Deeper Magic at the Movies

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Lewis was clear that he was writing a "supposal," not a flat-footed allegory. Yet contemporary Christians, who often feel bruised by Hollywood, have been worried that this spiritual them would be scrubbed entirely away. Rest assured: It's all there, just as overtly as in the novel, and handled with all due dignity. When I first heard that this movie was being made, I feared the worst: a cuddly plush-toy Aslan with big pleading eyes. Instead, this Aslan is about as majestic and regal as you could wish, and his eyes are concealed just enough that he retains an air of mystery. It's slightly disappointing that, after his Resurrection, he isn't larger than before, as he is in the book. But it's a great relief that, after his Resurrection, he doesn't have to go bounding and romping around with the girls like an overgrown kitten. That passage is a clinker in the novel, and it would have been mortifying on the big screen.

Not only are Lewis's theological references intact, but a couple of lines of dialogue have even been tweaked to bring them closer to Gospel text. Now, when the girls hear the Table crack, they ask, "Where's Aslan? What have they done?"--echoing Mary Magdalene's response on discovering the empty tomb (John 20:13-15). And when Aslan deals the final blow to the Witch, he announces to Peter, "It is finished!"--Christ's final words from the Cross (John 19:30). The only audience members who will get this are those who have such Scriptures memorized, but it's a nudge-in-the-ribs they will surely appreciate.

Christians savor this story as one that retells the drama of our salvation on the cross, but there's something puzzling about that: The Narnian story doesn't quite track with the one Western Christians have traditionally upheld. According to that popular understanding of atonement, God could not forgive our sins without punishing us, because that would constitute "injustice." But if the sinless Son dies in our place he pays a debt he does not owe, and can then "make over the claim He had on God to man," as Anselm of Canterbury said. This is termed the "Satisfaction" theory of the Atonement, and has been dominant in Western Christianity since it was developed by Anselm in the 11th century.

But in the case of Aslan's death--contrary to the "Satisfaction" theory--there's no suggestion that Edmund's treachery incurs a debt with Narnia's Creator, the "Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea" (a vague figure who never appears, but who apparently parallels God the Father; one thing the Narnia stories aren't strong on is the Trinity). Aslan's death on the Stone Table is not presented as a way of satisfying Edmund's offense against the Emperor.

Aslan's heroic act is aimed at the Witch, not the Emperor, and he defeats her by using information she does not have. This sounds like the understanding of salvation that held sway for the thousand years before Anselm, still preserved in the Christian East, which echoed the earlier story of the Exodus. According to this understanding, God does not require any payment for our sins, but forgives us freely, just like we're supposed to forgive each other. We are helpless in the grip of evil forces, like the Hebrews in Egypt and the beasts in Narnia. God rescues us by a mighty act, by his power alone.

This victory trounces evil. In the Exodus story, Pharaoh and his army are drowned when they try to recapture the Hebrews fleeing to freedom. In the Christian story, the Devil is smashed when he seeks to imprison Christ, Life itself, in the realm of Death. And in Lewis's story, the Witch's power over all Narnia is destroyed when she greedily snatches at Aslan's innocent life.

In each case this is a rescue story, not a payment story. The hint of trickery is distasteful to Western Christians, but was not to believers in the early centuries. St. Gregory of Nyssa (d. 395 AD) said that Christ's divinity was hidden under his humanity like a fishhook under bait, and Satan "like a ravenous fish" gulped it down.

All of which reminds us that C.S. Lewis could be more creative and original than his defenders and detractors sometimes realize. You might say that he was "not a tame author," echoing his marvelous phrase that Aslan is "not a tame lion." ("'Course he isn't safe," Mr. Beaver says in the novel. "But he's good.") Lewis could take a sterling line like that, and then turn it around in the final Narnia story, "The Last Battle," and use it to heartbreaking effect. See, the "last king of Narnia," King Tirian, has just rescued some dwarves, but when he reminds them that "Aslan is not a tame lion," they jeer and say.

But that's another story. There are many, many wonderful stories in Narnia, and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is only the beginning. Come on. Let's go to the movies.

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