C.S Lewis
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Re: C.S Lewis
- Zupanatural
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- Angela Stripes
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Many of the non-fiction books are theology, really - and my feelings about them are mixed: I love The Problem of Pain but hate Screwtape. Similarly, the adult sci-fi books contain many pretty ugly ideas, but also some interesting and worthwhile ones.
Lewis was very much a man of his time, and some of his ideas and opinions reflect an era when racism and misogyny were rife; often - but not always - he manages to rise above that, and produce something really worthwhile. He's giving his honest opinion - and, yes, he was a Christian, but he would also expect that most of the children reading him would have been raised as Christians, so he wouldn't need to indoctrinate them, but he probably wanted to get them to reflect upon their beliefs in a way not always encouraged by the often simplistic stuff dished out in schools at the time.
- KasieMiehlke
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Me too. I actually got my nephew hooked on reading by having him read this series. I got him his own set so he didn't have to borrow mine all the time.
- Kathryn Price
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I am a big fan of the Narnia books especially because of the Christian allegory. I don't think Lewis intended to "indoctrinate" young children into Christianity. He was just surrounded by Christianity and became a Christian either right before or during writing the series, so it was on his mind a lot and came out through his writing. I personally am a Christian, and finding all the allegory in the series is quite enjoyable for me and in my opinion improves the series, like a game of "Find the Bible Easter Egg". Additionally, during the time period he lived in, most people in England identified as some form of Christian, so it was perfectly natural to reference the Bible - in fact I would be surprised if you found many books from that time period that didn't reference God in some way.Human314 wrote: ↑31 Jan 2018, 19:34 Whilst I used to be a fan of the Narnia books when I realized how they attempted to indoctrinate young children into Christianity I was shocked. I feel that children should be able to make up their own minds about their religious beliefs. I also didn't like how Susan was no longer friend of Narnia just because she had become interested in lipstick, nylons, and parties.
As a last note I would like to point out that Susan did not lose her 'friend of Narnia' status because of her interest in lipstick, nylons, and parties. The point of that statement is that she let her interest in those things overcome her love of Narnia, letting it become an idol, and then justified it by pretending that Narnia was only a children's fantasy. This parallels Christians who lose their way because they start idolizing the world instead of Christ. And it never says that Susan could never become a friend of Narnia again - I believe the implication is that if she realized her wandering and came back to Aslan, he would accept her again with open paws, just like he did with Edmund when he betrayed his siblings. I think that's very important to the story as well as in Christianity.
I hope you are able to set aside your dislike and appreciate the series at least for the wonderful stories they are- C.S. Lewis is my favorite author. The Last Battle is my personal favorite, but the entire series is great.
- ElizabethR
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- Cate Mbevi
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- gkgurley
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I didn't catch onto the symbolism until Voyager of the Dawn Treader especially since Lewis himself described the religious ideas as "Christian Supposal" e.g."Suppose this world had similar religious history", sort of subtle symbolism.
I really need to read some of his other works.
- Julie Green
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- TaaraLynn
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- Jennifer Fernandez
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