Three BYU humanities professors delved into The Chronicles of Narnia, explaining that these books aren’t simple fairy tales—they contain profound truths in disguise.
C. S. Lewis is known for his timeless works, many of which allow readers to step into a magical setting and emerge with a deeper understanding of the world around them. With this in mind, BYU humanities professors Aaron Eastley, Paul Westover, and Ryan Christensen explored the religious symbolism in Lewis’s hit series The Chronicles of Narnia. In their four-part Education Week lecture series “Narnia for Grown-Ups,” they helped marry Christian principles with numerous wonders found on each page.
Stories Worth Reading
Many people consider C. S. Lewis’s popular seven-part series, The Chronicles of Narnia, to be children’s books. However, in his lecture titled “C. S. Lewis on Story—Plus, Introduction to Narnia,” Paul Westover (Literary Tourism) instead posited that these stories were meant for readers of every age, changing children and adults alike with every read.
Despite popular belief, Lewis didn’t consider his series an allegory of Christ. Westover explains that Lewis instead called these books fairy stories or fairy tales: Tales that fall into this category are often thought to be for children because they help break down hard concepts such as religion or unconditional love. However, Westover instead argued that “fairy tales were not, for the most part, created for children originally.” He continued, “Storytelling is a very important arc essential to human nature. Stories can communicate truths that might not otherwise be graspable to the mere intellect.”
The Chronicles of Narnia, for example, make parallels to Christ and teach readers about His life, character, and sacrifice. Westover then argues that the books have the power to profoundly impact adults who read them with an open mind, and in large part, because they are fairy tales. “We need to be able to go into imaginary worlds so that we can come back to our lives fortified and improved and built in faith,” he says, “Adults need this as much as children—maybe more.”
The Grounding Experience of God
Magicians captivate their audience by manipulating reality; they hide coins and make them appear out of thin air and can guess a card without seeing it. This idea of illusion versus reality exists outside of magic shows—it can even be explored through books. Associate Professor Ryan Christensen (Philosophy) gave a lecture titled “Even If There Isn’t Any Narnia: Faith, Reality, and Illusion in The Silver Chair,” where he explored how C. S. Lewis warns against falling victim to illusions.
In his book Mere Christianity, Lewis calls Christ an inventor who created “all the different people that you and I were intended to be.” Christensen believes that this offers a peek into Lewis’s understanding of reality and illusion: “[Lewis is] trying to explain the difference that in God’s world, things are more real.”
When you’ve had an experience of God, then you can tell the difference.
Lewis’s symbolism of the silver chair in The Chronicles of Narnia, Christensen later explained, acts as a warning for those who confuse illusions for reality. “For Lewis, the fairy stories were not ends in themselves; they weren’t real,” Christensen noted. He even argued that illusion and reality can’t be recognized by reason alone: “I think Lewis’s answer, the thing he’s right about, is that it’s not [through] reason” that you learn the difference between reality and illusion, Christensen concluded. “It’s only when you’ve had an experience of God, then you can tell the difference.”
Books of Light
While admiring a painting of a ship on the ocean, Lucy and Edmund Pevensie are drawn back into Narnia alongside their cousin, Eustace Scrubb, officially kick-starting book three in Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia series: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In his lecture “The ‘Narnia Code’ and Experiential Enjoyment of Narnia,” Aaron Eastley (African Literature) explored the presence of light in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to show how religion can change hearts.
Symbolism of darkness and light is consistent throughout the book: “It builds and builds until we actually reach Aslan, or the sun,” Eastley explained. He even noted that the title itself hints at the characters’ continuous reach for light: “The Dawn Treader is the ship itself, and they’re heading toward the rising sun each morning,” Eastley said. “That sun gets bigger and bigger and more marvelous.”
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader doesn’t only rely on light and dark contrast, however. Lewis incorporated religious and planetary symbolism to evoke change in readers, much like that displayed by Eustace: “Eustace, who is absolutely odious in the beginning, becomes a better boy through his experience,” Eastley recalled. He likewise said that this same change is available to all who read Lewis’s work. “Whatever else [Lewis] did in The Chronicles, I think that he hoped that he would change us somehow,” Eastley concluded. That “he’d change us for the better.”
Stories: Vehicles for Truth
For his seventh and final book in The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis chose to forgo a traditional happy ending for a more realistic one. Professor Paul Westover (Literary Tourism) discussed the symbolic conclusions of this book, The Last Battle, in his lecture “The End of Our Class, but Not the End of the Stories,” as a means of showing that fairy tales teach truth.
The Last Battle depicts the final days of Narnia, where a pseudo-Aslan leads the kingdom to its destruction. Westover explained that Lewis wrote this novel with religion in mind, making it “about the reign of the anti-Christ, the end of the world, and the Last Judgment.” The book’s biggest theme, Westover continued, is to be “ready at your post when the time comes.”
Lewis felt strongly that stories could be a delivery vehicle for truth, that [they] could somehow go straight to the heart.
Lewis’s book is filled not only with characters trying to prepare for Judgment Day but also those who reject the existence of Aslan and the new Narnia, which symbolizes heaven: While most of the Pevensie family, for example, join Aslan in the new Narnia, Susan instead falls away and embraces the vanities of the world. Westover argues that Susan’s story offers hope that “everyone who wants to find Aslan most probably will,” but according to their own timeline.
Westover believes that the story’s somewhat unhappy conclusion shows how impactful fairy tales can be: “Lewis felt strongly that stories could be a delivery vehicle for truth, that [they] could somehow go straight to the heart,” he said. “Truth is truth, wherever it comes from; and, indeed, lies are lies, wherever they come from.”