I know what you’re thinking: What has Narnia to do with freethought? Well, nothing — and everything. Bear in mind that C.S. Lewis’s goal (in both fiction and non-fiction) was to help draw people out of secularism and back into the Christian fold. This is one of the only consistent themes running through most all of his work.
My point here today is to encourage adults to familiarize themselves with the work, at least enough to decide whether it is age appropriate for their children. If you do choose to read them, pay particular attention to how Lewis recasts the Fall and the Redemption in his fictional world, and how he deals with the problem of those who’ve never heard the gospel in Book 7. Notice how he effortlessly works in the Greek gods and other mythological creatures. After all that, ask yourself how on God’s Green Earth the author manages to maintain his popularity in American Evangelical culture. If you figure out a good answer to that, please do let me know.
