New movie prompts church studies of C.S. Lewis story

Narnia film presents
allegory about life,
death of Jesus Christ

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
The nationwide release last month of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe prompted studies of the story at several Southwest Texas congregations.
The movie by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media is based on a book by British theologian C.S. Lewis. The story for children is an allegory of the life and death of Jesus.
“The novels carry a common good-vs.-evil theme,” reported Interpreter, official United Methodist program journal. “But beyond that The Chronicles of Narnia presents many allusions to Christian ideas in ways that are easily accessible to younger readers.”
In the book, the lion, Aslan, symbolizes Jesus Christ, and Jadis, the White Witch, represents evil in the world.
“For some people it’s a bit of a stretch to get the symbolism out of it,” said Robert Kimmel, a member of Alamo Heights UMC, San Antonio. Kimmel participated in a small-group Bible study that analyzed the story.
“Some people,” he said, “are looking at it and saying, it’s a good story—so what?” Then they see newspaper articles and editorials either praising or criticizing the film’s metaphoric story of Christianity. That starts them looking at the story differently.
Alamo Heights UMC gave San Antonians the opportunity to see the symbolism for themselves. A few days before the motion picture’s Dec. 9 public release, the church rented two screens at a movie theatre and showed the film to more than 500 people, many of whom were invited by church members.
As moviegoers left the theatre, they were handed an invitation to attend the church. The flier said “You’ve seen the movie. Now hear the message.”
Alamo Heights Associate Pastor Michael Crocker said he preached a sermon series about The Chronicles of Narnia during Advent.
“We had record attendance,” Crocker said. “Most of us have read the book. People were excited about, first, we were doing a series about C.S. Lewis, and, second, about the book and movie.”
In Austin the senior high school Bible study group at Oak Hill UMC discussed the movie in early January. The youths analyzed the characters and explored similarities to people and events in the Bible.
Laura D’Amore, director of youth ministries, said the young people talked about “being glad Hollywood put this out.” The movie gives them an opening to talk about their faith with their families and friends.
“They’re in band and orchestra and sports, and the topic is bound to come up,” D’Amore said. “It’s very likely they might have said their Bible study class went to see the movie and talked about the characterization after.
“Whether the people who made the move intended to or not, it has opened up a lot of discussion about Christianity. It’s very creative, what they’ve done. It doesn’t out and out say this is a parallel (to the life of Christ). If you know it, you see it. If you don’t know it, you’ve probably heard all this publicity about it, and you might ask about the parallels.”
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is one in a seven-book collection of fantasy novels—The Chronicles of Narnia—that Lewis wrote for children from 1950 to 1956.