10/26/2005 5:43:00 PM
By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
As every parent and teacher knows, some of the best learning never takes place in a classroom. We learn most deeply from the example of others and from personal experience. But we’re also shaped by the stories that touch our hearts and fire our imaginations.
No one understood this better than the great British Catholic scholar, J.R.R. Tolkien. In writing the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Tolkien single-handedly created the modern fantasy universe. Millions of young people have grown up reading about the elves, hobbits, orcs and wraiths of Middle Earth. But for all its impossible creatures, the trilogy is also profoundly “true” in its portrait of good and evil, sin and virtue, and the importance of human heroism in defeating wickedness.
As a committed Catholic, Tolkien wove the Christian story into the fabric of Middle Earth. It’s no accident that Frodo and Sam finally destroy the power of Sauron, the Dark Lord, on a date that just happens to be March 25 - the great feast of the Annunciation on the Church calendar; the day God took on human flesh. Tolkien did that deliberately. In fact, the “Lord of the Rings” is filled with scores of similar Christian clues and metaphors.
Tolkien’s Anglican friend and fellow scholar, C.S. Lewis, did the same. One of the greatest Christian apologists of the 20th century, Lewis is remembered for classics like “Mere Christianity,” “The Abolition of Man,” “Surprised by Joy,” “The Screwtape Letters,” “The Problem of Pain” and “The Great Divorce.” But maybe his best work was his storytelling for young people.
In writing his seven-book “Chronicles of Narnia,” Lewis created a fantastic saga of dwarves, witches, trolls and centaurs, much like Tolkien. And again like Tolkien, Lewis’ Great Lion - Aslan - is unmistakably a figure of Jesus Christ. As for Aslan’s father, the Emperor Across the Sea: Well, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to infer Who that might be.
Over the years, I’ve known dozens of people who’ve gone back to the Narnia tales again and again to enjoy them as adults. Even today, half a century after Lewis published the last of the Chronicles, they remain bestsellers. The reason is simple. The Chronicles remind us that beauty, truth and goodness really do exist; that what we choose in life matters; that suffering has meaning; that sacrifice for the right things makes a difference; that heaven is real; and that God, our reason for joy and hope, loves us eternally.
It’s no accident then that many filmmakers have tried to bring these stories to the screen. Until now, all have failed. Part of the problem has been technical: before computers, the means for creating believable fantasy worlds didn’t exist. But the other, less obvious, problem has been content. What makes the Chronicles so powerful - their Christian worldview - is also what makes some people in an aggressively secular age very uneasy. What we read, watch and listen to can change us. And the Chronicles have changed the hearts of a great many people - in the right direction.
In making his “Lord of the Rings” movies, director Peter Jackson largely succeeded in adapting Tolkien for a general audience without destroying the Christian moral heart of the saga. On Dec. 9, we’ll see if the same good fortune smiles on the Chronicles. On Dec. 9, Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media will release “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the first of the Narnia tales. I haven’t seen it and therefore can’t endorse it, but if the film version stays true to the novel, the movie trailers and the filmmakers’ own stated intentions, it will be very well worth seeing.
Whatever the value of the film, though, now is a great time to read the Chronicles if you haven't, and reread them if you did as a child. We're shaped by the stories that touch our hearts and fire our imaginations. And Lewis, like Tolkien, wrote to shape us with the story of God's love.
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