This month’s issue of Imprimis, a free publication of Hillsdale College, features an interview with Bob Beltz, special adviser to Walden Media and senior pastor at Highline Community Church in Centennial, Colorado. He speaks about CS Lewis, the Chronicles, and which other Lewis’ books are film-worthy.
Beltz has contributed to the Narnia films as well as other Walden properties, including the Michael Apted-directed Amazing Grace.
CLICK HERE to read the full interview. Note: you’ll have to scroll down just over half-way down the page to see the beginning of the interview. Here’s a sample:
Imprimis: Lewis was a Christian writer, and many consider the Chronicles of Narnia to be a Christian allegory. Do you agree?
Beltz: Lewis said it wasn’t an allegory, [and this] has been quoted a lot. But oftentimes no one goes on to quote what else he said. He called [the Chronicles] a “supposal.” To him, as a scholar of medieval and renaissance literature, allegory had a very specific meaning. And when you read the Chronicles, it’s really not an allegory. [So] he called it a ‘supposal’—as in “suppose there’s another world, and that world needs redemption.” At the end of Dawn Treader, when Lucy is so sad that she’s never going to see Aslan again, Aslan says to her, “I’m in your world too, and I have a different name, and you have to learn that name, and that’s the whole reason you’ve come to Narnia is to know me there.” That’s probably the strongest statement [of the Chronicles’ purpose] that Lewis gives us.