Behind-the-Scenes: Writing about C.S. Lewis and the Bible

By Karlissa J

While I was writing To Narnia and Beyond, I ‘tried out’ a variety of content and information that ultimately didn’t make it into the book. At one point, I had a chapter comparing how the four authors – MacDonald, Tolkien, Lewis, and L’Engle – each interacted with the Bible in their storytelling. Here is part of the section that I wrote for C.S. Lewis.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first of the Narnia books written by C.S. Lewis, and it has been highly regarded for how it poignantly mirrors the death and resurrection story of Jesus.

Though there are other events going on in the tale, at the core of the story is the lion Aslan allowing himself to be bound to the stone table in place of the traitor Edmund, where Aslan dies and then, gloriously, is raised back to life. The story’s connections to the Gospels have been obvious to many (though not all) readers.

However, most of Lewis’ fantasy books aren’t based around Bible stories. In fact, many of Lewis’ works barely seem to mention scripture.

In his books of theology and apologetics, Lewis emphasized the importance of using both our logical capacities and our imaginative capacities to explore our faith. He defended traditional Christian beliefs against those who considered them outdated. And he meditated on the nature of God.

C.S. Lewis was a part of the Anglican church, which is a liturgical-style church where there is regular reading of the scriptures and quotes from the Bible within the service. In the Anglican church I attend, every Sunday there is a reading from the Old Testament, a Psalm is recited as a congregation, there’s a reading from the Epistles or Revelation, and there’s a reading from the Gospels (in addition to sometimes reciting parts of Isaiah or other Bible passages). Though his services may have looked slightly different, Lewis would have been very accustomed to hearing multiple portions of scripture in church.

But despite all of this, Lewis rarely mentioned the Bible in any of his writings. He wrote over twenty books, many of them nonfiction works aimed at Christian instruction, yet his only Bible study book was A Reflection on the Psalms.

In the C.S. Lewis Podcast, Lewis biographer Alister McGrath contemplates this.

“Lewis actually doesn’t look at the Bible all that much,” he notes. Instead, “he more looks along it, or he looks at people who have looked along it, and asks, what is this telling me about myself, the way the world is? Lewis I think is using the Bible, but not perhaps in the way you might expect.” (Note 1.)

Sometimes fantasy authors choose to retell Bible stories. Sometimes they choose to quote passages of scripture. And sometimes, the Bible’s influence on their writings is more subtle, existing as the behind-the-scenes source that helped the author pinpoint who God is and how He interacts with His world.

Since coming up with this now-discarded content, I’ve learned that C.S. Lewis might have had a more complex relationship with the Bible than I ever knew. That is one interesting aspect of research: discovering the depth and nuance in life, and how much you didn’t know! But for now, I’m busy reading xenofiction novels - so I may have to revisit Lewis’ understanding of the Bible some other time…

Note 1: The C.S. Lewis Podcast, “#52 Reflections on the Psalms” (posted May 2, 2022).

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Book Review: The Mythmakers

In the latter stages of my research for To Narnia and Beyond, I encountered frequent praise for The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Created by illustrator and writer John Hendrix, and released in 2024, the book meshes elements of graphic novel with illustrations-alongside-prose.

Eventually, I was convinced to buy the book and stepped into Hendrix’s immersive biography of Lewis and Tolkien. Following their lives from birth to death, The Mythmakers gives special attention to their friendship and years shared together. Imaginative narration from a lion and a wizard guides the reader in a fun and informative manner, giving playful context to bunny trails – “Portals” as the book calls them – about the nature of myth and the fantasy genre.

Beautiful, well-researched and poignant, the visuals of The Mythmakers give greater weight and context to the experiences of Lewis and Tolkien. I find it particularly useful for thinking about their time in World War I, where pictures can convey a heaviness that words struggle to speak of.

Whether you are researching Lewis and Tolkien or simply passionate about fantasy and history, I highly recommend this lovingly crafted book. The price tag is a little higher, as it comes in hardcover and full-colour: there is no paperback or black-ink-only edition to provide a cheaper entry point. However, the cost isn’t unreasonable, and I found it well worth the price.

If you’re interested in learning more about the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, you may enjoy my upcoming book, To Narnia and Beyond: Four Christians Who Used Fantasy to Teach Spiritual Truths. Click on the image below to learn more!

Is Art Subjective?

By Jason Koop

“Art is subjective”. 

That’s a line most of us have heard, in one form or another, in our lifetime.  Put that line into a Google search, and you will get many people’s (and AI’s) take on it. 

My thoughts on that line have run the gamut from “What does that even mean?” to “That’s your excuse for defending something that is just bad” to me using it to defend my own preferences.

For the sake of this post, I’m not coming at the line “art is subjective” from the perspective that there is no “good” or “bad” art, because “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. And I’m not saying I can convince you that some piece of art is “good” or “bad” because of how it grades on a specific formula.  I’m going to approach the line “Art is subjective” from the mindset that a piece of art can mean different things to different people at different times.

Basically, to appropriate Shrek’s greatest line:  Art is like onions.

What brought this on is two videos I saw on YouTube that discussed two franchises/series I have some definite thoughts about.  The first was The Dark Underlying Theme of IDW Sonic by Sonic Theory, and the other was The Chronicles of Narnia: The Black Sheep of 2000’s Fantasy by The Thrifty Typewriter.

In The Dark Underlying Theme of IDW Sonic, Sonic Theory argues that a major theme in the IDW Sonic comic books is free will. And I must say, having read the comics I didn’t make that connection, but then again, you’re talking about the guy who didn’t know Hamlet was contemplating suicide when he says “to be or not to be”, so… there’s that.  Sonic Theory has a point.  The theme of free will isn’t slammed in the audience’s face in a way that you cannot miss it, but now having had it pointed out, I can’t stop seeing it.  I honestly want to do a deep dive on that theme using all the characters (yes, I’m a Sonic nerd, where have you been?).

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Black Sheep of 2000’s Fantasy looks at the three theatrical movies that came out in 2005, 2008 and 2010 (The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) and how they fit into the fantasy saturation that really kicked off in the 2000s.  Comparing the films to the contemporaries of their time gives the review an interesting angle.  While I don’t really agree with The Thrifty Typewriter’s takes, frankly it has more to do with the fact that I have at least a basic grasp of the spiritual tones of the stories and he doesn’t.  His perspective is drawn from taking into account the media landscape the movies were being released into.

These two seemingly unrelated things do in fact share a common thread I’d like to tug on.  They showcase how an underrated determiner of what the audience’s takeaway(s) of a story/character is the individual’s perspective.  My main takeaways from the Sonic the Hedgehog IDW comics are the themes of friendship and teamwork.  I tend to see The Chronicles of Narnia movies by comparing them to the books and the Christian themes that C.S. Lewis tried to get across. But these YouTube reviewers saw different things, probably based on their own perspectives and life experiences.

“Art is subjective”.  I used to balk at the very idea of it.  If you had a differing take on a book/movie/video game, well then you were just wrong.  And if you were to imply that there were multiple different themes that could be taken from said media, depending on how you approached it, well that was just plain silly.  The themes are the themes, and they are plainly universal, regardless of your perspective.

But now… I wonder if the themes one takes away from a piece of art are indeed subjective, because of our human flaws and brokenness.  Perhaps we are incapable of perfectly getting across themes and stories, which then leaves cracks where the audience can fill in with their own personal life experience and theology.

And by God’s grace, He makes it so that imperfect stories told by imperfect humans can have a richness of meaning.  Maybe even beyond what the creator intended.