Tied to a stone table that breaks in half when he comes back(or dies). Apparently, there was an earthquake exactly when Jesus died(though this might just be a catholic thing).
Actually, Tolkien’s stuff (The smillirion in particular) has a bit of disguised christian stuff in it. Gandalf is supposed to be akin to an angel, sent to guide mankind. Tolkien was a stauch catholic IIRC.
yikes.
It might just be me, and it has been a long time since I’ve read Narnia, but the metaphor & the level of metaphor works in Narnia. I think. And either enhancing or detracting from it is a scary, scary prospect.
Of course, I didn’t miss the “overwhelming Christian imagery.” I don’t really see how that could happen - it isn’t hidden or anything. IIRC, Aslan, the son of the Emporer Beyond the Sea (who has power over everything) allows himself to be sacrificed and then comes back to life to conquer the evil and make it go away.
The stone breaking in half I thought was supposed to represent the graves breaking open (Matthew 27:51-53 ) and/or the veil ripping (Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45). Also I think something was written on the tablet - (I don’t have them around, I failed to buy them before the renumbering, and I just can’t bring myself to buy the renumbered versions) either the law of the land, or something else similarly symbolic - and the tablet breaking is to show that whatever it was was superceded.
Count me in as another kid who never saw the Christian imagery in the Narnia books until it was pointed out to me as an adult. I missed it, even though my first introduction to the books was through my teacher in my fourth grade class - a Catholic school, no less!
I’m at once excited and scared of a Narnia movie. I’d love, love, love for there to be a good one. Unlike Harry Potter (I thought the books were crap) and LOTR (I never could make it through those books), I have read Narnia at least once a year since 4th grade, and it would be hard to overlook mistakes or changes that the filmmakers make.
'course, anything would be better than that British version, with Lucy played by that little girl who was all cheeks. She was so far from my mental version of Lucy that I just couldn’t bear to watch it.
They’d have to add a romantic aspect! Can’t you see it now? Edmund and Lucy, together!
ducks and runs 
The Stone table represented the old law. The table split when Aslan was resurected. When Christ died, the curtain to the holy of holys was torn in two. this represented an end the the separation of man and God.
My point is the Christain message is clear, but mostly to those who are already familier with it. That’s why I say again how this is such a good book to read to children and talk about it.
I am wondering what they’re going to do about the Calormenes, if any.
I didn’t get any of the Christian imagery the first (or even second) time I read the books. At one point Aslan says something like, “You know me in your world, but by a different name.” Now I know the other name is “Jesus”, but at the time I thought maybe he was really the childrens’ uncle. In retrospect, the imagery was very obvious. I wasn’t really introduced to religion as a child, however.
I don’t remember the title of the specific book - it featured the monkey and the donkey named Puzzle wearing a fake lion skin - but there was the line “Whatever good you do in the name of Tash, you do for Aslan; whatever evil you do in the name of Aslan, you do for Tash.” If that isn’t straight out of the Bible (and I speak as one who hasn’t touched it for decades), I don’t know what is. And maybe I’m just a freak, but when our teacher read LW&W to us in fourth grade, the similarities between Aslan’s sacrifice and the Resurrection were immediately obvious to me.
As for a Narnia movie - sure, bring it on. It would be interesting to watch, escpecially with the present state of SFX. As long as they don’t put a dwarf in a “mouse” suit and pretend that’s supposed to be Reepicheep, I’m all set. (It was a TV adaptation of Voyage of the Dawn Treader and it was horrible.)
Speaking of the series, has anyone else noticed that the numbering of the volumes has changed? I could have sworn LW&W was number 1 in the series when I was a kid; now it’s something like 2 or 3.
Olentzero: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe was the first written, but the books’ internal chronology clearly placed the sequence of events as: The Magician’s Nephew, The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, A Horse and his Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the Silver Chair, and The Last Battle.
I would like to see some of the Narnia books made into movies or a mini-series, but not The Silver Chair or A Horse and his Boy.
And technically A Horse and his Boy occurs between the second to last chapter of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the final chapter of it. But that’s getting really fiddly.
I just got all Seven books for Christmas! The hefty stack is something that I read about 2 decades ago, and I didn’t really catch any Christian symbolism then-- although I was not familiar with the overarching Jesus mythos at the time.
But as for making a film series-- never doubt the power of marketing.
CS Lewis was christian the book is mostly symbolic.
Alsan = Jesus or God
and in the last book he comes and rescues narnia from slavery and crap.
I’ve seen the movies they made in the 80’s or late 70’s and they sucked, baaad, even with special effects I dont see how they could be interesting.
Even the Dankey pretending to be Aslan i the last book is out of Revalation in the Bible where the antichrist comes along.
I remember the British TV special. The little girl who played Lucy had such and overbite that I thought she was Mrs. Beaver.