Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
N. N. Mamaeva
Clive Staples Lewis was an Oxford scholar, philologist, theologian, and specialist in the history of medieval literature. He has written literary works, philosophical and religious treatises “Love”, “Suffering”, “Miracle”, allegories “The Roundabout Path” and “Dissolution of Marriage”, a science fiction trilogy and, finally, “The Chronicles of Narnia”. C. S. Lewis was part of the same literary circle as J. R. R. Tolkien, just like him, he wrote fairy tales for children, in which he talked about the eternal questions of Existence, asserted the possibility and necessity of the existence of Good in this world.
Lewis wrote his Chronicles of Narnia for seven years (1950–1956), a year based on the book (Lewis C. S. Chronicles of Narnia. London, 1950–1956). The first translation of Lewis's fairy tale was published by the publishing house "Children's Literature" in 1978, translated by Mr. Ostrovskaya 1. After this there was a break that lasted 13 years. Although translations of The Chronicles of Narnia were made by N. Trauberg back in the 80s, they saw the light only in the early 90s. At the same time, other works by Lewis began to be published, in which their Christian content was completely obvious and which, quite naturally, could not be published in the USSR 2 . In 1998, the Alexander Men Foundation made an attempt to release the 8-volume collected works of Clive Staples Lewis 3 . Currently, two of the promised eight volumes have been published, but it seems that the publication of the works of C. S. Lewis will end there due to financial problems. As for the study of the work of C. S. Lewis, there is a huge gap in Russian literary criticism. We can name only small introductory articles preceding editions of certain works of Lewis 4 . As for the 8-volume collected works, which the A. Me Foundation began to publish, it examines Lewis’s work purely within the framework of theology 5 . Therefore, in our research we had to rely only on our own opinion and on the texts of Lewis himself 6.
In his Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis talks about the creation magical land Narnia by the lion Aslan, about its history, wars and invasions, kings and queens and its end. The heroes of the book are the boy Digory and the girl Polly, who were present at the birth of Narnia, the Pevensie siblings, who became the High Kings of Narnia, and their friends Eustace and Jill.
To create his world, Lewis turns to mythology. This is a long tradition of English literary fairy tales: Kipling, Barry, Travers, Tolkien often borrowed their plots from myths. But Lewis surpassed all his predecessors. He refers to ancient Eastern, ancient, German-Scandinavian, medieval European, Christian traditions. His Narnia is inhabited by fauns, satyrs, naiads, dryads, unicorns, gnomes (these are the gnomes of English legends, squat, stocky creatures with thick, coarse hair and long beards, and German dwarfs with pig faces, rooster combs and tails), talking animals folk tales and, finally, characters invented by the author himself, for example, herons. The gods of Tarkhistan, neighboring Narnia, seem to have descended from Hittite reliefs. Thus, the main goddess Tash is a man with the head of a bird of prey and four arms. And the servant of the White Witch, the wolf Mogrin, goes back to the Scandinavian Fenrir. Lewis often uses plots ancient myths And literary works: Prince Rabadash, turned into a donkey for stupidity and meanness, takes on his human form at the autumn festival of the goddess Tash ("Golden Donkey"), Bacchus turns nasty schoolchildren into piglets, the classroom is transformed into a forest clearing, and their teacher joins his retinue (legends about Dionysus and pirates, King Pentheus, daughters of Minias), on the Island of Dead Water the heroes find a stream, the water of which turns everything that comes into contact with it into gold (the myth of King Midas).
But the main source for Lewis was, of course, the Gospel. It is not for nothing that his book is sometimes called a children's Christian catechism.
The creator of Narnia, the lion Aslan, is one of the hypostases of Jesus Christ. According to medieval tradition, the lion is a symbol of Christ. In one of the books, Aslan appears in the form of a lamb, which is already a direct borrowing from the Gospel.
Lewis writes about Aslan's "royal and peaceful and at the same time sad" look, that he was "kind and formidable" at the same time. The golden radiance of Aslan’s mane, which the author constantly mentions, is associated with the gold of the halo. In Narnia they swear by the name of Aslan, the heroes say: “In the name of Aslan,” “I ask you by Aslan,” and the hermit even exclaims “Merciful Aslan!” 7. A stream originates from Aslan’s footprint, which is reminiscent of numerous medieval legends about the cutting of springs. According to the Bible, “God is light,” and as we move east to Aslan’s country, the water itself becomes like light, the light permeates the entire world surrounding the heroes, and the very name of the story and the ship on which they travel is “Sailing into the Dawn.”
The Great Lion creates Narnia with his song and gives its inhabitants the basic commandment: “And all of you love one another.” He determines that Narnia can only be ruled by the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve. All this is a paraphrase of the corresponding lines of the Book of Genesis (Genesis 1, 26–27). The commandments that Aslan gives to the Narnians come from the commandments of Moses and the Sermon on the Mount. Aslan demands love, humility and repentance from the inhabitants of his country. He condemns any, even the weakest, attempt to shift one’s guilt onto another: “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not feel the beam in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:5). Edmund committed the betrayal, but this is also Peter’s fault, since he was too harsh with his brother. Peter, Susan and Edmund do not believe Lucy when she says that she sees Aslan, and it is their fault, because their own shortcomings do not allow them to see him, but Lucy is also guilty because she could not convince them. Aslan punishes Aravita, following the commandment “an eye for an eye” - she receives as many wounds as the maid received for her escape.
Lewis very elegantly addresses one of the most controversial theological issues about the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ. The talking horse Igogo, speaking a little naively on this topic, ends his speech with the conclusion: “One can understand how absurd it is to consider (we are talking about Aslan) his real lion. Moreover, it is disrespectful.” At this time, Aslan appears and says: “And you, Igogo, you, poor and proud horse, come closer. Touch me. Here are my paws, here is the tail, here is the mustache. I, like you, am an animal” 8. Thus, Lewis resolves this issue in favor of the human (lion) nature of God.
The gospel defines the major themes of Lewis's books. It is the themes - the plots - that remain traditionally fairy tales: the fight against the evil witch, the search, the journey, the matchmaking, the escape. The theme running throughout the chronicles is redemption. In a fairy tale, the hero traditionally receives a reward for his feat, and the feat is usually performed with the expectation of reward. In the story “The Sorcerer’s Nephew,” Digory, getting a magic apple that should ensure the prosperity of Narnia for many centuries to come, does not expect to receive anything (although he needs medicine for his sick mother), with this he atones for his guilt, since it is because of his Out of curiosity, an evil witch appeared in Narnia. Lewis plays out the plot with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in a unique way. In both the Bible and Lewis, the cause of evil was curiosity: in the first case, Eve, in the second, Digory, who, by ringing the bell, woke up the sleeping Jadis. But if in the Holy Scriptures the apple was the cause of the Fall, here it is, on the contrary, the guarantee of salvation.
Atonement for Edmund's betrayal, Aslan allows himself to be stabbed by the White Witch. But with the first rays of the sun he is resurrected, for the sacrifice was made voluntarily, innocent blood was shed, and the evil spell was dispelled. Aslan, like Christ, atones for the sins of people with his blood.
The second theme is also evangelical - temptation. This is not the temptation of wealth, power, power, no, this is the temptation of good, but imaginary good. The witch persuades Digory not to give the apple to Aslan, but to take it to his mother. Digory withstands temptation and eventually receives the desired fruit from the hands of Aslan himself. Truly, it is impossible to create any other good than God's.
Likewise, Lucy, leafing through the book of the wizard Coriakin, gives in to the temptation of finding out what others think of her, but this does not bring her joy, since because of this she almost loses her friend.
And one more question that Lewis’s heroes constantly solve is the choice of path in the broad sense of the word. How to distinguish true from false, genuine from imaginary, divine from devilish. The witch appears in the form beautiful woman, and only when the heroes find the strength to resist her witchcraft does it acquire its true appearance as a monstrous snake. And the captive prince initially appears before them as a madman and a monster. The world and its reflection (this idea, borrowed by Lewis from Plato, will receive its fullest development in the last book) are not easy to distinguish. What is the Sun, just a big lamp, as the witch claims, or is the lamp a weak semblance of the Sun?
Aslan rarely helps the hero resolve this issue. In general, he does not appear on the pages of the book often, is not always shown in his true appearance and prefers to speak in riddles, like the Son of God. For only the elect can hear the Word of God: “Blessed are your eyes that see and your ears that hear” (Matthew 13:16).
Lewis's characters eventually commit right choice. But if a person himself does not want to see the truth, if he has locked himself in the prison of his imagination, then no one, not even God, can help him. “For the hearts of these people have become hardened, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes” (Matthew 13:15). Uncle Digory convinced himself that the lion could not sing, and when spoken to, he heard only a roar. The dwarves, having arrived in Aslan's country, convinced themselves that they were sitting in a dirty stable, and saw nothing but walls, dung and straw, although a green meadow stretched around. Verily, everyone is rewarded according to his faith.
Aslan often tests heroes beyond necessity, deliberately provoking them. He does not explain to Jill who he is when she, dying of thirst, sees only a huge lion by the stream. He does not show himself to Peter, Susan and Edmund, forcing Lucy, who is the only one who can see him, to quarrel with her siblings. When Lucy tells him with tears: “I couldn’t leave everyone and go up to you alone,” Aslan replies: “If they don’t go, you must follow me alone.” 9 Is this not an echo of the Gospel: “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:36). It probably won't endear him to young readers, but it's very Christian.
Aslan, apparently without knowing it himself, managed to convey the main contradictions of the Gospel text. He either gives his characters complete freedom, or controls them even in small things. He gives Digory the opportunity to overcome the temptation to take possession of the apple himself, but does not give the opportunity to Lucy when she leafs through the magic book, unable to tear herself away from it, suddenly appearing before her and making her forget everything she has read. Aslan inspires both love and fear. He forgives Edmund's betrayal, never reproaching him, but listens with pleasure to the repentance of Peter and Jill, guilty of much lesser offenses. (Or is this also an echo of the Gospel legends? According to some apocrypha, Judas was Christ’s favorite disciple, and besides, “I came to call not the righteous, but sinners.”) Aslan condemns his heroes for pride, manifested even in small things. But the hero of one of his books is the mouse Richipp - a duelist, a bully, a proud man, a knight without fear or reproach, a kind of mouse D'Artagnan... and nothing, no condemnation. On the contrary, Richipp is a favorite of both Aslan and Lewis himself. It is Richippa that Aslan calls to himself in the first place, and it is the mouse who meets the heroes at the entrance to Aslan’s country instead of the Apostle Peter.
Lewis's ideas are most fully expressed in the last book of the chronicles. It tells how the cunning Monkey, putting a lion's skin on a simple-minded donkey, forces him to play the role of Aslan and rules on behalf of the Great Lion. Because of Monkey's betrayal, the Tarkhistanis conquer Narnia, and it dies. The fable turns into tragedy. But it turns out that the lost Narnia was only a reflection of the true Narnia (here is Plato!), and all the best that was in this Narnia is preserved in that Narnia. The heroes die, but having died, they find themselves in true Narnia. The plot of "The Last Battle" is the Apocalypse and the onset of the Kingdom of God. In describing the events, Lewis literally follows the gospel text. Let's compare the Gospel of Matthew and The Last Battle.
| Gospel of Matthew |
"The Last Battle" |
| For many will come in My name and say: “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many (Matt. 24:5) |
The Monkey speaks on behalf of Aslan |
| For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom (Matthew 24:7) |
Tarhistan conquers Narnia |
| And then many will be offended; and they will betray each other and hate each other (Matthew 24:10) |
Some of the Narnians go over to the side of Tarkhistan, the inhabitants of Narnia fight against each other |
| Then they will hand you over to torture and kill you; and you will be hated by all nations because of my name (Matthew 24:9) |
The last king of Narnia, Tirian, and his unicorn Diamond are captured; the dwarves refuse to serve their king when he conjures them in the name of Aslan. |
| The sun will darken, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky (Matthew 24:29) |
Aslan calls upon the stars and they fall. The sun absorbs the moon. Father Time destroys the Sun |
| And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet (Matthew 24:31) |
Father Time blows his horn |
| So, when you see all these things, know that it is near at the door (Matthew 24:33) |
The heroes enter Aslan's country through the barn door. |
| And he will put the sheep on his right side, and the goats on his left (Matthew 25:33) |
The Narnians come to Aslan's judgment, and those who cannot bear his gaze enter the shadow to his left and disappear forever; the righteous enter the door to the right of Aslan |
It is symbolic that the heroes enter Aslan’s country through the door of the Stable. Lucy says: “Once upon a time, in our world, the stable contained something larger than the whole world” 10.
Comparing true Narnia with Narnia, which was only a faint reflection of it, Lewis follows the idea of Plato and its main thesis of Christianity, that earthly life is only a preparation for eternal life. But the modern reader, most of whom do not adhere to orthodox Christian views, will probably feel sorry for the beautiful Narnia, and they are unlikely to understand the heroes' jubilation when Aslan informs them that the train they were traveling on has crashed and they are all dead. In our minds, death is not associated with vacations.
Lewis is generally an orthodox Christian in everything. Currently, most cultural figures, including religious leaders, are trying to take a point of view that unites rather than divides believers various faiths. The Lord is one, and only comes under different names: Buddha, Mohammed, Christ. But Lewis stands firm in his position. A young Tarkhistani man who sincerely believes in his goddess Tash finds himself in the kingdom of Aslan not because Aslan and Tash are one and the same, but because they are opposites. Aslan says: “I and she are so different that if service is vile, it cannot be to me, and if service is not vile, it cannot be to her. So, if someone swears by the name of Tash and keeps an oath for the sake of truth, he is by me swears without knowing. If someone does evil in my name, let him say: “Aslan” - Tash he serves" 11. Let us compare: “So by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord!” Lord!" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. Many will say to Me on that day: "Lord! God! Did we not prophesy in Your name?”... And then I will declare to them: “I never knew you; Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness" (Matthew 7:20-23).
Lewis is generally faithful to the old days in many respects. He prefers the good old monarchy and vassalage relations to governorship. He condemns new schools that do not teach classical philosophy, and in particular his beloved Plato, the Law of God and good manners. Lewis often makes remarks throughout the text like: “All sorts of rules (say, “thou shalt not steal”) must have been hammered into the boys’ heads more firmly then than they are now.”
A few words should be said here about the works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R Tolkien. Their books have a lot in common: both formal - each of them created their own country with its own history, geography, religion, both of them were guided by the medieval tradition and widely used mythology, and essential - the affirmation of Goodness and justice, trampled moral ideals, a happy ending that became almost an exception in modern literature.
But there is also a profound difference between these two authors. Tolkien proclaims free will, his hero chooses his own path. In Lewis, the hero carries out the will of Aslan; his own opinion is rarely asked. Tolkien is not afraid to involve the little ones of this world in the affairs of the great; in the end, it is they who decide the fate of the world. Lewis's heroes clearly know their place; they are not given the opportunity to know Aslan's thoughts. The hobbits see the fall of Saruman, and the transformation of this once great and wise magician teaches them a lot. When Eustace asks for what sin Coriakin was punished, Ramadu replies: “Why do you need to know what mistakes the stars can make?” Lewis affirms faith, Tolkien - will.
Tolkien's heroes, having completed their work, go overseas, and this departure is filled with sadness, for, although they will find the well-deserved peace and bliss there, life remains here, in the world from which they leave forever. Lewis, on the contrary, real life is possible only there, and the country that the heroes loved so much and for which they sacrificed themselves so many times turns out to be just a shadow.
Lewis set himself the enormous task of creating a new gospel in the form of a children's book. But a grandiose plan is difficult to implement flawlessly. It has already been said above that Lewis has many contradictions; however, they may have stemmed from the very essence of the task at hand. But the book also contains inconsistencies of a different kind. The traditional heroes of English mythology do not fit well with the characters of ancient myths, and Bacchic riots do not fit well with Christian humility. Naiads and fauns look rather faded in comparison with the much more lively and real gnomes, and Lewis’s best work was the croaks he himself invented. In general, “The Chronicles of Narnia” is much more interesting to read when the author does not try to literally follow the Gospel text, but speaks on his own behalf. King Lum tells his son: “To be a king means to be the first to go into the most terrible battle and the last to retreat, and when there is a crop failure, to put on the most elegant clothes and laugh as loudly as possible at the meager meal in the whole country” 12. And Santa Claus, handing Lucy a dagger, warns her that she should participate in the battle only as a last resort, because “those battles in which women take part are terrible” 13.
And the very form of the children's book that Lewis uses, on the one hand, allows for a new look at the tenets of the Christian faith, but, on the other hand, tradition English fairy tale with its heroes very often standing outside of morality (Peter Pan), contradicts the moralizing spirit of Christianity. In addition, children will probably not always understand Lewis's philosophical concepts, and adults, unfortunately, rarely read children's books.
But despite all these costs, Lewis's attempt is of great interest. Now “The Chronicles of Narnia” has finally been completely translated into Russian, and Russian readers, including philologists, have the opportunity to get acquainted with them. And they undoubtedly require deep study.
References
1 Lewis C. S. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe / Trans. Ostrovskoy. L., 1978.
2 See: Lewis K. S. Love. Suffering. Hope: Parables. Treatises / Transl. N. Trauberg, T. Shaposhnikova, I. Cherevata. M., 1992; Lewis K.S. Simply Christianity / Trans. E. and T. Maidanov. Chicago, 1990; Lewis K. S. Man is canceled / Trans. N. Trauberg // Knowledge is power. 1991. N 12. P. 52–88; Lewis K. S. The most vile power // Consent. 1992. N 2–4; Lewis K. S. Beyond the Silent Planet // Friendship of Peoples. 1992. N 2–4; Lewis K. S. Perelandra // Friendship of Peoples. 1992. N 2.
3 Lewis K. S. Collection. cit.: In 8 vols. T. 1, 2. M., 1998.
4 Arkhangelsky A. [Rec. on "Letters of Screwtape"] // Lit. newspaper. 1991. N 39. P. 10; Gopman V. Magical worlds C. S. Lewis // Children's literature. 1983. N 8. P. 33–37; Koshelev S. [Preface] // Lewis C. S. The Chronicles of Narnia. M., 1991; Krotov Ya. Gentleman in the Kingdom of God // New World. 1992. N 2. S. 244–247; Marchenko A. The pull of manpower from iron // Consent. 1992. N 2. S. 212–214; Neve O. Opening remarks// Friendship of peoples. 1992. N 2. S. 236–237; Petrakovsky I. Tales for older knights // Lewis K. S. Chronicles of Narnia. M., 1993. S. 490–493; Trauberg N. A few words about Lewis // Vopr. philosophy. 1989. N 8. P. 104–106.
5 See: Green R.L. About the author of these books // Lewis C. S. Collection. cit.: In 8 vols. T 1. M., 1998. P. 8–10; Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia. Can Lewis be considered an anonymous Orthodox Christian? // Ibid. pp. 279–289; Arkhipova A. Why do we have the right to call the novel “Until We Find Faces” “Christian”? // Ibid. T. 2. pp. 366–370.
6 See: Lewis C.S. The Chronicles of Narnia. Fairy tales / Transl. N. Trauberg, G. Ostrovskaya, O. Bukhina, T. Shaposhnikova; Ed. N. Trauberg, E. Dobrokhotova. M., 1992.
7 Lewis C. S. The Chronicles of Narnia. Fairy tales. P. 324.
8 Lewis C. S. The Chronicles of Narnia. Fairy tales. pp. 361–362.
9 Lewis C. S. The Chronicles of Narnia. Fairy tales. P. 97.
10 Lewis C. S. The Chronicles of Narnia. Fairy tales. C. 567.
11 Ibid. P. 557.
12 Lewis C. S. The Chronicles of Narnia. Fairy tales. P. 335.
Subjective notes about the film, book and its author
In December of last year, screenings began in Russian cinemas. feature film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, directed by Andrew Adamson at Walt Disney Studios. The release of the film was eagerly awaited: the book by the Englishman Clive Staples Lewis, on which the script was written, is loved by many in Russia. At the same time, there was some concern: what if the filmmakers will not be able to convey to the viewer the meaning of the Christian fairy tale? But the most important fear was in vain: the film turned out wonderful. A real Christmas gift.
From the closet to Narnia and back
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is the name of one of the parts of the book “The Chronicles of Narnia” by Clive Lewis, on which the film was based. The director followed the author of the tale in almost everything, which has a deep meaning. To understand it, you need to know the content of the story, although retelling the plot is a thankless task. But in short - for those who have not yet had time to read Lewis's book or watch Adamson's film - the story is this.
During the bombing of London, the four Pevensie children - Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy - are sent away from danger, deep into England, to the house of the mysterious Professor Kirk. Here, the youngest of the family, Lucy, finds in one of the many rooms an ordinary wardrobe with fur coats. Fleeing from the professor's housekeeper, the children hide in it and unexpectedly find themselves in a snowy forest. This is the country of Narnia. The White Witch has ruled here for a hundred years, she has canceled Christmas and keeps all the inhabitants in constant fear. Turns the guilty into stone. Everyone in Narnia knows the prophecy that if two “sons of Adam” and two “daughters of Eve” appear in the country, then the curse of the evil witch will disappear. The talking animals, who inhabit Narnia, eagerly await the arrival of the lion Aslan, who alone can frighten the White Witch. When he appears in a fairyland, Christmas comes, and then the eternal snows begin to melt...
The four children are the very “sons of Adam” and “daughters of Eve”. In Narnia, various adventures await them, the help of kind talking animals, a meeting with Aslan and the White Witch... But this is not the main thing. The main thing is the choice between good and evil, life and death, love and betrayal that children make.
At the beginning of the story, Edmund betrays his brother and sisters: the Witch promises him power and the fulfillment of his cherished desire - to eat at least a piece of magical Turkish delight. As history progresses, the scales fall from his eyes, and he returns to his family with repentance. But in Narnia there is an ancient spell: the traitor must be killed by the White Witch. Aslan sacrifices himself: he dies for Edmund at the hands of a villain. However, unlike the Witch, he knows an even more ancient spell: the one who dies innocently for the betrayal of another will rise and defeat death...
At the end of the story, the resurrected Aslan helps the Pevensie children defeat the White Witch and, having crowned them king in Narnia, leaves. He is “not a tame lion”, he has a lot of worries... And Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy reign happily for several years until they accidentally come across fur coats among the fir trees in the forest, and then come out of the closet in the professor’s house in the old good England...
Doesn't the story of the story "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" remind readers of anything?
The story of Narnia speaks of Christ
"Chronicles" consists of seven parts. In the first, which is called "The Sorcerer's Nephew", Aslan creates the world with a song. In the second, on which the film is based, he sacrifices himself and defeats the White Witch. In the seventh, “The Last Battle,” Narnia dies, but continues to live in eternity... Clive Lewis, having written “The Chronicles of Narnia,” allegorically translated the main events of the Bible into the language of literature for children.
On March 5, 1961, he wrote to one little reader: “The whole story of Narnia speaks of Christ. In other words, I asked myself: “What if there really was a world like Narnia, and it went down the wrong path (as this happened to our world)? What would happen if Christ came to save that world (as He saved ours)? These stories serve as my answer. I reasoned that since Narnia was a world of talking animals, He too would become a Talking Animal, just as He became a Man. in our world. I depicted Him as a lion because: the lion is considered the king of beasts; in the Bible Christ is called the “lion of the tribe of Judah.”
The Chronicles of Narnia are written in a very simple and clear language. This is a sermon, but not moralizing. All characters are alive and close. The reader, even if he has never picked up the Gospel, understands some Christian allusions and motives, because it is clear who Lewis portrayed in the image of the lion Aslan...
"The Chronicles of Narnia" - kind and wise tale, which helps children fall in love with God. As Deacon Andrei Kuraev writes: “Lewis achieved what any spiritual writer dreams of: he does not simply convey his thoughts about a person’s meeting with God, he awakens in a person’s heart a response to the joy that once visited him or is already knocking on him.” .
Under the Russian cross
Cambridge professor, member of the British Academy of Sciences, researcher of English literature, Clive Lewis once fervently believed in God and became known as the author of many apologetic books. One thing distinguishes them characteristic feature. Being an orthodox Anglican by religion, Lewis, interpreting Christian teaching, says nothing about denominational differences. In particular, in the book “Mere Christianity” he writes: “We must defend Christianity itself - the faith preached by the apostles, witnessed by the martyrs, expressed in the Creed, explained by the Fathers of the Church.”
Orthodox Christians are very fond of the books of Clive Lewis. In England, for example, there are bookstores that sell only Orthodox publications, with one exception: Lewis. And although outwardly he has very little connection with Orthodoxy (he visited several times Orthodox worship, the whole course of which amazed and surprised him very much), Bishop Callistus of Diocleia (Ware) calls him “an anonymous Orthodox.”
Clive Lewis knew that God cannot be comprehended rationally. The closest we come to Him is through symbols. That is why the English professor expresses his deepest insights in fairy tales and parables. For him, faith is not so much that we are convinced by arguments, but that we have made a choice. Lewis writes about this in The Chronicles of Narnia. The idea of repentance is also close to him. In the story "The Treader of the Dawn Treader" (also a Narnian cycle), the bad boy Eustace turns into a dragon. He tries to tear off the dragon skin from himself, but under the first layer there is a second, even more vile... Aslan saves Eustace. A person cannot cope with sin without God’s help...
In 1963, Clive Lewis died. His funeral was attended by all his close friends, including Nikolai Mikhailovich Zernov, one of the founders of the Russian Christian movement. His wife, Militsa Zernova, brought a cross of white flowers, but she was told that there would be no flowers in the church. They managed to place the wreath on the coffin only in the cemetery... One Englishman later wrote: “Who would have thought?...Lewis was buried under the Russian cross.”
Favorite book of actors
One of my friends watched the film three times during the screening of The Chronicles of Narnia in the cinema. He brought his acquaintances with their children and godchildren to film shows. And every time I asked them: “What do you think “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is about?” There was only one answer: “The film is a love story.”
What is the secret to the success of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Maybe it’s because for most of the wonderfully played actors, “The Chronicles of Narnia” is one of the most important books of childhood.
Surprisingly, but true: those who watched the film on pirated copies were not able to fully appreciate it. Reviews from such viewers were frankly negative. "The Chronicles of Narnia" needs to be watched at least once on a wide screen or in good quality. Only in this way will the truth of this film be seen, but first - the truth of the story about Love written by Lewis.
What I am about to do falls into the category of not the most rewarding activities. Translating poetry into prose and discussing “what the artist wanted to say in this image” is too schoolboy.
But it is precisely the peculiarities of our school education that compel me to take up the interpretation of C. S. Lewis’s tales from the “Chronicles of Narnia” series, which have already been published in several editions.
Clive Staples Lewis himself (like his compatriots and contemporaries Chesterton and Tolkien) wrote for people who had the opportunity to study the “Law of God” at school. On the one hand, this familiarity with the plots of sacred history allowed them to recognize allusions and hints at a glance. On the other hand, school acquaintance with the Bible too often condoned the strengthening of the worst kind of unbelief - that is, that dry and rational half-belief, which the more reliably shields the conscience from the reproaches of the Gospel, the more firmly the biblical texts are memorized.
It is clear that in this case one cannot preach too intrusively and one must look for an opportunity to testify to the Truth, without in any way evoking the intonation of a school teacher. And so, in order to turn English conservatism not to the conservatism of sin, but to the conservatism of evangelical values, Chesterton writes detective stories about Father Brown, and Tolkien writes stories about hobbits. Lewis writes for the same purpose fairy tales about such a country as Oz, in which at every step the reader unexpectedly encounters something that he did not expect to encounter - hints not at yesterday's parliamentary gossip, but at those sensational events that, it would seem, are hopelessly outdated and long ago became of no interest to anyone (for the reason that they happened not in London, but in Palestine, and not even the day before yesterday, but many centuries ago).
It is these books, written by an Englishman and a Protestant, that we, Russians and Orthodox, need most of all. The point is not only that Christian literature for children has practically disappeared in our country. More importantly, these tales fill an empty niche in the temple of Orthodox culture.
Our tradition of preaching and spiritual education has always been didactic and instructive. But sometimes a person becomes burdened by the abundance of strict and intelligently self-confident teachings. He sometimes really needs someone to just sit next to him and keep quiet about something. Or they joked, or talked as if they were an equal.
Lewis's books are effective because they do not immediately give away their secret: they preach without instructing. The reader first falls in love with the author, with the world of his thoughts and heroes, and only then begins to guess where the light that fills the entire volume of Lewisland comes from. They are written with love about the Book of Love - about the Gospel.
Lewis succeeded in what any spiritual writer dreams of: he not only conveys his thoughts about a person’s meeting with God, he awakens in a person’s heart a response to that Joy that once visited him or is already knocking on him. That Christian “midwifery art” that brings prayer out of a person’s soul. And this is the highest success of a theological book if, during its reading, the faceless “He” of theology is replaced by the living “You” of prayer.
This book was written in a society where it is common to be a Christian. And it was written so that a person would fall in love with what he previously only believed in.
In this regard, it is easier for the Russian reader to read the Chronicles: for his perception, the “good news from Jerusalem” is still quite fresh. On the other hand, it is more difficult: not only children, but even their parents are unlikely to be so familiar with the Gospel as to immediately grasp the transparent hints of Lewis and Aslan.
Today, even in our country, it is not difficult to explain to an unbeliever what the grounds are for religious conviction in the Existence of God and Christ. But it is extremely difficult to “force understanding” of the connection between the distant supracosmic God and the small private human being. “Yes, let him eat, but what does that matter to me?!” - this is the question on which the most brilliant sermons and the most logical and profound theological lectures are broken.
Lewis's answer to this question is tangible: living with God is joyful and difficult. Living without Him is, in the end, also difficult, but also gray, just as hell is gray and hopelessly stable in its isolation in the fairy tale “Dissolution of Marriage.”
It is difficult to live according to the orders of Aslan, because He is “not a tame Lion.” It cannot be used as a guarantor or guardian of your home well-being. His friendship and help cannot be bribed. One cannot have false hopes for His help, which would abolish the active action of the person himself. He comes when He wishes; - and still wants to be called.
An encounter with God is also difficult because you cannot come out of it unchanged. Aslan can breathe tenderly, or he can hurt. We all walk in the skins of the Dragon - and until we strip it off from ourselves (the Apostle Paul calls this “putting off the old man”), we will not understand the Plan that the Creator has for us.
But in addition to our “natural” ossification, there are also cultural shells that steal Heaven from us. How, for example, can you look into Aslan’s eyes and think about “human rights”? Rights - before Him?.. This already happened once in human history- in the days of Job. Lewis also reminds us of what the ancient sufferer and God-seeker understood then. And the great prophets of old remind us that God has no obligations. Everything is a gift from Him. And Aslan also reminds us of this when he sends the children to the land of the witch.
The Chronicles of Narnia consists of seven tales. Whether Lewis came up with this completely biblical number by accident or intentionally, I don’t know. But just as in the Bible seven days are seven eras of world history, so in Lewis the entire history of Narnia - from its creation to its destruction - is given in seven episodes.
However, there are no direct borrowings from the Bible in Lewis’s tales. Unless it’s the habit of calling children “sons of Adam” and “daughters of Eve.”
The Creator's name is Aslan, not Yahweh or Christ. In the first chronicle (“The Sorcerer’s Nephew”), Aslan, appearing to children in the guise of a golden shining lion, creates the world.
He creates with song. Lewis imagines the creation of the universe this way: “Far away in the darkness, someone began to sing. There were no words. There was no melody either. There was just a sound, inexpressibly beautiful. And then two miracles happened at once. Firstly, the voice began to be echoed by a myriad of voices - no longer thick, but ringing, silvery, high. Secondly, the darkness was dotted with countless stars... Leo walked back and forth across the new world and sang a new song. It was softer and more solemn than the one with which he created the stars and the sun, it flowed, and green streams seemed to flow from under his paws. It was grass growing. In a few minutes it covered the foothills of distant mountains, and the newly created world became more welcoming. Now the wind rustled in the grass. Soon patches of heather appeared on the hills, and some green dots, brighter and darker, appeared in the valley. When these dots, no, already sticks, appeared at Digory’s feet, he saw short spikes on them that were growing very quickly. The sticks themselves also stretched upward, and after a minute or two Digory recognized them - they were trees.”
In the 4th century, Saint Basil the Great wrote very similarly about the emergence of the world: “Imagine that, according to a small saying, the cold and barren earth suddenly approaches the time of birth, and, as if throwing off sad and melancholy clothes, puts on a light robe, rejoices in its decoration and produces thousands of plants.”
Both texts assume that the reader remembers the original Bible verse: “And God said, Let the earth produce greenery, grass yielding seed, and fruitful trees. And the earth brought forth…” (Gen. 1:11).
There is no Oparin’s dead and meaningless “broth” here, which in some random catastrophe spits out life; there is also no motionless, creatively mediocre matter of Plato, which can only suffer in the hands of the Demiurge, but is powerless to do anything itself. Here is a joyful dialogue: on “Fiat!” (“Let there be!”) The whole world responds to the Creator with creative effort.
In this regard, a modern cosmologist is not averse to talking about “directed evolution” and the “anthropic factor”...
The Church speaks about poetry. This is exactly what God is called in the “Creed”: “I believe in One God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth”... “Creator” in the original Greek is “Poetos”... And in the prayer at the Great Blessing of Waters about the emergence of the world it is said – “You, Lord, who created all creation from the four elements.” And indeed, what else can be done with the “elements”, the name of which still comes from the Greek verb “sticheo” (to go in rows, to join rows; “ranks” - in Slavic), if not to compose. In contrast to the Russian understanding of “spontaneity,” for the Greek ear, in the “element” one could hear the harmony, harmony and consonance of that “cosmos,” the echo of which reached our “cosmetics.”
Just because The Chronicles of Narnia doesn't explain the origins of evil doesn't mean it condones it. Christian thought does not explain the source of evil precisely because it makes it easier to fight evil. Indeed, due to our ineradicable philosophical habit, it seems to us that “explain” means “understand,” and “understand” means “accept.” If I found the cause of an event, it means I have thereby come to the conclusion that it could not have happened. No, evil is not rooted in “causes and effects,” not in the laws of “karma,” or in the “dialectics of unity.” It is in the secret of freedom. Not in the secretly mystical and huge “laws of the universe,” but in our seemingly so small freedom. It was man who once let the cold into the universe, warmed by the breath of the Creator. And to us, accustomed to the cold, the breath of that same Love now seems too burning, too painful.
We raised in our freedom. It was through death that the powers of magic wanted to separate us from God. But the Creator of life Himself entered the space of death. And now through death we can see the face of the Conqueror of death.
So, in the next tale we are talking about Redemption: Aslan gives himself up to death “according to the laws of ancient magic.” But according to the laws of “even more ancient” magic, it resurrects and destroys the curse.
God always requires people to change. And one day, to make it easier for them to do this, He sacrificed Himself to His love for people - not only in order to give them an example, but also in order to truly redeem them and rescue them from the power of “ancient spells” and unite with Himself in order to give them participation in His own Life, in His own Love. But for this, even more so, a person must become what he has not yet been.
The gospel basis of The Chronicles of Narnia is obvious. In them one can also find a direct polemic against atheism, whose arguments are very similarly presented by the Witch to the besotted children in the Underdark (“The Silver Chair”). And you can find a very transparent parable about repentance (Aslan skinning dragons from Eustace in “The Lord of the Dawn”).
But that is why it is so important to point out the Old Testament origins of the traits that Lewis gives to Aslan. In modern Protestantism (and, more broadly, in the modern Western style of spirituality), the “friend Jesus” has replaced the formidable Yahweh. But gospel love does not cancel Old Testament love. The God of the prophets loves people - and therefore is demanding of them: demanding because he is not indifferent (Lewis wrote about this in the book “Suffering”).
Man's moral vision is somewhat like the eye of a frog. Just as she sees only what moves and does not notice stationary objects, so a person, while resting in place, does not distinguish the vector along which his life should rush. But having made a spiritual effort, denying himself something for the sake of his neighbor, having once done good, having suffered, he becomes more vigilant.
I hope it is possible to explain this idea not using Lewis’s material - after all, many parents and teachers who will read this book to their children will themselves know little more about Christianity than their children. So, one of the wonderful Christian preachers, Vladimir Martsinkovsky, who lived a generation before Lewis, in his work “The Meaning of Life” tells the story of a rich young Parisian who, fed up with life, came to the embankment of the Seine... And just before the last step, he suddenly remembered, that in his pocket he has a wallet with money that he will no longer need. And he had an idea - to give this money to some poor person. He walks down the street and finds people living in great need. The young man gives them all his money. And suddenly a joy greater than that of these poor people bursts into his heart. The secret of life, which he tried to read or eavesdrop on, itself shone in his soul.
So it seems to the “bad boy” Eustace that he is accidentally, senselessly, almost out of spite, thrown into the world of Narnia. And only through grief, repentance and the first attempts to care for others does he come to understand that he is not doomed to life, but life has been given to him. Understanding that, according to the laws of Narnia, you can only die alone, but you can only survive together.
In the story “The Horse and His Boy” there is a wonderful explanation of how the secrets of Providence are learned. The girl (in the happy epilogue) wants to find out what the fate of her friend is. “I tell everyone only their story,” she hears from Aslan, an answer that cools her curiosity.
This puts a limit on one very common temptation among religious people. The fact is that a person’s spiritual maturity is determined by the extent to which he is ready to justify the suffering that has befallen him. But with your own understanding (“I accept what is worthy according to my deeds”), one must enter into someone else’s life with extreme caution. If I say: “My illness grew out of my sins,” it will be quite sober. But if I decide to go to my sick neighbor to explain to her that yesterday she broke her leg because she didn’t go to church the day before yesterday, then it’s time to remember Aslan’s warning. In addition, it is very reminiscent of what happened to St. Anthony the Great: he once asked: “Lord! Why do some live a short time, while others live to a ripe old age? Why are some poor and others rich?” The answer that Anthony received was simple: “Antony! Pay attention to yourself!” And the answer that we all received once and for all was given on Calvary: the Creator did not explain evil or justify its inevitability, He simply went to the cross...
From Job to the present day, man has retained the understanding that the answer to this question cannot (and should not) be expressed in words, because this answer is heard not with the ears, but with the heart.
“You are the one who meekly destroys us
What we are building
So that we can see the sky -
That’s why I’m not complaining.” (Eichendorf).
In the world of Christian thought, suffering and joy, life and death were not absolutely opposed to each other. I apologize for the shocking wording, but in its depths, Christianity really insists on the inevitability of suicide: a person should not live for himself, he is called to give himself. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; and if it dies, it will bear much fruit. Loving soul he will destroy his own; But he who hates his life will keep it in this world for eternal life” (John 12:24-25).
Alexander Solzhenitsyn once said that in the Gulag there is only one way to survive, and that is to give up all hope of preserving yourself. Only in this way, having buried himself, can a person leave the camp as a man. Another example from secular literature is Pasternak’s lines:
Life is also only a moment,
Only the dissolution of ourselves
In all others
How about giving them a gift...
It's as if a man came out
And he brought it out and opened the ark,
And he gave everything away...
Love, which, in the words of the Apostle, is “not one’s own,” also takes the center of a person’s aspirations, concerns and hopes outside of him. Christian love is giving, not consuming: in its depths the cross always shines through.
In the spiritual world, the “inverted perspective” of icon painting speaks about this. A person must abandon egocentrism, the habit of measuring everything by himself, he must place his life center outside himself. And then he will not consider a certain value part of his life, but will begin to think of himself as belonging to and serving the Highest Value. And then he will fear not for himself, but for his loyalty to the Truth. And, as the Scripture says, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also... Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth... Be rich in God.”
True survival can only be achieved through sacrifice. Only what we give remains ours forever... Tsvetaeva called this the “law of the grain”:
Soldiers! One step to heaven:
The law of grain - into the ground!
If a person acts in accordance with this Law of God, the words of Christ will come true over him, and he “will never see death.” The word “dormition” in all Christian languages is the antonym of death. Death is just a door (well, yes, the same door from the last Chronicle). But when you come out through it, you can find yourself at the “right” or “at the left.”
And here I have to apologize for the second time for the risky comparison. Christianity lives by high speculation. Costs and profits here are clearly of different orders. A small “mite” can result in the acquisition of such a treasure that the whole world is not worth...
There is no death - everyone knows that.
It became boring to repeat this.
And what is there - let them tell me...
And there is Easter. And there are few books in the world of even Christian culture that would be permeated to such an extent Easter light, like Lewis's books. Their meaning is to affirm what deserves life and will live because what cannot die will not die. And if life is more perfect than death, then death must be defeated. Man’s calling is “to find his eternity,” and therefore, “to understand a person means to understand his relationship to God” (B.P. Vysheslavtsev).
How children need this Easter! It is obvious to them what adults later cease to understand: a person can leave, but he cannot disappear.
And it is quite easy for children to understand that the outcome of human life is summed up not physiologically (by a burst blood vessel in the brain or cardiac muscle failure), but morally. Life does not end, it is fulfilled. And man, unlike animals, as a spiritual, moral and responsible being, must also give a moral answer about what his life was the fulfillment of, whether he fulfilled the Law in his temporary life, without which it is impossible to live in Eternity.
Man was created for Eternity. A person cannot enter it without invitation and help. The Creator does not just open the Door for us: He Himself becomes one of us and pays the maximum price to give us the freedom to be sons of God, and not sons of sin and tributaries of death. He brought us a gift. You must also be able to accept the gift. The objectively perfect “for us for man and for our salvation” must also be made its inner, subjective reality in the act of choosing faith, Communion. And God, who came into the world to people, calls us not to escape from the world, but to fulfill our human duty in the world of people. Christ does not allow the apostles to remain on Tabor. Aslan helps so that people can continue their further struggle. A heart that loves God, but does not love and does not have mercy on the world and people created by God, has not understood the breadth of God’s commandment. What is accepted and then given to people and God does not disappear, is not taken away. In the world where we came from and where we will go, every drop of goodness here resonates with an incommensurably greater cup of joy. But every grief we inflict prepares us for future bitterness.
This is the Law. And this Law is not opposed to mercy. He absorbed it into himself and says about it: “judgment without mercy for those who have not shown mercy.”
Lewis's amazing books are about this Law. It is about him, and only about him. And therefore I simply beg the readers: do not spoil this book! Don’t squeeze her into the world of school rules, where, in the words of N. Trubnikov, “with the help of well-tailored private truths, a general lie is so easily formed.” Don't pretend that this is just a fairy tale. Do not hide from yourself and from your children the Gospel basis and atmosphere of these fairy tales. And it would be quite sad if they began to explain this connection to children in such a spirit that, they say, one, more ancient tale formed the basis of another. And Lewis came up with his fairy tales, just as Matthew once did, and before him Moses... And Leo is just a cat enlarged by imagination, and the Sun is a light bulb projected onto the sky. And there is no world except the Underdark. And there is no Easter. And there was no Christmas.
But I don’t want to think about this sad possibility.
The Chronicles of Narnia is, of course, not a catechism. They were written for people who studied (or are studying) the catechism in school. Therefore, not all principles of Christianity found their allegory in these fairy tales.
In general, there is a lot of gospel in Narnia. There is no obvious presence in it of only two Gospel mysteries: the Trinity and the Eucharist. In my opinion, this was due to Lewis's remarkable tact. The mystery of the Trinity is more than difficult to clearly explain. And, thank God, there is no three-headed lion in Narnia. There are only two hints: at one point Aslan is called “Son of the Overseas Emperor.” And another time (“The Horse and His Boy”) Aslan considers it necessary to confirm his consubstantiality with the world that he came to save: like the risen Christ in the Gospel, Aslan assures the talking animals of Narnia that he is not a ghost: “Touch me, smell me, I am , just like you are an animal.”
The absence of the miracle of the Eucharist - the main miracle of the Gospel - is also understandable. In the world of Narnia, where there are already too many miracles, church sacraments (and the most important among them - the miracle of Communion to God) would look too ordinary, inevitably being reduced to ritual magic.
When reading Chronicles, it is useful to remember the Gospel. But when reading the Gospel, it would be inadmissible to remember Aslan instead of Christ. Since this will most likely be the first book about spiritual life for children, they need to be reminded from time to time that in the human, and not the symbolically fairy-tale world, prayer must be addressed to the One who allowed Himself to be called Jesus, and not Aslan.
Avoiding this naming confusion is all the more important because in the modern world religious relativism and syncretism are persistently advertised. The monster named Tashlan was by no means invented. We no longer get indignant or even laugh when some TV sorcerer promises us to create a “synthesis” of Christianity and paganism. Latest story with Tashlan reminds us that, in the words of the apostolic sermon, “there is no other name under heaven, given to people, by which we must be saved,” except “by the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 4:12).
Lewis decided to start a conversation about what is least commonly talked about today in “Christian society” and in “Christian culture” - the latter. About the end of the world. About the Antichrist.
At the very threshold of the twentieth century, Vladimir Solovyov recalled that earthly history cannot do without this character, and that over the years and centuries the work of many “subjects of the historical process” is bringing closer the moment when a decisive substitution will take place in the history of Christian humanity - and it will already happen almost imperceptibly... We will soon see how the 20th century ends, but just in the middle of it Lewis’s “The Last Battle” appears. If I would say about the rest of Lewis’s tales that one must first read the Gospel (at least in a retelling for children) in order to fully understand them, then about “The Last Battle” I will say differently: this story should be read before picking up “ Apocalypse". In general, for the Christian consciousness it is somehow almost obvious that we live in a world to which the seventh and last book of the Chronicles is closest.
The Bible itself ends with the Apocalypse, and the Apocalypse on the brink of human history reveals not the Kingdom of Christ here: on earth, in life, in politics, in culture, in relations between people, but the kingdom of the Antichrist. Christ, speaking about the signs of His Second Coming, about the signs of the end of history and the end of the world, finds only one consolation for the apostles: yes, it will be hard, but take comfort in the fact that this is the end. It won't last long.
Christianity is probably the only belief system in the world that initially warns of its non-triumph. Earthly history ends not with the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ, but with the establishment of the rule of the Antichrist. Within earthly history the path of humanity ends not in the Kingdom of Christ, but in the kingdom of Antichrist. This “kingdom” has been maturing in the structures of human history for years, perhaps centuries, during which such a way of life and thought develops that deprives a person of his main and most vital freedom - the freedom to choose: he is with Christ or not. For the very concept of “life with Christ” ultimately becomes a non-religious symbol and begins to be understood as a purely ethical or even political regulator. To be a Christian then means to simply be “ kind person" In this case, however, as Lewis explains in Mere Christianity, the word “Christian” simply loses its meaning, becoming an unnecessary double. And then a person’s religious life becomes confused no less than the religious feelings of unfortunate animals at the sight of “Tashlan”.
The “final confusion” occurred in Narnia. And it began not with mysterious and sinister conspiracies, but with the “too human” misdeeds of a monkey, who at any cost wanted what we so often and so habitually desire... Lewis likes to repeat that the surest road to hell does not lie through egregious crimes , and through gradual self-mortification human soul, through getting used to spiritual petrification.
Of course, Lewis had in mind not only the Revelation of St. John, but also the very specific realities of the cultural movements of post-war Europe. For me, the most recognizable and most terrible of all is the terrible ghost of “Tashlan”, a fake that stole Aslan’s name and squeezed it into the nickname of the eastern goddess Tash. Khomyakov warned about the coming of this ghost back in the last century: “The world has lost faith and wants to have some kind of religion; he demands religion in general.” It is this form of “some” religiosity that is increasingly asserting itself in today’s Russia: every day people preach on air who are convinced that they have managed to cross the “spirituality of Orthodoxy” with the “spiritual wisdom of the East.” The unshakable confidence of Soviet “educationists” that all “spirituality” is good will contribute to the triumph of the “Tashlan” cause...
Yes, the seventh book of the Chronicles is the closest to our life, but also the most difficult for modern people to perceive. And all the more important in this apocalyptic book is the joy of the gospel. After all, Christ said about the signs of the end: “When all this begins to come true, stand up, for your redemption is near.”
“Arise, bow down,” that is, you, now oppressed to the ground, tired of the usual abandonment of God, arise, rise up, rise up.
Christians are now in the habit of praying for a delay in the end. But the Apocalypse and the entire Bible end with the cry: “Even so, come Lord Jesus!” And the main thing in the coming of God is that He came, and not what was destroyed with His coming.
As a man whose creative gift is very much in tune with Lewis’s said, “The Christian world has undergone many revolutions, and each of them led to the fact that Christianity was dying. It died many times and was resurrected many times - our Lord knows how to come out of the grave... From time to time the shadow of death touched the immortal Church, and each time the Church would have perished if it could have perished. Everything that could perish in it perished... And we also know that a miracle happened - the young people believed in God, although the old ones forgot him. When Ibsen said that the new generation was knocking on doors, he could not even think that it was knocking on the church gates. Yes, many times - under Arius, under the Albigenses, under the humanists, under Voltaire, under Darwin - faith undoubtedly went to hell. And every time the devils died.”
What a pity that I didn’t read these books as a child. And how good it is that these fairy tales still exist in the world and are now included in the circle of all-Russian reading. In conclusion, I would like to appeal to parents: when you open Lewis and read it with your children, please do not tell them that this is, they say, a fairy-tale retelling of some more ancient tales. Don't hide the Gospel from them - if you dream of never having to be afraid of your children. Let's hope that children will grow up in Russia who know how to sing carols and pray. Children who know that Gerda entered the guarded castle Snow Queen, just reading “Our Father.” Children who consider the temple the brightest and most beautiful part of their home. Children who know that inside a person lives a strange creature called “soul” - that which hurts in a person when his whole body is healthy, that can rejoice when all external circumstances prompt a person to grieve. Children to whom we will not be afraid to entrust our old age.
"The Chronicles of Narnia" is the same series of films based on a series of seven fantasy books written by Clive Staples Lewis. It was these stories that made the hearts of children of the 2000s beat faster. What is the history of creating incredible films about a magical land?
Let's start from the beginning...
So, who in the world is not familiar with the story of the brave Pevensie children, the Great Lion Aslan and the magical land of Narnia? But as many already know, books are one thing, but their film adaptations are completely different. Let's look at all parts of The Chronicles of Narnia in order and find out how the masterpiece was created.
Background
In 1996, young producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy requested permission to film the first part of the then popular book series by Clive Staples Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. However, they received a very sharp refusal, which was explained by simple stubbornness and the author’s reluctance to see his brainchild on the big screen. This is understandable, because the cinema of that time left much to be desired. Soon, a very persistent young American screenwriter, Perry Moore, appeared in Lewis's life. Over the next two years, Moore negotiated with Lewis himself and his literary agent Douglas Gresh, who in 2001 signed a contract to film the first part of The Chronicles of Narnia with the young company Walden Media. Thus began the transformation of the magical story into a more real art form.
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
Now more about the films. If we want to carry out our analysis of all parts of The Chronicles of Narnia in order, then we need to start from the very first film. Four children go to the village. They go to a family friend, in whose house they discover a mysterious wardrobe. Going inside, they find themselves in Narnia - a country where fantastic creatures live, and magic is not fiction, but reality. Later it turns out that Narnia is under the rule of the White Witch, who turned Narnia into a land of eternal winter. The children, with the help of King Aslan (Leo - the founder of Narnia), must fight the Witch in order to break the spells and free the inhabitants of the wonderful country.
History is silent about the number of options for the development of events that occurred to Lewis while writing the first part of the series. It is only known that the plot changed frequently, and in 1947, guided by negative reviews from his friends, Lewis even destroyed the manuscript. It was only in the early spring of 1949 that a version of the book was created that suited both Lewis himself and his friends.
The prototype of little Lucy was Lewis's goddaughter, Lucy Barfield. The girl was an adopted daughter best friend writer Owen Barfield. Carol sent his goddaughter his manuscript for her fifteenth birthday.
The creation of the film, whose original title is “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (in the title of the first part of the film series, the word “wardrobe” was replaced by “magic”), was an equally complex process, which required a team of several there were talented people for several years. The film was directed by Andrew Adamson, who is both a producer and co-writer of the script. Before The Chronicles of Narnia, he directed two parts of Shrek. Adamson is known as good specialist on special effects, which was very helpful when creating animals through computer graphics. The film's writers are the well-known Christopher Markus, Stefan McFeely and Anne Peacock.
To find children for the four main roles, the director looked through about 2,500 recordings of children, Adamson met with 800 of them, allowed 400 to audition, and ultimately selected 120. The children selected to play the main roles in the film turned out to be older than their heroes: Georgie Henley was 10 years old at the time of filming (according to the script, Lucy Pevensie was 8-9 years old), Peter was about 17 (William was filmed from 15 to 18 years old), Susan was 15 (Anna was 13-17 years old at the time of filming), and Edmund was 12-13 (Skandar was filmed from 11 to 14 years old, in addition, he grew 26.5 cm at the very beginning of filming, so his height became very different from the growth of the character Edmund).
Initially, she applied for the role of the White Witch, but later the actress refused the offer. As a result, Tilde Swinton received the role of the White Witch. The actress deliberately read the book after filming was completed.
Filming began on June 28, 2004. The first was the scene of the children in the train carriage. Since it was the first day of filming, the children behaved extremely insecurely on set. An interesting fact is that Skandar Keynes’ line “Unhook! I know how to get on the train!” was pure improvisation. Filming took place before June 2004, but it was “costumed”: they ran through and filmed small episodes. Filming wrapped in January 2005. The scene of Edmund's battle with the White Witch was the last footage filmed.
Filming took place in New Zealand and the Czech Republic. The signs in Oakland that the crew used to get to the set said Paravel to confuse the crowds of fans eager to get to the set.
Box office receipts exceeded all expectations, reaching $720,539,572; disc sales turnover amounted to $442,868,636. The film "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" became the most successful both in terms of box office receipts and in terms of reviews from critics and viewers among all existing film adaptations of the series.
"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"
Lucy, Susan, and Edmund magically return to Narnia. Compared to England, where not much time has passed yet, centuries have passed in Narnia. The king of the neighboring Telmarine state, Miraz, usurps power and wants to destroy the remnants of the magical country. But his nephew, the young Prince Caspian, decides to help Narnia survive and find its former peace. To help Caspian, the young kings and queens of Narnia gather an army of fairy-tale creatures - the inhabitants of Narnia. They wonder if Aslan, the founder and patron of Narnia, will come to their aid?
To decide on the choice of filming locations, Andrew Adamson (director of the film) traveled to five continents. The main places where filming of the second part of the famous series of novels took place were New Zealand, Czech Republic (King Miraz's castle), Slovenia (bridge over the river), Poland.
The most difficult thing was to find an actor for the role of Prince Caspian, who, according to the writers, should be 17 years old. As a result, Adamson chose British actor Ben Barnes, who was already 26 years old at the time of filming. In "Prince Caspian", Reepicheep was completely recreated using computer technology. And Cornell John (the centaur Glenstorm) was told to master stilt jumpers, which were later turned into horse legs. This was done using computer graphics. The team of makeup artist Howard Berger consisted of 50 makeup artists who performed more than 4,600 makeup sessions.
The Prague historical film studio "Barrandov" became the place where the main sets of "Prince Caspian" were erected. An interesting fact is that Miraz's castle, which was built on the territory of the film studio, occupied 1858 square meters and externally was partly based on the appearance of a short one located in France. Two hundred carpenters, plasterers and artists worked on the castle for almost 4 months. In one scene, the image of the castle was enlarged 3 times using computer graphics.
The same wooden bridge that became one of the scenes of the last battle between the Telmarines and the Narnians was erected on the Soča River (Slovenia). It was built thanks to the efforts of 20 engineers and builders. To implement the plan of master artist Roger Ford, who designed this bridge, engineers had to temporarily change the flow of the river. And the London Underground station, from where the Pevensie children are transported to Narnia, was not in London at all. Realistic subway sets were built at the Henderson film studio (northern New Zealand).
You can't help but notice the stunning costumes that the film's characters wear for most of Prince Caspian. A total of 70 people worked on them. The naked eye can see that the costumes from “Prince Caspian” seem to have been taken from the Middle Ages. Talmarin roots are traced back to pirates, which is why their clothing is so close to Spanish clothing. 1042 items of clothing were made for the leading actors, and for King Miraz, his retinue and Telmarine warriors, 3722 items of clothing were made, including helmets, masks, shoes and gloves.
New Zealand designer Richard Taylor (Weta Workshop) designed 800 weapons for both forces.
"The Chronicles of Narnia": the third part
Concluding our conversation about all parts of The Chronicles of Narnia in order, let us pay attention to the latest film of the saga. The filming locations are the picturesque expanses of New Zealand and Australia. The original title of the book by C.S. Lewis, based on which the third part of the popular series was filmed, sounds like “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, or Sailing to the End of the World.” Let's talk about the film adaptation of this book.
There are several interesting facts about the latter (on at the moment) filmed part of "The Chronicles of Narnia":
- 90 days - that's how long it took to film The Treader of the Dawn Treader.
- One of the main characters in the film was created on the sea headland of Cleveland Point. The structure weighed 125 tons and was 140 feet high. After the outdoor scenes were shot, it was disassembled into more than 50 pieces and reassembled on a sound stage to continue filming.
- In the film, the sea serpent is one of the creatures of the Island of Darkness; in the book, the heroes encountered it by accident before discovering the Island of Dead Water.
- The film shows how the main characters of the story are subject to temptations that were not mentioned in the book.
- The song Instantly, which sounds in the finale of The Treader of the Dawn Treader, is performed by Russian singer Sergei Lazarev.
- This film received the lowest critical ratings (of the entire series).
Conclusion
So we looked at all parts of The Chronicles of Narnia in order. I would like to believe that very soon we will have the opportunity to contemplate new exciting adventures of the Pevensie children on the big screen. Currently, development is underway on the fourth part of the series - the film "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Throne".
If we could change the concept of “Cosmos” to the concept of “Heaven” for at least one percent of readers, this would be a good start.
C.S. Lewis
A little about the author and his books
After the release of the films “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (2005), “Prince Caspian” (2008) and “The Treader of the Dawn Treader” (2010), interest in the work of the writer C. Lewis increased significantly.
Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) - an outstanding English and Irish writer, scientist and theologian, was born in Belfast (Northern Ireland) in the family of a solicitor. When the boy was not yet 10 years old, he lost his mother, and his father sent him to a closed private boarding school far from home.
Clive Lewis's first acquaintance with another Oxford scholar-philologist and writer John R.R. Tolkien occurred in 1926. At first, the future celebrities were not impressed with each other, but over time they found common language- both were fond of Scandinavian mythology. In 1931, Tolkien, a devout Catholic, presented Lewis with the arguments that led him to convert to Christianity. Lewis, who read The Lord of the Rings in drafts, was delighted with the book and persuaded Tolkien to work on it further. He later wrote: “He was the only one who convinced me that my writing could be something more than an ordinary hobby.” Who knows, if not for the friendship of two Oxford teachers, the history of fantasy could have taken a completely different path.
Cover of the book by B. Gormley “C.S. Lewis. The Man for Narnia"
In the early 1930s, Lewis and Tolkien joined a literary club called the Inklings. This is an inverted word. Directly translated from English, “inkling” means “hint,” and if you consider its parts, the root “ink” - “ink” - and the suffix “ling” together give the word “inkler,” “inkler,” or even “inkler.”
Clive Lewis quickly became the soul and unspoken leader of the Inklings. The organization included several dozen people, all Christians, all men, most from Oxford. In essence, the Inklings were nothing more than a small circle of friends. They met on Tuesdays in the pub, and on Thursdays at Lewis's, reading and discussing own compositions, talked on all sorts of topics, drank beer and smoked pipes. But the main thing is that this narrow circle of friends created a creative atmosphere and spiritually supported aspiring writers. Here they exchanged thoughts, ideas and entire philosophical concepts. During the Inklings period, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and Lewis wrote the Space Trilogy and the first Chronicles of Narnia. We can say that it is to the Inklings that these books owe the spiritual charge that makes them interesting and modern even half a century later.
Monument to C.S. Lewis in Belfast
Only by closing the last page of “The Chronicles of Narnia” can one fully appreciate all the beauty, greatness and value of the writer’s plan, who managed to so simply, accurately and entertainingly tell children - and adults too - about the most important things: about us and our world; about what he could and should become; and even a little bit about the Kingdom to which our fallen humanity, which has now approached the next leap in its evolutionary development, must return and will definitely return. Unfortunately, not without losses.
Creation of Narnia: in the beginning was the Word...
The magic begins like this: children from our world find themselves in a world where eternal NOTHING, darkness and silence reign (similar to that described in the biblical Book of Genesis). And so, with the original WORD (John 1:1-5) - Sound and Song - Lev Aslan weaves the matter of the world: lights the lights in the heavens (Gen. 1:14), covers the earth with plants (Gen. 1:11), creates animals , fish and birds (Gen. 1:20-21). Here's how Clive Lewis describes it in his book The Sorcerer's Nephew (chapter 8):
“...Something finally began to happen in the darkness. Someone's voice began to sing, so far away that Digory couldn't even make out where it was coming from. It seemed to flow from all sides. Sometimes Digory imagined that the voice was coming from the ground under their feet. The lowest notes of that voice were so deep that the earth itself could have called them forth. There were no words. There was almost no melody. But Digory had never heard such incomparable sounds... And then, in one moment, two miracles happened at once. First, the singing voice was joined by countless other voices. They sang in tune with him, only much higher, in cool, sonorous, silvery tones. Secondly, the black darkness overhead was suddenly instantly illuminated by myriads of stars... The voice on earth sounded louder and more solemn, but the heavenly voices had already finished singing along with it and fell silent. And the miracles continued... It was a lion. A huge, shaggy, golden-yellow lion stood facing the rising sun, about three hundred meters away, with its mouth wide open in song... Walking back and forth across this deserted land, the lion sang its new song, softer and more tender than the one that had brought it to life. stars and sun. The lion walked and sang this murmuring song, and before our eyes the whole valley was covered with grass, spreading like a stream from under the paws of the beast.”
From the Bible we know how the first man - Adam - received his soul from the breath of God (Gen. 2:7). And the same thing about the process of animation, but said in different words, we find in chapter 1 of the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation), attributed to the patriarch Abraham: “Ten sephiroth without anything: the first (sephira) - the Spirit of the Living God - blessed and blessed is the Name Him, forever alive! Voice, breath (“wind”, “spirit”) and word - and this is the Holy Spirit.”
Now let's compare: “... The lion opened his mouth, but instead of sounds he only made a long, warm exhalation, which seemed to shake all the animals, like the wind shakes the trees... Every drop of blood in the veins of Digory and Polly flared up when they heard an unusually low and powerful voice: “Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, wake up! Love. Thoughts. Speak. Let your trees walk. Let your animals be endowed with the gift of speech. Let your streams find soul.”
Forward to the country of Aslan. Photo by A.O. Kirova
Only a very talented person, in whom, moreover, the child is still alive, could describe the picture of creation with the power of the Divine Word and the power of sound, capable of creating and destroying worlds. He knew that, unlike most adults, almost all children can think with their hearts; therefore, it will be easy for them to both understand and accept Revelation, which in the Holy Scriptures is formulated as follows: “In the beginning was the Word (sound, energy, power), and the Word was with God (Creator), and the Word was God (Almighty)... All through It began to be..."
The magic of number 7
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven children's fantasy books. The number 7 appears every now and then in Lewis's books: these are the seven lords, and the seven lonely islands, and the seven brothers of the red dwarves, the seven-year hibernation, the seven friends of Narnia, the seven kings and queens, etc.
Why is the number 7 so important for a writer?
It is a symbol of everything mysterious and magical, it is the most interesting and most mysterious, magical number of the Universe, and it means completeness and totality. The seven embodied the main secret of the universe: “The secret behind seven seals.” It is not for nothing that Divine creation took place in seven days, in the musical scale - seven notes, in the rainbow - seven colors, in a week - seven days.
All religions, all spiritual movements of the past and present unconditionally recognize the special significance of this mysterious number, perhaps one of the key numbers for the entire universe. In Judaism, the number 7 is repeated many times, which emphasizes its magical power in the eyes of the ancient Israelites and symbolizes completeness, perfection: the seven days of creation, the seven commandments of Noah, the seven patriarchs, the seven cows and seven ears of grain in Joseph’s visions, the seven days of the dedication of the priests, the seven species of plants, the seven circles around Jericho, the seven notes of David’s harp, the seven mortal sins.
In Christianity, the number 7 is just as significant. “Everyone who kills Cain will be avenged sevenfold,” “...and seven years of plenty passed... and seven years of famine came,” “and count yourself seven Sabbath years, seven times seven years, so that you may have seven sabbatical years forty-nine years." In the Holy Scriptures we meet seven ranks of angels, seven weeks of Lent, seven bowls, seven kings, seven plagues, seven spirits of God, seven stars - you can’t list everything.
Islam, Christianity and Judaism recognize a seven-stage act of creation of the universe. However, in Islam the number 7 has a special meaning. According to him, there are seven heavens, and those who go to the seventh heaven experience the highest bliss, therefore 7 is the sacred number of Islam.
In Brahminical and Buddhist beliefs, seven is also sacred. According to legend, Buddha sat under a fig tree with seven fruits. The Hindus began the custom of giving seven elephants - figurines made of bone, wood or other material - for good luck.
But what can be found in the septenary of mystics and theosophists?
You will come across this figure more than once in H.P. Blavatsky: seven gates, seven worlds, seven sounds in one, seven stages of knowledge, seven Supreme Lords, sevenfold Hierarchies, seven mystical feelings, etc. In Agni Yoga you will read that “ the cosmos is built on a septenary foundation,” that “the best number for a circle is seven,” as well as about the seven circles of clairvoyance, the seven astral senses, the seven main centers corresponding to the seven principles of the human being, and about other septenary in and around man.
The same recognition of the importance of perhaps the most sacred of all numbers is demonstrated by the ancient Gnostic Gospel “Pistis Sophia” , and the Apocrypha of John, and the apocryphal Gospel of Mary, and the books of the twentieth century Gnostics Jan van Rijkenborg and Catarosa de Petrie “Universal Gnosis”, “The Coming New Man”, “Chinese Gnosis”, “Egyptian Original Gnosis”.
Lewis and Gnosis
In his spiritual autobiography, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, 1955, C. Lewis remembers his teacher at the Wyvern School as a theosophical Rosicrucian who ignited his interest in “secret knowledge.” In order not to be unfounded in connecting the name of Lewis with gnosis, I would like to begin this part of the article with such an expressive quotation from Lewis from the book “Mere Christianity” (Mere Christianity, 1943): “Nothing living is born into the world with desires that cannot be satisfied. The child is hungry, but the food is there to satisfy him. The duckling wants to swim - well, he has water at his disposal. People are attracted to the opposite sex, for this there is sexual intimacy. And if I find in myself a desire that nothing in the world can satisfy, this can most likely be explained by the fact that I was created for another world. If none of the earthly pleasures brings me genuine satisfaction, this does not mean that there is some deceptive principle inherent in the Universe. Perhaps earthly pleasures are not designed to satisfy an insatiable desire, but to, by exciting it, lure me into the distance, where the present lurks.
If this is so, then I should try, on the one hand, never to despair of being ungrateful for these earthly blessings, and on the other hand, I should not mistake them for something else, a copy or an echo, or an imperfect reflection of which they are. I must keep within myself this vague impulse towards my real country, which I will not be able to find before I die. I can't let her disappear under the snow or go the other way. The desire to reach this country and help others find their way there should be the goal of my life.”
Such thoughts are very close to the Gnostics, for whom the Greek word "gnosis" means knowledge gained by revelation; after all, this is knowledge of the answers to the eternal questions: who are we; why did they come to earth; where will we go after death? what is the true purpose of our life? The answers to them are contained in the so-called Universal Teaching, which has very ancient roots, since it has accompanied humanity since the time of Adam. This is living, undistorted knowledge coming from God. A person who touches it is inevitably overcome by a certain anxiety; he has a vague feeling that in our world he is not at home, that he needs to look for a way to his country. Gnostics call this anxiety the call of prememory, or, according to Plato, anamnesis. After all, if a person has awakened, albeit unclear, a memory of his true Homeland, he, as a rule, has a dream to awaken this feeling in the largest possible number of seeking people. This memory haunts him. In the apocryphal text of the “Acts of Judas Thomas” (2nd century AD), the Gnostic “Legend of the Pearl” is preserved, which tells about the acquisition of this memory: here it is, “like an eagle, the king of all birds, it flew and landed near me, and became to say everything... Remember that you are the son of kings... remember the pearl for which you came to Egypt. Think about your sparkling robe, and remember your magnificent toga... And by his voice... I was awakened and rose from my sleep... and in accordance with what was imprinted in my heart, were the words of the message written to me.”
We read these words about the message from the heavenly Motherland in the so-called “Hymn of the Soul,” or “Legend of the Pearl,” a Gnostic fragment preserved in the famous early Christian apocrypha “The Song of Judas Thomas the Apostle in the Land of the Indians” (2nd century AD. ). Lewis's text refers us to this legend in the story of Prince Rilian from the book The Silver Chair. The enchanted Prince Rilian only remembers his royal origins at night, but then he is tied to a silver chair and cannot escape from captivity. Isn’t it so that each of us (who guessed that we are prisoners in our dialectical world, where everything beautiful inevitably turns into decay, and life always ends in death) dreams of liberation, but is unable to realize it, because he does not know how break the ropes that bind him to his own “silver chair”?
As a talented writer, Clive Lewis created a world that is hard not to love. Narnia is a sketch, an image of the Miracle that awaits people ahead. As has already been said, the memory of the Kingdom that was once our home, from which we fell in time immemorial, is hidden so deeply within us that we have almost forgotten our divine origin. Meanwhile, for thousands of years, a call addressed to people has been flying from this Kingdom: “Come back, come back, children of the Father!” Alas, everyone has ears, but not everyone hears. But the Gnostics know for sure: there is a way Home! It is open to everyone! And a person, if he wants, can go through it in one life! This is the road to immortality, to the world of Divine Light, where there are no illnesses, grief, or losses. There is the homeland of our humanity, our Narnia. And most people will return there. He will definitely return, for God does not abandon the work of His hands.
Children from the human world who end up in the country invented by Lewis and meet its creator, the mighty Lev Aslan, are not morally mature, and some of them are simply vicious. But in Narnia they become truly brave, kind and truthful, they all get rid of the main evil - their own selfishness. And the cure for moral shortcomings is their meetings with Aslan.
Just as the God of the Judeo-Christian world very rarely intervenes to prevent the suffering and degradation of lands and peoples, the creator of Narnia is also absent for most of its history. It appears again only at key moments for this country. And we see what happens when God disappears from the world he created, from the souls of its inhabitants: life begins to be valued cheaply, people and other intelligent beings invent their own gods and proclaim their own “virtues” and values.
With his divine unconditional love, Aslan works miracles of healing, ridding the heroes of their old essence. But some things are beyond the control of even God. For example, it is impossible to force people to be perfect simply by giving them free will. For this reason, many moral lessons and we must learn the lessons of faith only through pain.
How accurate this theory is can be seen in the example of Eustace. The force of his own moral vices turned the boy into a dragon, and he experienced terrible pain when Aslan tore off this skin from him. Many in our adult world, who have long become “dragons” and often don’t even suspect it, will also have to painfully tear off their dragon skins if they want to be Humans again. God hurts us to make us better. He wants to make us better because He loves us.
The Chronicles of Narnia do not tell about Jesus Christ, but only point to Him. Moreover, they lead readers to Christ. They do not repeat the story of Jesus: Aslan is not Jesus; and Narnia is not the Christian world. But there are some intentional parallels with biblical stories.
Those who have read the fairy tale “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” ( English. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 1950), know that Aslan, like Jesus, died and then came back to life. Later, he tells the children how he thwarted the Witch’s plans: “The Witch knows Secret Magic that goes back to the depths of time. But if she could look even deeper into the silence and darkness that existed before the story of Narnia began, she would read other Magical Signs. She would have learned that when, instead of a traitor, one who is innocent of anything, who has not committed any betrayal, ascends to the sacrificial Table of his own free will, the Table will break, and Death itself will retreat before him. With the first ray of sun."
In the fairy tale “The Treader of the Dawn Treader, or Voyage to the End of the World” ( English. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 1952) Aslan appears to travelers in the form of a lamb (lamb) frying fish for breakfast. And then - the most important thing! - the lamb tells the children that they must find their way to a beautiful country from their own world:
“...you will meet me there, my dear,” Aslan answered.
Are... are you there too, sir? - asked Edmund.
“I am everywhere,” Aslan answered. - But there I have a different name. You should recognize me by this name. It is for this reason that you were allowed to visit Narnia, so that, having known me a little here, it would be easier for you to recognize me there.”
Lewis's heroes are saved only by their faith. And faith, according to the writer, is a belief contrary to evidence. When there is no such faith, even Aslan cannot liberate, as in a strange and tragic story about the renegade dwarves from the book “The Last Battle” ( English. The Last Battle, 1956), who were thrown into the Stable. “You see,” said Aslan, “they don’t allow us to help them. They chose cunning instead of faith. Their prison is within them, and therefore they are in prison. They are so afraid of being deceived that they cannot get out of it.”
Armageddon is going on around Narnia, only briefly calming down: every now and then Evil attacks, trying to take possession of the beautiful country, and Good defends it. In these cool times, human children, the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, come here to take part in battles on the side of Good, to make mistakes and correct mistakes, to grow up and take responsibility. Here they encounter creatures that the writer calls demi-humans. (We are not talking about centaurs. They are also in Narnia, but these are noble creatures.) It is from demi-humans that all the evil comes in the world invented by Lewis, as well as in our human one.
After all, if we are to be completely honest, we will have to admit that we have appropriated the name “man” somewhat prematurely. Many of us still have a very strong animal nature. It is this that constantly encourages people to fight for self-preservation, to kill their own kind, to fight for a place in the sun, material wealth, territory, power... It is because of it that the life of mankind so often resembles a theater of the absurd.
And everything will continue like this until every half-man in our world wants to become a Human. Or, as the Apostle Paul said, until everyone puts off the old man and puts on the new. Like this in simple words he marked the great process which the Gnostics call transfiguration, and Christians - transformation And resurrection, a process that the God-Man Jesus Christ demonstrated to all humanity through his own example.
And so on until the very end of Narnia - the Apocalypse (the story “The Last Battle”). Only Susan, unfortunately, did not return to the transformed Narnia, to a kind of Narnian paradise - after all, she was unable to preserve herself... Paradise, which turned out to be a multidimensional space: “Now you are looking at England inside England. The real England is the same as the real Narnia, because in the England that is inside, everything good is preserved.” And life outside the transformed Narnia was only a weak reflection of it, as we read about this in “The Last Battle”:
“Listen, Peter, when Aslan said you would never return to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you knew. But this was not real Narnia. It had a beginning and an end. She was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia, which always was and will be; just like our own world. England and everything else is just a shadow or a copy of something in Aslan's real world. And there's no need to mourn Narnia, Lucy. Everything that was important in old Narnia, all the good creatures, entered the real Narnia through the Door. It is, of course, different in some way - like a real thing from a copy, or waking from a dream.” Lewis suggests that the material world is not the basis of reality, only a copy of the divine original.
Lewis's ideas about time lead us to philosophical reflections on the supernatural scientific discoveries and deep theological topics. Aslan's statement "I call any time soon" interprets the belief that God is outside of time. Lewis believes that every moment of time from the beginning of time is “always present to God,” which also means that it has an endless life without past, present and future, which he perceives as a simultaneous unity in the eternal present. In the Bible, God called to Moses from the burning and speaking thorn bush: “I am who I am,” that is, I am all-living (Ex. 3:14).
“He walked to the door and everyone followed him. He raised his head and roared: “It’s time!”, and then louder: “Time!”, and then so loudly that his voice reached the stars: “TIME.” And the Door opened,” - this is what Aslan calls Father Time, the transcendental being responsible for the course of time, which Jill and Eustace have already seen once. “Gil and Eustace remembered how once, many years ago, in a deep cave on the northern plain they had seen a huge sleeping giant, and they were told that his name was Father Time, and he would awaken on the day when the world would end” (“The Last Battle "). Father Time is responsible only for the movable, dialectical, complete, duality world, and the motionless world outside of time belongs only to Aslan.
In Narnia there were not only speaking, and therefore thinking, animals, but also people possessing Divine fire. However, Lev Aslan (God) breathed this spark into them not directly himself, but through the children. Exactly - through children! Why? Let us remember the ban on children over a certain age appearing in Narnia: they were allowed no more than two visits, with the exception of the youngest - Lucy and Edmund. This was done in direct accordance with the commandments of Jesus Christ: “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” “Whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” After all, only children, with their purity of heart, are most easily able to open to the light of the Divine and ignite the atom-spark of the heart. People forget that all human existence is sinful. And the inhabitants of Narnia received the Divine Spark precisely from their first kings - the children of Peter, Lucy, Edmund and Susan. And after completing the main mission, the children returned back to their world, leaving Narnia to develop in its own way. And Lev Aslan, by the very fact of his presence, only slightly corrected this development. And it is no coincidence that time passed, and at fundamental turns in the history of Narnia, other children were sent there, precisely to replenish the Divine energy, which without them began to deplete and fade away.
The World of Plato's Ideas in the History of Narnia
At the end of The Last Battle, Digory mutters to himself: “Plato has it all, Plato has it all.” With this phrase, is Lewis suggesting that the key to understanding the Chronicles can be found in the writings of Plato? Digory, or Professor Lord Digory from the book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” helps children understand the problem of Lucy’s rationality, asks questions and wants to force the children to get to the bottom of the matter themselves. Socrates in Plato's dialogues from the book "Republic", especially the early ones, is more inclined to ask questions than to answer them. His questions force the people he asks to think about challenges they hadn't thought of before. Sometimes they give answers that they didn’t even suspect. And they find them not in books, but somewhere inside themselves. This method of questioning is called the “Socratic method.” From this it is clear that Professor Lord Digory also used it in dialogues with children.
In “The Silver Chair” there is also something else from Plato: there is an image that is very similar to his famous “Myth of the Cave”. The main idea that Plato wants to convey with the help of “The Myth of the Cave” is the contrast between appearance and reality. According to Plato's myth, we can escape from the cave of our ignorance through philosophy, and reason will lead us beyond the cave to see true values, illuminated by the light of the True Sun, which, according to Plato, symbolizes the highest essence, Good itself.
In the book “The Magician's Nephew,” Digory and Polly are transported to different worlds through ponds in the Forest between worlds with the help of special yellow and green rings that have the magic of returning, through the magic of a mysterious substance - sand that belonged to the culture of the sunken Atlantis, from which these rings were made . In the books "The Last Battle" and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" one enters other worlds through doors in the stable and the wardrobe. Ponds and doors between worlds are an analogue of “wormholes”, tunnels in space, which are now talked about in the scientific world. Lewis's idea that there are worlds within worlds, instead of worlds above worlds, as Plato suggests, brings to mind the Russian dolls: when inside a small figure there is an even smaller figure. Lewis suggests that heaven is still a life of exploration and adventure. Even if we have explored one Narnia completely, there is always another that also needs to be explored: “they opened the First Chapter in Great History, which no one in the world has read: a story that lasts forever and in which each chapter is better than the previous one" ("The Last Battle").
And Plato’s most dialectical thought about the existence of the world of ideas was used as a refutation by Lewis in the book “The Last Battle” at the end of the last chapter. Contrasting Plato's idea that heaven can only be a desperate figment of our own imagination, Aslan assures Lucy and the others that it was their earthly life that was a dream: “Your parents and you - in that world, the World of Shadows - are dead. Academic year The holidays are over, the holidays have begun. The dream is over, it’s morning.” What now awaits them is the true reality: “...now you are looking at England within England. The real England is the same as the real Narnia, because in the England that is inside, everything good is preserved" (“The Last Battle”).
What has changed in our world with the coming of Jesus Christ? At first glance, almost everything remains the same. But this is only at first glance. The main good news that the Son of God brought to people is the knowledge that the current natural order, that is, our today's world with its cruel law of cause and effect (karma) and the need to reincarnate, again and again repeating the road from the cradle to the grave, - transitory! How transitory is today's man! Simply put, we will become different and return to our real, divine “Narnia”, the door to which was opened again for us after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies... And just as we bore the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. But I tell you this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God... I tell you a secret: we will not all die, but we will all be changed... For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (First Epistle to Corinthians of St. Apostle Paul, 16:40, 49-51,53).
Note
On the issue of the numerical symbolism of seven in the Old Testament, and in general in the Ancient Near East, a special collection of works was recently published, including a detailed bibliography on numerical symbolism and numerology of the number 7 ( Reinhold G. Einführung: Die Zahl Sieben in Natur und Kosmos // Die Zahl Sieben im alten Orient: Studien zur Zahlensymbolik in der Bibel und ihrer altorientalischen Umwelt. Frankfurt, 2008. 177 S). In connection with the anniversary, 70th issue of the Delphis magazine, in note 1 the author made an additional analysis of the meaning of the number 7 in the Gnostic texts. - Note ed.
2 The author’s numerological analysis of Gnostic texts shows that the number 7 has a very special meaning here, associated with the properties of the spiritual sphere. Thus, in the Gnostic apocrypha “Pistis Sophia,” Sophia, captive in matter, is saved: “...saying her repentance in the Seventieth Psalm” and “through David in the Seventh Psalm.” Here, seven heavens, seven vowels and forty-nine powers are repeatedly mentioned, seven Amenae, seven voices, seven chapters, a seven-headed basilisk, seven virgins of Light, the seventh aeon of the sphere, seven times, “not up to seven, but up to seventy times seventy times,” seven others Maidens of Light, seven faces, seven cat faces, seven dog faces, seven forces of the left part, “in the seventh chamber”, “Seventh Savior of the Emanations of the Seventh Voice of the Treasure of Light”, Seventh repentance. In every mystery revealed allegorically, we must always look for not only one meaning, but a multifaceted meaning, especially in those where the number seven appears, and it is multiplied by seven, ten or forty-nine. In the Apocryphon of John, which is especially important for the Gnostics, we also meet seven kings, seven heavens, seven powers, a seven-headed serpent, seven spiritual essences; “...there are seven of them: Aphoth, Armas, Kalila, Jabel, Hosts, Cain, Abel”; “...there are seven of them: Michael, Uriel, Asmenedas, Safasatoel, Aarmuriam, Rikhram, Amiorps.” According to the book of modern Gnostics Jan Van Rijkenborg and Catarosa de Petri, “Universal Gnosis,” “...the microcosm has seven various aspects, each of which is also divided into seven parts. We are talking about the seven spheres (principles) of the macrocosm. However, the microcosm also has seven spheres.” Also mentioned here are the seven different spirals of consciousness, the septenary connection, the holy septenary Light, the seven mysteries, the seven golden lamps, the man with the seven stars, the septenary Spirit, the seven liberating actions, etc.
In the Pistis Sophia, the disciples ask the Teacher Jesus to reveal to them the “Secrets of His Father’s Light” - that is, the secret of the Higher Self, illuminated through Initiation and Divine Knowledge. Jesus answers: “Are you seeking to penetrate these mysteries? But there is no higher secret than these, which will lead your souls to the Light of Lights, to the region of Truth and Good, to a region where there are no men, no women, no form, but only the eternal, ineffable Light. Therefore, there is nothing more excellent than the secrets into which you seek to penetrate, with the exception of only the secret of the seven Vowels and their forty-nine Powers, as well as their numbers. And there is no name more excellent than all these Vowels.” According to the ideas of the Alexandrian Gnostics, the first names consisted of vowels, that is, the heavenly world was created by a melodious “naming”.
In the Gospel of Mary we find: “...saw the fourth power in seven forms. The first form is darkness; the second is lust; third - ignorance; fourth - mortal jealousy; fifth - the kingdom of the flesh; sixth - the deceit of the flesh; the seventh is fierce wisdom. These are the seven dominions of wrath."
“But Miss S., who seemed almost old to me, was still so young that she had not reached spiritual maturity, she was still searching for the truth with all the passion of a pure soul. There were even fewer guides on this route then than there are now. She was lost among the Theosophists, Rosicrucians and Spiritualists, lost in the labyrinth of Anglo-American occultism. It would never have occurred to her to undermine my faith - she only wanted to bring a candle into the room, not knowing that the room was full of gunpowder.”
References
"The Sorcerer's Nephew" ( English. The Magician's Nephew, 1955), "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" ( English. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 1950), "The Horse and His Boy" ( English. The Horse and His Boy, 1954), "Prince Caspian" ( English. Prince Caspian: The return to Narnia, 1951), “The Treader of the Dawn Treader, or Voyage to the End of the World” ( English. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 1952), "The Silver Chair" ( English. The Silver Chair, 1953), "The Last Battle" ( English. The Last Battle, 1956).
Meshcherskaya E.N. Acts of Judas Thomas. M.: Nauka, 1990. P.171.