Religion in The Chronicles of Narnia

How Christian ideas shape the Narnia books, and why Lewis said they were not allegory.

Religion in The Chronicles of Narnia covers the Christian themes in C. S. Lewis's seven Narnia novels, which also borrow from Classical, Norse, Irish, Arthurian, Islamic and Jewish mythology.

Quick Facts

Author: C. S. Lewis
Lewis's term: suppositional

Facts from the source article.

Background

Christian ideas are the most fundamental of these. Lewis, an adult convert to Christianity, said he did not set out to put Christian theology into the stories; it happened as he wrote. An expert on allegory, he denied the books were allegory, since there is no one-to-one match between their events and Christian doctrine, and called their Christian side "suppositional".

In a 1958 letter he described Aslan as an imaginary answer to what Christ might become like if he chose to be incarnate in a world like Narnia. Since Narnia is a world of Talking Beasts, Lewis pictured him as a lion, the king of beasts, and noted that Christ is called the Lion of Judah.

In one of his last letters Lewis wrote how the whole series works out: The Magician's Nephew tells the Creation, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the Crucifixion and Resurrection, and The Last Battle the end of the world and the Last Judgement. The 2005 film renewed interest in these parallels.