THE REAL JESUS IS EVEN MORE CAPTIVATING

Once in a while a writer comes along to push back the limitations of our understanding of God, to lure us to think outside the margins, not to teach us theology as much as to shatter the restraints that confine our thoughts. C.S. Lewis wrote remarkably outlandish stories about God’s creatures and creation. I remember his Space trilogy of books, beginning with Out of the Silent Planet (1938), then Perelandra (1943), and finally That Hideous Strength (1945). We have the entire Narnia book series on our bookshelf at home, and last Sunday evening Christine and I enjoyed the movie version of ‘The Voyage of the Dawntreader’ and we could once again hear the gentle wisdom of Aslan the Lion, a magical, mysterious authority, guide to the human hero children, guardian and saviour of Narnia and in C. S. Lewis’ own description, an alternative version of Christ as a form in which he might have appeared in a fantasy world. It was fiction. Most conscientious Christians did not mistake it a heresy and these stories have now become box office cinematic successes. The real Jesus is even more captivating.