Coming out in Sept./Oct. 2005 is “The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy.” Edited by Gregory Bassham and Jerry L. Walls, this is a collection of essays about the Chronicles, with topics ranging from Belief, Doubt and Knowing, to Ethics, Metaphysics, and Religion. It’s another book in the Popular Culture and Philosophy series that includes “The Simpsons and Philosophy,” “Seinfeld and Philosophy,” and “The Matrix and Philosophy,” and recently “Lord of the Rings and Philosophy” and “Harry Potter and Philosophy.” Some of the books are currently in use in University classes. Here’s a tentative list of the essays (subject to change):
Introduction: Narnia and the Enchantment of Philosophy
Part I: Farewell to Shadowlands: Believing, Doubting, and Knowing
1. STEPHEN H. WEBB, Aslan’s Voice: C. S. Lewis and the Magic of Sound
2. KEVIN KINGHORN, Virtue Epistemology: Why Uncle Andrew Couldn’t Hear the Animals Speak
3. THOMAS D. SENOR, Trusting Lucy: An Essay on Believing the Incredible
4. STEVEN LOVELL, Breaking the Spell of Skepticism: Puddleglum vs. the Green Witch
5. BRUCE R. REICHENBACH, At Any Rate There’s No Humbug Here: Truth and Perspective
Part II: The Tao in Narnia: Ethics
6. LAURA GARCIA, Worth Dying For: Narnian Lessons on Heroism and Altruism
7. DEVIN BROWN, Work, Vocation, and the Good Life in Narnia
8. TIM MOSTELLER, The Tao in Narnia
9. BILL DAVIS, Extreme Makeover: Moral Development and the Encounter with Aslan
10. JANICE DAURIO, Is It Bad to Good? Immoralism in Narnia
11. GAYNE J. ANACKER, Narnia and the Moral Imagination
12. WENDY C. HAMBLET, Beasts, Heroes and Monsters: Configuring the Moral Imaginary
13. KARIN FRY, No Longer a Friend: Gender in Narnia
Part III: Further Up and Further In: Metaphysics
14. GARETH MATTHEWS, Plato in Narnia
15. TIMOTHY CLEVELAND, Different Worlds, Different Bodies: Personal Identity in Narnia
16. ANGUS MENUGE, Why Eustace Almost Deserved His Name: Lewis’ Critique of Modern Secularism
17. MICHAEL AND ADAM PETERSON, Time in the Chronicles of Narnia
Part IV: The Deepest Magic: Religion and the Transcendent
18. GREGORY BASSHAM: Some Dogs Go to Heaven: Lewis on Animal Salvation
19. JAMES F. SENNETT, “Worthy of a Better God”: Religious Diversity and Salvation in the Chronicles of Narnia
20. CHARLES TALIAFERRO and RACHEL TRAUGHBER, The Atonement in Narnia
21. VICTOR REPPERT, The Funeral of a (Not So) Great Legend: The Chronicles and the Lewis-Anscombe Debate
22. ERIK J. WIELENBERG, Aslan the Terrible: Painful Encounters with Absolute Goodness