http://www.sblogs.com/153/2005/10/13/which-none-of-the-princes-of-this-world-knew/ Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:06:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 http://www.sblogs.com/153/2005/10/13/which-none-of-the-princes-of-this-world-knew/comment-page-1/#comment-27 Tom Fri, 14 Oct 2005 23:29:51 +0000 http://www.sblogs.com/153/2005/10/13/which-none-of-the-princes-of-this-world-knew/#comment-27 Set aside the theology for a moment. My primary point is that, as Christian allegory, the Deep Magic/Deeper Magic business is pretty feeble. What makes Aslan's death an allegory of Christ's death? One sentence, pulled from nowhere and headed nowhere. (Yes, Lewis later ginned up a backstory for this, but that has no bearing on the specific question of whether Christians should care whether the words "Deeper Magic" are spoken in the movie.) But that one sentence -- to the extent it actually means anything; "Death itself would start working backwards"? tell that to the White Witch -- is not specifically Christian. Little would be lost if Aslan said something like, "I am Aslan. I am too much alive to remain dead." The problem with Aslan, I think, is that it ruins the Incarnation. God is Aslan in his glorified Lion nature from the very moment Narnia is created, through to the very moment Narnia ceases to be. There's no movement to Aslan, not even in his "passion"; he doesn't stay dead long enough to be buried, and when he comes back to life, he doesn't even bear the marks of his death. Christologically, that's a yawner. Okay, now to the theology: The question here is, does the character of Aslan, who is supposed to be the only-begotten Son of God, make sense given what has been revealed to us about the only-begotten Son of God? Does what Aslan does give glory to His Father, does it call anyone to holiness? Is the Deeper Magic from Before the Beginning of Time consistent with the Gospel? I think the answers to all these questions can be shown to be, "No, not really." And if we expand our consideration to the whole set of books, it's, "Not at all." Set aside the theology for a moment. My primary point is that, as Christian allegory, the Deep Magic/Deeper Magic business is pretty feeble. What makes Aslan’s death an allegory of Christ’s death? One sentence, pulled from nowhere and headed nowhere. (Yes, Lewis later ginned up a backstory for this, but that has no bearing on the specific question of whether Christians should care whether the words “Deeper Magic” are spoken in the movie.) But that one sentence — to the extent it actually means anything; “Death itself would start working backwards”? tell that to the White Witch — is not specifically Christian. Little would be lost if Aslan said something like, “I am Aslan. I am too much alive to remain dead.”
The problem with Aslan, I think, is that it ruins the Incarnation. God is Aslan in his glorified Lion nature from the very moment Narnia is created, through to the very moment Narnia ceases to be. There’s no movement to Aslan, not even in his “passion”; he doesn’t stay dead long enough to be buried, and when he comes back to life, he doesn’t even bear the marks of his death. Christologically, that’s a yawner.
Okay, now to the theology: The question here is, does the character of Aslan, who is supposed to be the only-begotten Son of God, make sense given what has been revealed to us about the only-begotten Son of God? Does what Aslan does give glory to His Father, does it call anyone to holiness? Is the Deeper Magic from Before the Beginning of Time consistent with the Gospel? I think the answers to all these questions can be shown to be, “No, not really.” And if we expand our consideration to the whole set of books, it’s, “Not at all.”

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