Like many evangelicals – heck, like a great many people period – my introduction to what you might call fantasy fiction was C.S. Lewis. I have read a decent amount of his writing as well as books about him.
I wouldn’t say I am quite as taken with him as some (there is an almost cultish aspect to many of his fans within evangelicalism) but I am a big fan of the Narnia series.
So when I heard about Planet Narnia by Michael Ward I was intrigued. Was there really a hidden code behind this famous series? But the book was academic in nature not to mention long and expensive – so I never got around to reading it.
But the folks at Tyndale publishers had the bright idea to bring out a sort of slimed down introductory version called The Narnia Code: C. S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens. I figured this was my chance to see what all the fuss was about.
Millions of readers have been captivated by C. S. Lewis’s famed Chronicles of Narnia, but why? What is it about these seven books that makes them so appealing? For more than half a century, scholars have attempted to find the organizing key—the “secret code”—to the beloved series, but it has remained a mystery. Until now.
In The Narnia Code, Michael Ward takes the reader through each of the seven Narnia books and reveals how each story embodies and expresses the characteristics of one of the seven planets of medieval cosmology—Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus and Saturn—planets which Lewis described as “spiritual symbols of permanent value.”
How does medieval cosmology relate to the Christian underpinnings of the series? How did it impact Lewis’s depiction of Aslan, the Christlike character at the heart of the books? And why did Lewis keep this planetary inspiration a secret? Originally a ground-breaking scholarly work called Planet Narnia, this more accessible adaptation will answer all the questions.
Seems outrageous and interesting, right? Well, it is sort of both. I found the book interesting in concept but less successful in practice.
More thoughts below. read more »
