Will Vaus’ The Hidden Story of Narnia receives Advance Praise

Narnia scholar Will Vaus has written a book about Narnia that Owen A. Barfield calls “A thoughtful and thought-provoking book.” You might recognize the name, and you wouldn’t be mistaken. Owen A. Barfield is the grandson of C.S. Lewis’ good friend Owen Barfield, and his Aunt Lucy is the one to whom Lewis dedicated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But what is the book about? Read what some Lewis scholars have said, and you’ll have a really good idea.

I am asked again and again by lovers of Narnia if there is a book out there that will help them understand the deeper Christian meanings of The Chronicles of Narnia. I am happy to say that that much desired book now exists. Will Vaus’s The Hidden Story of Narnia offers a clear and concise analysis of the spiritual architecture that undergirds each of the Chronicles, and it does so in a language that should prove equally challenging and accessible to academics, non-academics, college and high school students, and even well-read children. Vaus makes clear all the links between Aslan and Christ and between the Narnia books and the Bible. But he goes far beyond this. He also links the themes of the Narnia books to the vast corpus of Lewis’s other works so as to make clear the unity of Lewis’s Christian worldview. He further challenges his readers to see and wrestle with the greater moral and ethical dimensions of the Chronicles, highlighting the nature of virtue and vice in a manner that would surely have gained Lewis’s hearty approval. He concludes by laying down seven guidelines for living like a Narnian that are practical without being didactic and that will help his readers to carry the message of Narnia into their own lives.
-Louis Markos , Professor in English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, Author of Lewis Agonistes and The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis

The Hidden Story of Narnia connects all seven of the Narnia books with not only their biblical correspondences but also with relevant passages from Lewis’s other works, allowing readers to journey further up and further in with their understanding of and their appreciation for this great writer and thinker.
-Devin Brown, professor of English at Asbury University and author of Inside the Voyage of the Dawn Treader

In this book, noted C. S. Lewis scholar Will Vaus charts the points of spiritual intersection between the seven Chronicles of Narnia books and the Bible. The Hidden Story of Narnia maps a path into Narnia and back again into our world for those who wish to understand the spiritual ideas and allusions in Lewis’s beloved Narnia tales. Suitable for group study as well as individual benefit.
-Michael Travers, Ph.D.
Professor of English
The College at Southeastern, a School of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

You can read Will Vaus’ blog here!