Month: May 2005

I re-read C.S. Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles every few years. There’s something about Lewis’ portrayal of Christ in the Lion, Aslan, that rings truer than any other description save those in the Bible itself. The same is true of Lewis’ dramatization of how Christ relates to us, either as people of faith or of unbelief. There’s a triumphant scene in “The Last Battle,” for example, in which Aslan leaps joyously from one hilltop to the next, leading his followers deeper and deeper into his new creation with shouts of “further up and farther in!” Aslan’s subjects experience the new creation as more “real” than the England and Narnia they’ve recently departed, and realize that they’ve been longing for this country all their lives. When I read this scene I experience those very pangs of longing for that brighter country, along with the thrill of realizing Christ’s love, broader and deeper than I can comprehend, longs even more deeply to fellowship with me in that country.

If, like me, you’re a fan of Narnia — or of any of Lewis’ work — you’ll relish Wayne Martindale’s wonderful volume, “C.S. Lewis on Heaven and Hell — Beyond the Shadowlands.” Martindale serves as an experienced and loving guide to the landscapes Lewis painted of heaven and hell, primarily in fiction such as the Narnia and Perelandra books and the allegorical Great Divorce and Screwtape Letters.