write the other books which are The Horse and his Boy, Prince Caspian, The Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Last Battle, and The Magician’s Nephew, which completed the series. It took him years to write all seven books. Children especially loved Jack’s books, and he received many letters from children about them. He always replied. Welcoming thousands to Narnia, the faun is the first character readers meet in Narnia when they open the book and escape there.

Jack met Joy Gresham, who was an intelligent and witty woman and also a writer, when she asked him to lunch after corresponding about Jack’s books in 1950. Finding her to be engaging, Jack invited Joy and her two sons, David and Douglas, to come stay at the Kilns for Christmas. Unfortunately, Joy’s marriage was wavering, and her husband was demanding a divorce, so Joy took her boys to live in London shortly after Christmas. When Joy, David, and Douglas moved to London, Joy struggled financially. Jack helped fill this need. Throughout this time Jack and Joy maintained a strong friendship until 1956 when the government refused to renew Joy’s permit to live in England unless she married a British citizen. Jack married her so she could stay but they regarded the marriage as a practical arrangement. Falling ill to cancer, Joy was extremely weak and had to fight hard for her life. When Jack heard this, he revealed his feelings for her and insisted on a real Christian wedding. This took place in 1957. Steadily Joy began to recover and the next years were “filled with Joy” and Jack was completely in love. Before long, her cancer returned and Joy’s health quickly deteriorated. On July 13, 1960 Joy passed away with Jack at her side. Joy’s son, Douglas Gresham, wrote later, “There were never two people alive in the history of the world who were more in love than Jack and Joy.” Belonging together, these two writers, Jack and Joy, Connected spiritually and shared many loves.

Creating Narnia as a middle aged man, C.S. Lewis was still a child at heart. If there was ever a child with an excessively wild imagination, it was Jack, who used it to write stories of other worlds. Jack loved to create magical worlds. After years of friendship with Joy Gresham , he married her 1957. The most significant thing about Jack was that knew how to use his imagination and he shared it with people through his stories.

A Story of Rescue

The talking animals, the green forests, and the roaring Lion are bits and pieces of the beautiful land of Narnia where everything is more colorful, more lovely, and more exciting. Ruled by the Lion, Aslan, Narnia is a world were animals talk, Kings and Queens rule, and magical things happen. But Narnia also isn’t too different from our world in some ways. Narnia was created by a God, sin entered by another source, and history has purpose.

In Narnia, Aslan, the great magnificent Lion, is God. Singing Narnia into life, Aslan is the creator of Narnia, as God is the creator of our world. When the Lion sings, lights appear, the earth is covered in growing things, and animals appear from humps in the ground. “Narnia. Narnia. Awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters,” Aslan says. Aslan is omnipotent. Aslan always forgives wrongs, even the worst wrongs. Although Aslan always forgives, he is a holy perfect God and firmly wants justice, and believes that all wrongs must be righted. Sacrificing himself in the place of the traitor, Edmund, Aslan dies as the perfect offering, but rises again because he had done no wrong. Aslan, who is perfect and holy, laughs, cries, and talks with his creation. He is all-powerful and personal.

Like the Biblical view of our world, the nature of Narnia is that it was created by God and it has a seen and unseen portion. Created by Aslan, Narnia is intricately designed and didn’t pop into being by chance. God made it. “Thus, with an unspeakable thrill, she [Polly] felt certain that all the things were coming (as she said) ‘out of the Lion’s head.’” There is and unseen portion too. Sadly, some in Narnia can’t see Aslan or hear his voice because they are too focused on unimportant things or because they choose not to. “The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in the Lion’s song. Soon he couldn’t have heard anything else even if he had wanted to.” The nature of the Narnian world, which follows the Biblical word view, is that it is created by God and that there is a seen and unseen portion.

The cause of evil and suffering in Narnia is the free choice of individuals and is from an outside source. Evil doesn’t come from Aslan. In Narnia, all are given free will and aren’t the slaves of Aslan, but are his friends. Absolutely different from Narnia, the ancient city of Charn is where Diggory wrongly rang the bell, which caused evil queen Jadis, to awake and escape to Narnia. Although evil found its way into Narnia it was because of a wrong choice from another source, and not because of Aslan, who is holy and perfect.

Throughout the lives of the people of Narnia, Aslan is involved, weaving in and out of the circumstances and developing his plan through them. Proudly parading through the streets of Tashbaan, the so called “great” royalties notice only their own riches, wealth, and power, which is all they value. Although not immediately apparent to many, there are things of importance that don’t fit into the category of the flashiest fashion or the newest gossip in Tashbaan. Aslan, King of All, is right before them, nudging his plan along, but they pay as much attention to him as if he were in another dimension. “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). There is a meaningful sequence of events in Narnia. Pushing Shasta to shore when he was baby, Aslan saved his life so that years later he could save Anvard. Aslan has a plan. In Narnia the sequence of events is significant even outside Aslan’s plan. Because Diggory rang the bell in Charn, the witch woke and escaped to Narnia, which eventually led to Aslan sacrificing his life. Similar to the Bible, in Narnia there is another world adjacent to ours, which is Aslan, and the sequence of events is relevant.

When Aslan, who is the God of Narnia, created Narnia, it was completely perfect because Aslan is perfect. Tragically, sin contaminates Narnia because of another’s choice in another place. Because history has meaning, this choice leads to Narnia becoming a desolate place for years to come. The reason this story is most beautiful is that it’s our story, the story of our loving God rescuing us because we couldn’t rescue ourselves.