Does Susan go to the "New Narnia"?/Whatever happened to Susan?

The possibility, indeed, IMHO, likelihood, is that Susan has fallen from grace and is not saved. Period. I know no one likes that idea, but reality is that men and women can choose to reject salvation for the delights and charms and illusions of the world. No matter how notorious the sinner, repentance even at the moment of death (in articulo mortis) is accepted, AND refusal of grace is permitted. This is the meaning of the thieves co-crucified with Jesus. One repents and adheres to the Lord; the other scoffs and refuses to believe. One is saved that all may hope; one is damned that none may presume. Each acts according to his own free will. Susan, therefore, is the painful reality that once a king or queen in Narnia does not mean that one is always a king or queen in Narnia in the sense of absolute admission is guaranteed regardless of how one lives one's life or the overwhelming evidence of grace in one's life. Remember the Lord's words in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus the beggar, "Some would not believe though one rose from the dead." AS painful as it is to face, human choice matters. In the end, there are those who say to God, "Thy will be done;" and those to whom God says, "Your will be done." Susan chose to reject Narnia: she denied it, apostasized to faith in Aslan in Narnia and Jesus in this world, and chose the vain and empty things over substance and reality.

This is painful, Inkspot, I know for you because of your essay. Sorry. But it is clearly Mr Lewis intent to establish that there is a distinction between heaven and hell (THE GREAT DIVORCE as he called it and wrote). Human choice makes that distinction real in this life and the next! One may hear, "Well done, you good and faithful servant,' or "Depart from me, I never knew you." Both have Dominical authority and weight and import.

I think highly unlikely that the author of THE GREAT DIVORCE would mean the opposite in Narnia. It would be an offense against consistency and logic that I cannot fathom Lewis having made. One may hope that I misunderstand or that Lewis was wrong, but I don't think he left the option of both.
 
inked said:
Each acts according to his own free will ... it is clearly Mr Lewis intent to establish that there is a distinction between heaven and hell (THE GREAT DIVORCE as he called it and wrote). Human choice makes that distinction real in this life and the next!
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Uh-oh, you're going to get this thread locked up, too! :p
I think Lewis leaves it open as to what happens to Susan, and my imagining of it is as valid as yours and far nicer! Why should we surmise Su is lost forever just because she has strayed at this moment? I know from personal experience that it is possible to be no longer a friend of Narnia at one point in your life, and then to rediscover the faith and pursue it with an even more real and mature passion at a later point. It could happen for Susan, too! And God, knowing everything (while not always making it happen) would have known that eventually Susan would return to Him, so there was no possibility of a lie in the promise, "Once a King or Queen in Narnia, always a King or Queen in Narnia."
 
I knew you'd say that. :)

Notice I said in articulo mortis.

If Susan is alive, she could repent and return. If she isn't, it's too late. If she won't, she's doomed herself.

But, we can agree to disagree! It's just that you are wrong! :p

There is no lie to "once a Queen or King in Narnia, always a King or Queen." From the perspective of eternity to which all moments are present, that is emphatically a true statement. But that does not mean "once saved always safe" in the sense that one can never fall from eternal salvation. Indeed, if the damned are able to view the past and their opportunities for salvation rejected, it will be to increase their punishment by self will. On the other hand, they may see it as "freedom" or "liberation" and dwell in self-satisfied annhilation. The choice matters.
 
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in articulo mortis "at the moment of death"

The state the soul is in at the moment of death when it is subjected to the particular judgement: that is, in a state of grace, or a state of rejection of God. (See Dorothy L. Sayers' discussion in her introduction to Purgatory for a lucid and brief discussion. AFTER you finish HBP! :D )
 
There is an "end" piece of the puzzle that is missing. Only Susan is left out of her immediate family. The Chronicles end with a view of heaven. What Lewis left out is the impact of the tremendous loss of family for Susan.

We can only speculate how this tragedy might have affected Susan. From real life experience, I have seen tragedy both drive people closer to God and also further from God.
 
NarniaDreamer said:
So I've been searching for a while for an answer to my question. And quite simply there isn't one or at least it's not a good one! Yes, Peter said Susan was "no longer a friend of Narnia." But Aslan also said, at the very end of The Last Battle, "There was a real railway accident. Your father and mother and all of you are--as you used to call it in the Shadowlands--dead." So is it safe to assume Susan was left alone in the world having to bear the grief of losing her entire family in a horrific accident? Friend of Narnia or not--that's harsh! I guess I just wish everyone had a "happily ever-after" ending.
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You are so right !!!!!!!!! narnia12
 
People are so desperate for their to be a "happy ending" that they will abolish free will and insist on universal salvation against human will. Susan must be saved so I can feel good. Problem is, ya'll, that Susan had free will and she was no longer a friend of Narnia by choice. Her choice. If she died in the train crash it was an eternal choice, not redeemable. It is so very hard to hear the Dominical, "Not all who say to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven." All who choose to follow Him are admitted, "He who comes to me I will in no wise cast out," but all who choose to reject Him are free to so do.
Same with Narnia. Lewis has painted a picture of the consequences of human free will. And note that the joy and happiness of those choosing Aslan and Narnia is NOT interfered with by Susan's choice not to believe in Narnia. It is a datum with no adverse effects on the Friends of Narnia. It's easy to believe Jadis did not make it to Aslan's Country for she opposed Aslan from the first, but Susan's opposition is not less real because she came to it late. Same for us! Choices count, here and now, then, and eternally!

We could wish otherwise, but the Universe nor Heaven run on wish-fulfillment! Therefore, choose wisely, build on rock not sand!!!
 
I agree w/ you, inked. I think Lewis painted a realistic picture of the kindom of Heaven. Even those we loved so much on earth, if they refuse to believe and live by the truth, will not be there. God, b/c he is loving and merciful, made a way for us to get to Him, but we must take the the way he provides.
 
I finally read it and now I can add.

The book was sooooo sad! But also happy too, because they once again see all their friends in Heaven.

Does anyone think about Eustace (Spelling???) or Jill's families? what about them? they suffered to loss of a loved one as well didn't they? I think it's very sad for them, just as it is for anyone, but if only we could realize how happy they were with everything, I think we'd be happy as well. Knowing they were safe. It's very complicated to express all I have inside about this book. I guess I can't type very fast!

Susan was wrong to turn against Narnia, but that is what many people do about God nowadays! They turn against him and they will suffer the penalty. No escaping. God gave man the chance to make decicions. But what did we do? We sined. And God still lets us make decicions. Susan made the wrong one. She had the power to do the right, but didn't. It is her own fault. I do think there is a happy ending though. For the rest of them. But there is no use trying to make a happy ending for Susan.

Maybe when we get to heaven, we can ask C S Lewis about all this. :eek:
 
Eustac'es parent probably would have turned their anger against the Pevensies for "corrupting" their "perfect" son.

Jill's parent swould have naturally mourned.

But in death, there should also be great joy. We survivors mourn out of a selfishness: we won't see our loved ones again in this world. But we should also celebrate that our loved ones are finally FREE!
 
Wallis said:
Jill's parent swould have naturally mourned.
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Its hard to say what Jill's parents would do, because there wasn't as much time spent with Jill to develop her character (in my opinion, they only gave her a book and a half for development) and we are never introduced to Jill's life outside the school, which was for a chapter and a half, so it is hard to determine how Jill's parents would have reacted if we didn't get to know her as well as the other children.
 
just one problem

inkspot said:
Welcome, NarniaDreamer, I didn't see you post before.

I have wondered about Susan, too, but I think she had a happy ending. I think she grew up and married and had children, and then when her children read the Chronicles of Narnia, Susan remembered it all! And she told them the stories were about her and her (dead?) siblings! So they were all excited about it and wanted to try to get to Narnia because their mother knew it was a real place. They somehow magicked themselves into the Wood Between the Worlds, but Susan didn't know what had happened to them and had to follow ... and they all came to Narnia one way and another. :D
And they lived happily ever after.
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One small problem: The Narnia Susan knew of would have ended by the time any of this had happened and neither she nor her offspring would be able to get to the REAL Narnia.
 
Hwin_46 said:
One small problem: The Narnia Susan knew of would have ended by the time any of this had happened and neither she nor her offspring would be able to get to the REAL Narnia.
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Only if you believe in linear time. If you believe, like me, that God exists altogether in every time and no time, then it follows that everything exists at once ...
 
I think i see what you mean Inky, but as you know my theolog is not too hot..but if Susan did have children and she told them about Narnia and about the ideas behind it - the love, acceptance, truth, faith etc, then when their time came they would still get to the 'New' Narnia, because they had accepted it all before hand even though it (being the old Narnia) didn't exist anymore..just as we don't live in the same Biblical world of the OT/NT but still accept it's values and believe heaven is waiting for us?
 
rosymole said:
I think i see what you mean Inky, but as you know my theolog is not too hot..but if Susan did have children and she told them about Narnia and about the ideas behind it - the love, acceptance, truth, faith etc, then when their time came they would still get to the 'New' Narnia, because they had accepted it all before hand even though it (being the old Narnia) didn't exist anymore..just as we don't live in the same Biblical world of the OT/NT but still accept it's values and believe heaven is waiting for us?
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Yes, I like this idea. That seems to line up right, we're not living in Bible times, but the Bible's ideas still work for us.

Also, in my story, maybe they get into the Wood between the Worlds and have adventures in other lands, and by the time they make it to Narnia (if there is any such thing as time) they get into the new Narnia, the True Narnia, at the end of The Last Battle. Remember because of the muddle with time, you might arrive back in Narnia and find 100 years had passed, or no time at all, so they might just come a little late into the new Narnia.
 
You know what is interesting? Even as on another thread we are searching for a new "C.S.Lewis," all of our comments are expanding and enriching the original seven published books.
 
Wallis said:
You know what is interesting? Even as on another thread we are searching for a new "C.S.Lewis," all of our comments are expanding and enriching the original seven published books.
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Yeah, and some of us have even posted some fan fiction over in the Professors Notebook that keep the stories alive and moving forward, too. I should write my one about Susan ... when I get the time ...
 
*OKAY* Susan does'nt turn against the rest , she gets older (No duh') and whenever the others metion anything about Narnia she just says it was a game they that her, lucy, peter, and edmund played when they were "Kids"
 
That is an interesting insight, Zaffie, but it raises another question: Do the Friends of Narnia "grow up" too, or are they still "kids?"
 
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