WordJourney

As a young Christian, one of the first books put in my hand was Mere Christianity, a wonderful defense of the Christian faith penned by C.S. Lewis. The book went very far to help me personally grasp the importance of what I believe, but most importantly of why Jesus Christ is my sure foundation.

Since then, I’ve picked up a handful of Lewis’ books including The Screwtape Letters and have enjoyed the BBC production of Shadowlands, a story that recounts some of Lewis’ later years including his relationship with Joy Davidman. As far as his seven-part The Chronicles of Narnia series, I haven’t read those books yet, but I have seen both of the Disney productions released thus far including Prince Caspian, a movie my wife and I enjoyed this week.

Disney won the right to produce the Narnia series and evidently is planning to release a new movie about every other year until the series has been completed. Production for the third movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, has started and is expected to be released in 2010. Douglas Gresham, who is Joy Davidman’s son, is representing the C.S. Lewis foundation to ensure that the stories hold true to Lewis’ story line. So far, both movies have been quite close, at least that is what my wife says who is reading the entire Narnia series to our children.

I don’t plan on spoiling the story line, but I will share some observations about the movie. First of all, it is extremely well done, pulling viewers quickly into the story line as it brings the characters to life. Second of all, director Andrew Adamson (son of Adam?) manages to flesh out the characters without getting silly. Talking mice, squirrels, bear, and badger are retained for the storyline, but their importance, I am told, fades to the background compared to the book. The Pevensie sisters take part in the battle, as do many of the other female characters. Narnia purists may object to this change, but it doesn’t detract from the story line.

Aslan, who is a type of Jesus, is presented wonderfully. Majestic and merciful, the movie took great pains to show how Aslan treats his enemies — sparing the lives of soldiers and forgiving traitors. On a personal level, I connected with Aslan as a figure for Christ, seeing fully how God is quick to forgive and to strengthen those who will believe.

Prince Caspian is rated PG and for good reason — there is plenty of violence in the battle scenes, though there isn’t any of the usual Hollywood, “up close and let me show you a dagger piercing his heart and leaving a gory mess” scenes in the movie. In addition, young children are likely to be disturbed by the demonic encounter at the White Witch’s revelation, a scene that can be embedded in a young child’s mind and come to life in the middle of the night.

Some critics have said that the movie, at 2 hours and 20 minutes, is too long and that the storyline is plodding. The long part for me was the six or seven movie previews which delayed the movie’s start by at least ten minutes. Thankfully, Adamson and Gresham didn’t trim the story to the usual, manageable 100 minute Hollywood flick, retaining virtually all of the storyline as written by Lewis.

When the movie does come out on DVD we will, just like the first one, buy it. One advantage of watching it at home is fast forwarding through the scary parts to allow young children to enjoy the movie without paying for it later in the form of nightmares.

From a production standpoint, Prince Caspian is a raging success, having pulled in $56 million during its first weekend alone. Most importantly, the movie retains Lewis’ message which is a wonderful allegory of the life and love of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite Christian writers is Clive Staples (Jack) Lewis, an Irish author who taught English literature and language at Oxford’s Magdalen College and was a Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University. The first time I read one of his works was in high school when I came across a book in his space trilogy works, That Hideous Strength. Admittedly, my first encounter with one of Lewis’ writings wasn’t a good one as I struggled mightily to finish the book. I never quite understood what it was about!

In my twenties I was introduced to Mere Christianity, an excellent work in defense of Christian beliefs. I was a young believer then and a friend correctly thought that this book would help build my faith.

Later, I read the Screwtape Letters a funny, but chilling look at spiritual warfare. Clearly, Lewis was blessed with a certain amount of spiritual insight not normally shared by God. I understand that Lewis experienced some unusual battles as he wrote this book.

More recently I had the opportunity to watch the movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, based on one part of a seven-part fantasy series written for children. The movie and the series also stirred the interest of my wife and children who are waiting for the second movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, to be released next summer.

Finally, I enjoyed the BBC production of Shadowlands, a movie that examined the personal life of Lewis, including his eventual marriage to Joy Davidman and her death from cancer. I did see the Hollywood version later, but the original movie I found to be more accurate (both of Davidman’s sons were portrayed, while in the second movie she had only one son) and interesting.

Now to my point: I recently discovered The Joyful Christian, a book that was compiled in 1984, some 21 years after Lewis’ death. Containing 127 readings from a wide range of Lewis’ writings, the book covers many different topics including morality, prayer, praise, sex, perfection and more. In some cases excerpts from his other writings are shared, meaning you may need to get that book for his full opinion on a particular subject. Still, for Lewis fans The Joyful Christian offers a good taste of what he is all about.

Lewis is not a theologian, rather he is an atheist turned Christian who came to faith at the age of 31. By that time he was already well established on a scholarly level with the bulk of his writings still to come. Lewis’ writings were heavily influenced by his knowledge of the medieval and renaissance eras and he was part of an informal literary group known as the Inklings (with J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield and others) who met on a regular basis to discuss various books and encourage the writing of fantasy novels.

I came across The Joyful Christian at a second hand bookstore, but I know that it is still available through notable online distributors including Amazon. If you aren’t familiar with Lewis’ writings, this book is a good place to start and it should encourage you to seek out his other works.