by Jim Overholt
As we approach the December 9 release date for “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” and consider the opportunities for teaching and outreach in our communities, it’s good to remember that this is a movie for the whole family-including adults.
C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia series, believed that a book worth reading only in childhood was not a book worth reading at all. So as the stories of Narnia formed in his mind, he began to think about how tales of fantasy and adventure could actually portray the truths of Christianity in an important new way-not only for children, but also for adults who had perhaps lost those childlike qualities that Christ said were so important for seeing the Kingdom of God. So many of us have become either unappreciative or downright skeptical of anything we cannot see, touch, taste, and smell. There is much about “religion” today that inhibits the imagination. It too often seems as if we are caught in the relentless pursuit of quantifying and cataloging the living connection we have with a living God into a series of doctrines and rituals. We can grasp them intellectually, but can we still experience them? Lewis sensed the danger even in his day, and longed for a way to get past it. He observed that,
“The whole subject [religion] was associated with lowered voices, almost as if it were something medical. But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could.”
In these remarkable stories of Narnia, adults will have the opportunity to leave some of those encrusted old habits behind and once again “become as little children” and discover the wonder of it all through the eyes of a child.
Let’s take the kids to see the movie, for sure, but let\’s take the adults too. This will be one of those rare opportunities, for both family and friends, to not just be entertained by a magnificent cinematic production, but to talk about a movie-and perhaps the “story within the story”-with our guards finally down. Lewis himself thought so, and we agree! In his words:
“The inhibitions which I hoped my stories would overcome in a child\’s mind may exist in a grown-up’s mind too, and may perhaps be overcome by the same means.”
Please join the Mission America Coalition in encouraging your church or ministry to make the most of the opportunities offered by the release of film December 9.
The Narnia pages on our website have helpful information, outreach ideas and links to other ministries who are also providing resources to support teaching and outreach opportunities connected with the film.
[Mission America]