Post by Josh on Feb 15, 2007 17:00:12 GMT -8
1/15/07:
The last part of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe centers around a few key themes:
Deep Magic
Deep Magic is Lewis' way of referring to Moral Law that God built into the hearts of men and women. Part of that moral law requires a payment for anything that brings any shadow of moral imperfection. The reason for this is that the world was created wholly good, without the slightest evil, but because of sin, it has become tainted. And that tainted-ness does not come without a cost.
Thus, in Narnia, Edmund's betrayal incurs a dreadful cost- death. The Witch knows that Aslan cannot deny these rules of 'deep magic', (or moral law) because His own Father laid them down from the very beginning.
Of course, Edmund is a picture of all of us and the extreme ugliness of even our most subtle sins in the face of righteous perfection.
Aslan must take on the price Edmund has incurred. There is no other way.
Women and the Passion of the... Aslan
Just a side note: I love how Lewis has Lucy and Susan there for Aslan on the night of his death and on the morning of His resurrection. They powerfully symbolize the likes of Mary Magdalene and the Virign Mary and the other women who stood by Christ in his worst moments and were there as the first witnesses to His triumph. But unlike the Gospel stories, in Narnia Aslan's companions did not fall asleep and fail to watch and pray at the hour of his arrest. How it could have been!
Atonement
Some find fault with the fact that Lewis appears to subscribe to the Ransom theory of Atonement. There are many theories as to how Christ's death actually achieves salvation for those who believe. I can't go into them all here, but one of the more unusual ones (and often maligned) is the idea that Christ paid a ransom to the devil, purchasing us back from him. This theory implies that we belonged to the devil to begin with, and is often criticized for attributing too much power to the Evil One, or for somehow de-emphasizing that it is our own sin that separated from God, or for confusing who the ransom is really paid to (many would say that it was paid to God the Father, not to the devil).
At some point I'd like to deal with this topic in much more depth, but for now I'd say that I don't think Lewis meant here to set up some version of the Ransom theory as the sole explanation for Christ's means of achieving salvation for the world. He probably would have defended some version of the Ransom theory as being part of the whole truth of the Atonement, though not the most important part. I think that's where I fall on the subject as well.
More to come...
The last part of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe centers around a few key themes:
Deep Magic
Deep Magic is Lewis' way of referring to Moral Law that God built into the hearts of men and women. Part of that moral law requires a payment for anything that brings any shadow of moral imperfection. The reason for this is that the world was created wholly good, without the slightest evil, but because of sin, it has become tainted. And that tainted-ness does not come without a cost.
Thus, in Narnia, Edmund's betrayal incurs a dreadful cost- death. The Witch knows that Aslan cannot deny these rules of 'deep magic', (or moral law) because His own Father laid them down from the very beginning.
Of course, Edmund is a picture of all of us and the extreme ugliness of even our most subtle sins in the face of righteous perfection.
Aslan must take on the price Edmund has incurred. There is no other way.
Women and the Passion of the... Aslan
Just a side note: I love how Lewis has Lucy and Susan there for Aslan on the night of his death and on the morning of His resurrection. They powerfully symbolize the likes of Mary Magdalene and the Virign Mary and the other women who stood by Christ in his worst moments and were there as the first witnesses to His triumph. But unlike the Gospel stories, in Narnia Aslan's companions did not fall asleep and fail to watch and pray at the hour of his arrest. How it could have been!
Atonement
Some find fault with the fact that Lewis appears to subscribe to the Ransom theory of Atonement. There are many theories as to how Christ's death actually achieves salvation for those who believe. I can't go into them all here, but one of the more unusual ones (and often maligned) is the idea that Christ paid a ransom to the devil, purchasing us back from him. This theory implies that we belonged to the devil to begin with, and is often criticized for attributing too much power to the Evil One, or for somehow de-emphasizing that it is our own sin that separated from God, or for confusing who the ransom is really paid to (many would say that it was paid to God the Father, not to the devil).
At some point I'd like to deal with this topic in much more depth, but for now I'd say that I don't think Lewis meant here to set up some version of the Ransom theory as the sole explanation for Christ's means of achieving salvation for the world. He probably would have defended some version of the Ransom theory as being part of the whole truth of the Atonement, though not the most important part. I think that's where I fall on the subject as well.
More to come...