Narnia

[mikado5001]

Try reading these books. The Gospel according to Tolkien, The Gospel According to The Simpsons, and like.

[Giaour]

I didn't read anything in Narnia that even remotely was anti christian.

Aslan died for a boy who was bad.

Aslan resurrected.

It seems to me that it kind of goes along with what Jesus taught.

No stealing, not lieing, self sacrifice.

How can biblical morality in a fantasy book be of the devil?

[Pipit]

C.S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia as a means of fantasically (ie: in the fantasy mind set) displaying the story of Christ and His interactions with mankind. much if his intention was to allow the child-like mind the opportunity to explore and gain a foundational understanding of Good and Evil and the human struggle we have with it, and in the idea of grace, sacrifice (represented in Aslan) and redemption (in the redemption of Edmond, who betrayed his brother and sisters, and whose punishment Aslan took). It is not intended to be a gospel onto itself, but a means of demonstrating in a fantasy world how salvation plays out, and so allowing us a greater understanding of how it operates within our realm of reality as we both live our lives as Christians and as we build ourselves up in God's Word.

And if we read it to our kids (if and when we have them), it provides an awesome means to help them understand what our state as sinners, and how Christ came to redeem us and save us from our sins. If you haven't read them yet, or haven't read all the series yet, I suggest you do so! (I'm a bit bummed out I left my box set back at my mom's place 300miles away!)

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As for LOTR, Tolkien himself said that his intentions where to write nothing more then an empic book, not meant to be a representative of anything else, even though it finds much of its story reflecting Tolkien's Christian worldview.

[Iryssa]

Why not just get a good set of children's Bible Story books?

How are these different from the stories in Narnia?

People do not study the Bible as much as they should. 

Why use a substitute? 

Do you have kids? If so, I htink you should ask yourself this question. If you can't see the answer, tyell your kids you're going to take all their other books away and only read from the Bible from now on. If that works for you, great. I think you will find that it doesn't, though.

It seems to me that if I were to tell my child that we should live by what the Bible says, and then read them a fantasy book to explain Christ, that would be confusing.

Honestly, I think you're underestimating your child's intelligence. My little brother and I read those books with mom and dad a long time ago. We started with "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." At the point where Aslan is resurrected, we were like "mom! He's like Jesus except not real!"

I would rather train my child to go to the Bible to learn the ways of God than to train him to look for other sources.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would rather know how to find God's influence in everything than think that God is limited to a single mode of communicating.

God made people to be creative. Whatever people might think, God is not some great killjoy up in heaven ready to strike us down for reading something that's not the Bible. I LOVE reading the Bible, personally! But I also love reading (and writing) stories which can educate and entertain at the same time.

I don't understand the big fuss about Fantasy/Sci-Fi literature in general. Honestly, the genre has no more or less merit than any other, no more or less bad, no more or less good. The only problem I see with it is that there are few writers as skilled as C.S. Lewis in creating a good allegorical work.

[Iryssa]

I didn't read anything in Narnia that even remotely was anti christian.

Aslan died for a boy who was bad.

Aslan resurrected.

It seems to me that it kind of goes along with what Jesus taught.

No stealing, not lieing, self sacrifice.

How can biblical morality in a fantasy book be of the devil?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well said. I just finished reading "The Magician's Nephew" with a bunch of fellow Bible College students and my favourite prof (not in class but as an extra-curricular group read).

There are SO many Biblical truths and excellent moral lessons in there!

[Iryssa]

I didn't read anything in Narnia that even remotely was anti christian.

Aslan died for a boy who was bad.

Aslan resurrected.

It seems to me that it kind of goes along with what Jesus taught.

No stealing, not lieing, self sacrifice.

How can biblical morality in a fantasy book be of the devil?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well said. I just finished reading "The Magician's Nephew" with a bunch of fellow Bible College students and my favourite prof (not in class but as an extra-curricular group read).

There are SO many Biblical truths and excellent moral lessons in there!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But it ISN'T Biblical morality at all. This is like having a warlock as a guest speaker in your church.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You really haven't read the book, have you?

[Giaour]

It is too teaching biblical morality.

It teaches right from wrong and the consequences of doing wrong along with the blessings of doing right.

[Iryssa]

Exactly...and that's just on one level. I could go into more detailed examples, but really, that's a great summary.

[Giaour]

please, do go into details. I'd like to see what I missed.

[Iryssa]

You want "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," or "The Magician's Nephew?"