planet narnia - lecture

In 2003 Michael Ward made a discovery. Many critics believe he has finally unlocked the secret meaning of C.S. Lewis’s famous Narnia stories. This became a book, Planet Narnia, which was profiled in a BBC 1 documentary at Easter 2009, called ‘The Narnia Code’. I blogged about the programme here.

The St Paul's Theological Centre Annual Lecture: Of interest to all who have read the Narnia books or watched the films, Dr Ward explains his discovery in a fascinating lecture he has given all over the world, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Dr Michael Ward is Chaplain of St Peter’s College Oxford, and one of the world’s leading experts on C.S. Lewis.

Venue: Holy Trinity Brompton
Time: 7.00 pm, Monday November 16 2009

Trivia: Did you know that Dr Ward's other claim to fame is that he handed a pair of X-ray spectacles to James Bond in the movie The World Is Not Enough.

Update: There is an excellent review of Planet Narnia by Bishop Tom Wright in the TLS here.

the narnia code

I finally managed to watch The Narnia Code which has been sitting on my digibox hard drive since it was broadcast by the BBC in April. The Narnia Code is a fascinating story of the quest to discover a hidden layer of meaning behind C. S. Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles. I found the argument presented very convincing and there is a wonderful elegance to Michael Ward’s thesis that each of the Narnia books corresponds to one of the seven planets in medieval cosmology.

The documentary not only explores the thesis presented in Ward’s book Planet Narnia, but gives a short and insightful biography of Lewis. One of the most interesting aspects of the documentary was the reminder of the breadth and depth of Lewis’ interests and knowledge, as well as his extraordinary intellect. I was left with the conviction that our lives are impoverished by an ignorance of the wide range of sources which informed Lewis’ writings including the Bible and the Classics.

I agree with my friend and colleague Graham Tomlin that this was very good TV and there was something very important identified in the reminder that the why of cosmology is as important as the how.

spotting the enemy

I first read The Gravedigger File by Os Guinness when it came out in the mid 1980s. The book is not unlike C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters and explores the decline of the Church’s influence in the West. What really struck me were the cartoons which introduced each chapter; they seemed to encapsulate the issues addressed by Guinness and the one above is my favourite. It came to mind as I read +Nick Baines’ recent blog Borrowing from the Neighbours in which he comments on syncretism and the church. Nick observes the way in which some Christians and churches are very good at identifying the syncretistic compromises of others, while being completely ignorant of their own syncretistic tendencies.

In the midst of the upheaval created by the recent economic tsunami, the collapse of politics and the unremitting cynicism of the media, it does seem important for us as Christians to take time to reflect on the influences which shape our relationship with society and the responses we make to the issues of the day.