Christians Can Use Lessons from The Lion, Movie Ministry Leader Says
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
January 3, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The founder of an Internet-based ministry, which helps church leaders and spiritual educators use modern movies as teaching tools, says the recent release of the blockbuster movie The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has a strong biblical message. Dr. Marc Newman, founder of MovieMinistry.com, believes that message is one that should be drawn out rather than downplayed.Newman started the website as a way to provide pastors and lay leaders with tools and insights to help reach others with the gospel message, an often challenging objective in a media-saturated and entertainment-obsessed culture. He says Christians can use movies in the same way the New Testament parables were used, to present truth that engages people's hearts with the illustrative power of stories.
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Dr. Marc Newman |
The head of MovieMinistry.com says the new Chronicles of Narnia movie has powerful Christian elements. "Anybody who's read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe knows that the death scene of Aslan on the great stone table and his resurrection the following morning is the gospel story," he says. "To try to deny it is like trying to deny you've got an elephant in your living room; there's just no getting around it."In fact, far from being a simple children's story or allegorical fantasy, Newman says the movie based on C.S. Lewis' book provides many parallels to the story of redemption through Christ in scripture. "Every single aspect of the gospel is present in this film," he notes, "beginning with the way sin slowly encroaches on people's lives all the way to our inability to deal with it outside of divine intervention to the need for blood sacrifice."
Just as the Bible teaches that "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ," the ministry founder continues, "so, in this world [of Narnia], Jesus is embodied in the character of Aslan, who much sacrifice himself in order to free the traitor, Edmund, from the clutches of the White Witch, who demands his blood."
Newman, whose movie analyses appear regularly on AgapePress, urges Christian pastors and lay leaders to make the most of the solid, biblical messages to be found in The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in sharing the gospel with others. His website features study guides and sermon outlines for that film and numerous other movies.
Other Christian groups have sought to capitalize on the spiritual and thematic richness of the Narnia story as well. Reel Spirituality, an institute for moving images based at Fuller Theological Seminary's Brehm Center for worship, theology and the arts, recently hosted two events to complement the wide screen release of the new Disney film based on the first book of the Narnia series. One of these events was a screening of the docudrama C.S. Lewis: Beyond Narnia with filmmaker Norman Stone, who also directed the award-winning television film about C.S. Lewis, Shadowlands, and a feature film called Man Dancin'. The film Beyond Narnia is Stone's biographical account of the British author's life and his exploration of the inspiration behind The Chronicles of Narnia and other C.S. Lewis writings.
The other Narnia-related event hosted by the Brehm Center was a "Chronicles of Narnia Conversation" with Reel Spirituality co-director Professor Rob Johnston. Fuller students and other community members were invited to come out for "debriefing" and discussion of this filmed adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Johnston says although many Christians and critics have mistakenly judged the new film's intention to be either preaching or propaganda, it is neither. In a recent review, co-written with Catherine Barsotti, he noted that the movie is not message-driven, as some suppose, but is meant "to provide viewers the taste and feel of truth" and to awaken their imaginations and broaden their horizons in the process.
