Copperfox
Well-known member
I think I understand why so many people have difficulty simply saying "Aslan IS Jesus, period."
Persons hostile to Christianity have a plain, up-front reason for wanting to change Aslan's identity: they don't want to owe anything to Jesus, and they want to hijack Aslan and make Him a small-g pagan god in a purely recreational fantasy. But the case of Christians is more interesting.
Some Christians resist calling Aslan Jesus for the same reason as people at the fringes of Christendom resist calling Jesus God.
If you don't understand the Trinity, the claim of Jesus to be God can sound like blasphemy--the attempt of a man, who started out as a man, to elevate himself to Godhood. But when you do understand the Trinity, you realize that Jesus didn't CLIMB UP to "become" God; he already WAS one of the three co-existing aspects of God, and He CAME DOWN to become human.
If you don't understand the conscious intent that Mr. Lewis formed after God's mental suggestion to him for the character of Aslan took hold, the claim that Aslan is Jesus can sound like blasphemy--the attempt of an author to take a character he happened to enjoy inventing, and endow this character with the dignity of the Savior. This, in fact, is exactly what the malicious Philip Pullman has accused Mr. Lewis of doing. But when you do understand the intent of Mr. Lewis, you realize that Mr. Lewis wasn't indulging in turning a talking lion into a Christ-figure; instead, he was imagining what form THE ACTUAL CHRIST might assume in such a mythic world as the Narnian world.
Mr. Lewis asserted in his essays that there is not, and cannot be, ANY being ANYWHERE, other than God, who is eternal, uncreated and absolutely self-sufficient. Therefore, when Aslan is described in "The Magician's Nephew" displaying the attributes of Almighty God, creating something out of nothing, and on top of that being seen in action by persons from the real world, Mr. Lewis CANNOT be inviting the reader to conclude, "Okay, there IS someone omnipotent besides God after all."
Jesus being God does not wrongly exalt mankind to Godhood, because Jesus was God first. Aslan being Jesus does not wrongly exalt fantasy characters, because the whole point about Aslan is Jesus Himself ENTERING a world purposely modelled upon myths and fairytales.
You know what? I think I'm going to enter this as an article on the main page.
Joseph Ravitts, author of "Southward the Tigers"
Persons hostile to Christianity have a plain, up-front reason for wanting to change Aslan's identity: they don't want to owe anything to Jesus, and they want to hijack Aslan and make Him a small-g pagan god in a purely recreational fantasy. But the case of Christians is more interesting.
Some Christians resist calling Aslan Jesus for the same reason as people at the fringes of Christendom resist calling Jesus God.
If you don't understand the Trinity, the claim of Jesus to be God can sound like blasphemy--the attempt of a man, who started out as a man, to elevate himself to Godhood. But when you do understand the Trinity, you realize that Jesus didn't CLIMB UP to "become" God; he already WAS one of the three co-existing aspects of God, and He CAME DOWN to become human.
If you don't understand the conscious intent that Mr. Lewis formed after God's mental suggestion to him for the character of Aslan took hold, the claim that Aslan is Jesus can sound like blasphemy--the attempt of an author to take a character he happened to enjoy inventing, and endow this character with the dignity of the Savior. This, in fact, is exactly what the malicious Philip Pullman has accused Mr. Lewis of doing. But when you do understand the intent of Mr. Lewis, you realize that Mr. Lewis wasn't indulging in turning a talking lion into a Christ-figure; instead, he was imagining what form THE ACTUAL CHRIST might assume in such a mythic world as the Narnian world.
Mr. Lewis asserted in his essays that there is not, and cannot be, ANY being ANYWHERE, other than God, who is eternal, uncreated and absolutely self-sufficient. Therefore, when Aslan is described in "The Magician's Nephew" displaying the attributes of Almighty God, creating something out of nothing, and on top of that being seen in action by persons from the real world, Mr. Lewis CANNOT be inviting the reader to conclude, "Okay, there IS someone omnipotent besides God after all."
Jesus being God does not wrongly exalt mankind to Godhood, because Jesus was God first. Aslan being Jesus does not wrongly exalt fantasy characters, because the whole point about Aslan is Jesus Himself ENTERING a world purposely modelled upon myths and fairytales.
You know what? I think I'm going to enter this as an article on the main page.
Joseph Ravitts, author of "Southward the Tigers"