20th Century Fox and Walden Media’s efforts to promote The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the new movie opening today based on the third episode of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia saga, to Christian audiences has been taking a hit over the past few days over comments by actor Liam Neeson (who provides the voice of Aslan the Lion) and the film’s producer Mark Johnson.

Neeson started the controversy by telling the London media that his character Aslan (widely interpreted by Christians, including C.S. Lewis himself, as representing the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ) “symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries.” Adding “That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me.”

Shortly thereafter, Johnson concurred, reportedly telling the the Hollywood Reporter 

“resurrection exists in so many different religions in one form or another, so it’s hardly exclusively Christian.” Adding “We don’t want to favor one group over another … whether these books are Christian, I don’t know.”

In response to all the hoopla, Walden Media President Michael Flaherty tells Big Hollywood that, despite concerns set off by those statements, the clear Christian themes of Lewis’ story are not watered down for the film.

Says Flaherty, “While Lewis would argue that Narnia is not an allegory, rather a “supposal”, there are strong Christian themes in the book that were influenced by Lewis’ worldview.  Further, Lewis’ main focus in writing “Dawn Treader” was “the spiritual life.”  While every book encounters some changes from the page to the screen, we wanted to make sure that the themes that were important to Lewis – redemption, temptation, grace, and our yearning for our true home – were not only preserved, but amplified through the changes that we made with the script.   There were a number of lines from the book that were important to preserve verbatim as well.   Most important are Aslan’s lines at the end when he tells Lucy “In your world I have a different name.  You must learn to know me by it.  That is the whole reason you came to Narnia.  By knowing me better here you would know me better there.” 

Addressing the comments directly he says “When it comes to lines being delivered in an interview by the cast and crew, that is something that we don’t control.”

Adding,“We hired Mark [Johnson]because he is one of the best producers in the business and he has produced some of my favorite movies – ‘The Rookie,’ ‘The Natural,’ ‘My Dog Skip.’ The best way to be faithful to Lewis was to hire the best possible producer, and that was Mark.  He has done a great job with the series and he has given the better part of a decade to making them happen. 

“The same goes for Liam.  We searched for months to find the right actor who could be authoritative and forgiving and comforting.  He has hit it out of the park for us and I can’t imagine a different actor playing Aslan.  These guys are at the top of their game in film making.  But I don’t think that they are about to get an M Div from Dallas Theological Seminary any time soon.”

Meanwhile, some speculate that Neeson and Johnson may have felt a professional need to distance themselves from the film’s Christian themes. Who knows what were in their minds and/or hearts but I don’t think there’s anything necessarily contradictory in holding both views — that the story does contain strong, specifically, Christian themes but also themes that are relatable to people of other faiths or no particular religion.

I think Christians would be wise to accept and embrace the film as a positive cinematic expression of Christian faith (one which should be supported) — and not be upset because it reaches out to non-Christians as well. In my mind, that’s a good thing.