Critic Believes Narnia Emphasizes Human Ability Over God's Redemptive Work
by Jim Brown
December 16, 2005
(AgapePress) - - While many evangelicals are praising Disney's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as an overtly Christian movie, one Christian author claims the film twists more biblical truth than it alludes to. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe opened last week after months of hype and publicity from the film's producers and speculation by entertainment gurus and the general public. One of the primary concerns, at least among evangelical Christians, was: Will it remain true to author C.S. Lewis's desire to illustrate the sacrificial love and victorious resurrection of Christ in a fantasy world called "Narnia"?
By almost all accounts, the movie -- several years in the making -- met the test. Associated Press reported this week that film fans of all ages have praised not just the quality and excitement of the movie, but also its faithfulness to Lewis's Christian message. Based on the author's children's classic, the film outdistanced all challengers on its opening weekend, selling an estimated $67 million worth of tickets -- more than the next nine most popular films combined.
But while some in evangelical circles are attempting to use The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as an evangelism tool, Christian author Berit Kjos predicts the movie will not help lost people find Jesus Christ. She believes the film is focused more on the empowerment of the four children featured in the movie than on the character Aslan the Lion or on Christ's finished work on the cross.
"The movie emphasizes not God's work or Aslan's work even, but the emphasis is on the children -- on humans saving themselves and saving the world," she says. The author cites a line in the movie which says "there's a prophecy that two sons of Adam and daughters of Eve will appear and defeat the White Witch and put an end to this hundred-year winter."
Kjos contends that statement places the focus on human ability instead of divine power. "These are the children; we're not talking about Aslan here," she explains. "Aslan saves Edmund apparently, but the children did the actual saving, according to these statements."
Kjos, who has written a three-part critique of The Chronicles of Narnia, believes the new movie presents a twisted gospel message and is deceiving many Christians. Again, she cites an episode from the film, this one in which Aslan, before being killed on an altar, tells the character Peter, "The future of Narnia rests on your courage."
"Now here we're not talking about the courage imparted to Peter through the Holy Spirit," she says. "We're talking about Peter's own self-sufficiency apart from any gift of God or even any faith in God."
Kjos warns Christians not to embrace the film as a picture of biblical truth, noting that Lewis himself denied the assumption that The Chronicles of Narnia was a Christian allegory. According to the author, "our wise God has a far different view of the human imagination than either [J.R.R.] Tolkien or Lewis, and He is well aware of its power to inflate lies and distort the truth."
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
