Narnia Code DVD, A Review

I recently received a review copy of The Narnia Code DVD from Tyndale House Publishers. It is always a delight to review C. S. Lewis related books and products, and especially so in this case as Michael Ward, author of The Narnia Code and Planet Narnia, is a friend of mine.

That said, allow me to get one thing I don't like about this DVD out of the way right from the start, and that is: the title. I really dislike the title: The Narnia Code. The reason I dislike it is because I sincerely doubt that C. S. Lewis would want us to approach the Narnia books as pieces of literature to decode. Lewis makes clear in a number of places that the Narnia books are not an allegory. (See letter of 26 May, 1954 in Letters to Children, pp. 44-45.) Nonetheless, I believe that something Lewis said about allegory in general, in The Allegory of Love, applies to reading the Narnia books. There Lewis wrote that "allegory is not a puzzle. The worst thing we can do is to read it with our eyes skinned for clues, as we read a detective story." (The Allegory of Love, p. 333.) The very title, The Narnia Code, invites us to read the Narnia stories with our eyes "skinned for clues", which I believe Lewis would tell us, is not the way to approach these books. Of course any book which treats of the symbolism in the Narnia stories may have this effect on the reader. My own book, The Hidden Story of Narnia, could, unfortunately, produce this result. However, I prefer to think of a "hidden story" (a phrase Lewis himself uses (see Lewis' letter of 26 October 1963 on page 111 of Letters to Children), rather than a "Narnia code", a phrase rather alien to Lewis' way of thinking.

Now that we have dispensed with what I find to be the most distasteful part of this DVD, let us proceed to some more delectable items....

One of the things I like best about The Narnia Code DVD is that it begins with an excellent mini-documentary of C. S. Lewis' life. There is extensive footage drawn from C. S. Lewis: Beyond Narnia, an earlier production by Narnia Code director, Norman Stone, who also directed the BBC version of Shadowlands. This dramatic footage is used to excellent effect in The Narnia Code.

Another positive aspect of The Narnia Code is that it includes commentary from a wide range of "Lewis experts" in addition to Michael Ward. We are treated here to the powerful insights of scholars James Como, Malcolm Guite, Alan Jacobs, Don King and Eric Metaxes, BBC presenter Brian Sibley, and author Francis Spufford.

A third thing which The Narnia Code does very well is to present the process by which Michael Ward claims to have made his literary discovery, namely that each of the Narnia books corresponds to one of the planets of medieval cosmology. Whether one, in the end, agrees with Ward's thesis or not, one must admit that Ward's presentation of this theory is both cogent and compelling. The Narnia Code DVD does an excellent job of putting Ward's scholarly thesis, presented so well in Planet Narnia, at a popular level. After watching the DVD with me, even my eleven-year-old son was both enthralled and able to articulate Ward's thesis.

When I first read Planet Narnia I had the advantage, some would say, of having the author himself staying in my home. Michael and I were able to discuss his thesis as I was reading the book. By the time I got to, if I remember correctly, the third chapter of Michael's book, I told him I was convinced. However, after Michael left and I finished reading the book, doubts began to arise in my mind. I still have lingering doubts about the full accuracy of Michael's thesis though, once again, I found his presentation of his thesis, to be very persuasive in this DVD. You may read the articulation of my doubts about Planet Narnia in a previous blog here:

http://willvaus.blogspot.com/2009/05/planet-narnia.html.

Despite my doubts about Michael's thesis, I still think Planet Narnia is well worth the read, and The Narnia Code is well worth viewing. One pleasant surprise I had in viewing the DVD was the application of Lewis' medieval-inspired imagination to our view of the cosmos today. Rather than spoil the surprise for my readers I encourage you to see the DVD for yourself.

In closing, let me mention briefly two more special treats included in this DVD. In the Bonus section we get to meet three friends who knew C. S. Lewis personally and hear their comments on Ward's thesis. Also, we get a tour of key locations in Lewis' life story.

In short, I must say that no brief review can do full justice to the riches presented by the BBC, Norman Stone and Michael Ward in this fine DVD on the life and thought of C. S. Lewis.

Comments

Winifred S said…

Thanks for the thoughtful review, Will. I have watched the DVD and would also encourage people to see it, as it has lots of good material. I am at a disadvantage at not having yet read Planet Narnia, which I have on my bookshelf, and have been intrigued by since it was published. It has been shoved aside...and will come back to the front!
However, I agree with you totally about this unfortunate new title of the the Narnia Code, which to my mind pulls in a dreadful association with the Da Vinci Code--what were they thinking? But the meat of the matter is I think rather compelling. For the writer of the Discarded Image and the Space Trilogy...this idea about the planets makes perfect sense to me.

9:00 AM

Winifred S said…

Thanks for your thoughtful review, Will. I have watched the DVD, and liked it. Despite the terrible title, I would encourage people to watch it. I groaned when I saw that they had renamed the popular version of Ward's Planet Narnia and this DVD the Narnia Code, which has an unfortunate cultural association to the Da Vinci Code. It strikes entirely the wrong note, but having gotten that out of the way, there is absolutely nothing weird or off center about Ward's theory--not really. Anyone who has read a lot of Lewis, and especially the Space Trilogy and the Discarded Image, can see immediately how he has come up with the idea, and it is one of those things that is obvious as soon as someone lays it all out. Of course, I admit to being a bit medieval myself. :-) The bonus materials have a lot of meat in them.

9:17 AM

Will Vaus said…

Thanks for your comments Winifred. I agree that the thesis of Planet Narnia is plausible, on the surface. However, beneath the surface I am left with many questions, which you can read about in my post about Planet Narnia. There was also an article published recently in SEVEN that raises further questions about Ward's thesis. You can read that online here:
http://www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter/Journal%20VII/~/media/EC6D52D1FD4441F7AA739C2933155EA5.pdf

10:02 AM

C. S. Lewis on Homosexuality

Arthur Greeves In light of recent developments in the United States on the issue of gay marriage, I thought it would be interesting to revisit what C. S. Lewis thought about homosexuality. Lewis, who died in 1963, never wrote about same-sex marriage, but he did write, occasionally, about the topic of homosexuality in general. In the following I am quoting from my book, Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. S. Lewis . For detailed references and footnotes, you may obtain a copy from Amazon, your local library, or by clicking on the book cover at the right.... In Surprised by Joy , Lewis claimed that homosexuality was a vice to which he was never tempted and that he found opaque to the imagination. For this reason he refused to say anything too strongly against the pederasty that he encountered at Malvern College, where he attended school from the age of fifteen to sixteen. Lewis did not rate pederasty as the greatest evil of the school because he felt the cruelty displa...

Fact, Faith, Feeling

"Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. I know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods 'where to get off', you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. Consequently one must train the habit of Faith." Mere Christianity Many years ago, when I was a young Christian, I remember seeing the graphic illustration above of what C. S. Lewis has, here, so...

C. S. Lewis Tour--London

The final two days of our C. S. Lewis Tour of Ireland & England were spent in London. Upon our arrival we enjoyed a panoramic tour of the city that included Westminster Abbey. A number of our tour participants chose to tour the inside of the Abbey where they were able to view the new C. S. Lewis plaque in Poets' Corner. Though London was not one of Lewis' favorite places to visit, there are a number of locations associated with him. One which I have noted in my new book, In the Footsteps of C. S. Lewis , is Endsleigh Palace Hospital (25 Gordon Street, London) where Lewis recovered from his wounds received during the First World War.... Not too far away from this location is King's College, part of the University of London, located on the Strand, just off the River Thames. This is the location where Lewis gave the annual commemoration oration entitled The Inner Ring on 14 December 1944.... C. S. Lewis occasionally attended theatrical events in London....

The Shepherds' Perspective on Christmas

On December 21, 2015, the following headline appeared in the International Business Times: “Bethlehem Christmas 2015 Cancelled”. To be fully accurate, religious celebrations of Jesus’ birth went forward last year in Bethlehem, but many of the secular celebrations of Christmas that usually surround it were toned down due to instability in the area. Looking back a decade, there was even one year when Christian Arabs canceled community celebrations of Christmas in support of the Palestinian uprising. However, the Jewish government would have no part of that, so the Israeli military sponsored its own holiday celebrations in the area. It is also interesting to note who celebrated the first Christmas and who didn’t. The first Christmas was not celebrated by the emperor Caesar Augustus, nor Quirinius, the governor of Syria, nor was it celebrated by the lowly innkeeper. But Christmas was celebrated by a few lonely shepherds along with Joseph and Mary and the angels of heaven. How ...

C. S. Lewis on Church Attendance

A friend's blog written yesterday ( http://wesroberts.typepad.com/ ) got me thinking about C. S. Lewis's experience of the church. I wrote this in a comment on Wes Robert's blog: It is interesting to note that C. S. Lewis attended the same small church for over thirty years. The experience was nothing spectacular on a weekly basis. For most of those years Lewis didn't care much for the sermons; he even sat behind a pillar so that the priest would not see the expression on his face. He attended the service without music because he so disliked hymns. And he left right after holy communion was served probably because he didn't like to engage in small talk with other parishioners after the service. But that life-long obedience in the same direction shaped Lewis in a way that nothing else could. Lewis was once asked, "Is attendance at a place of worship or membership with a Christian community necessary to a Christian way of life?" His answer w...

A Prayer at Ground Zero

Does the Bible mention treating animals with kindness?

When I solicited questions to be addressed in this series, a member of the congregation wrote this to me: “Animals are mentioned in the Bible as beasts of burden and sacrificial animals. Is there any mention of treating animals with kindness?” The short answer to that question is: yes. However, it is important to note that what the Bible says about caring for animals comes in the midst of a great narrative. It is a narrative of Creation, Fall, and Redemption. Let’s look at these three great acts in the narrative play of world history one by one. First, let’s look at creation. Creation At the very beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 26 through 28, we read this: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing th...

Christmas Day Thought from Henri Nouwen

" I keep thinking about the Christmas scene that Anthony arranged under the altar. This probably is the most meaningful "crib" I have ever seen. Three small woodcarved figures made in India: a poor woman, a poor man, and a small child between them. The carving is simple, nearly primitive. No eyes, no ears, no mouths, just the contours of the faces. The figures are smaller than a human hand - nearly too small to attract attention at all. "But then - a beam of light shines on the three figures and projects large shadows on the wall of the sanctuary. That says it all. The light thrown on the smallness of Mary, Joseph, and the Child projects them as large, hopeful shadows against the walls of our life and our world. "While looking at the intimate scene we already see the first outlines of the majesty and glory they represent. While witnessing the most human of human events, I see the majesty of God appearing on the horizon of my existence. While...

Glenmerle

Glenmerle in the 1950s In 2013 I published a biography on one of my favorite authors, Sheldon Vanauken. If you are interested, you can learn more and/or purchase a signed copy here: Signed Copy or an unsigned copy here: Amazon . One of the things that got me writing the book was my search for the location of Glenmerle, Vanauken's childhood home, so lovingly described in his book, A Severe Mercy . A visit to Van's alma mater, Staunton Military Academy, alerted me to the fact that Van grew up in Carmel, Indiana. Then, with the help of a local historian, we identified the location of Glenmerle. Because Van had suggested, in my first conversation with him, that Glenmerle was destroyed, I naturally assumed that the house no longer existed. However, another one of Van's fans recently contacted me to let me know that she believed she had found Glenmerle still in existence. I was able to look up the house on a real estate web site and compare current interior p...

Sheldon Vanauken Remembered

A good crowd gathered at the White Hart Cafe in Lynchburg, Virginia on Saturday, February 7 for a powerpoint presentation I gave on the life and work of Sheldon Vanauken. Van, as he was known to family and friends, was best known as the author of A Severe Mercy , the autobiography of his love relationship with his wife Jean "Davy" Palmer Davis. While living in Oxford, England in the early 1950's, Van and Davy came to faith in Christ through the influence of C. S. Lewis. Van was a professor of history and English literature at Lynchburg College from 1948 until his retirement around 1980. A Severe Mercy tells the story of Davy's death from a mysterious liver ailment in 1955 and Van's subsequent dealing with grief. Van himself died from cancer in 1996. It was my privilege to know Van for a brief period of time during the last year of his life. However, present at the White Hart on February 7 were some who knew Van far better than I did--Floyd Newman, one of Van...

Will Vaus

Search This Blog