Thank you for taking the time to reply -- this continues to be a fascinating conversation! Alas, I did not get enough sleep last night and don't trust myself to be clear (particularly since I seem to have been unclear yesterday despite my best efforts), so I am going to make a placeholder response now and a more thorough one tomorrow.
First, I'm not saying that I cannot currently see the parallels Lewis presumably meant to draw between Aslan and Jesus. I am saying that it is not necessary to see them in order for Narnia to work as a story, nor is it necessary to see those parallels in order for Narnia to impart ethical lessons. I am also saying that it is perfectly possible to miss the links Lewis inserts and to enjoy the books as pure fantasy or even as an exploration of a fictional pagan religion... and, in fact, I consider that to be a greater artistic achievement than if it were not possible to miss them, and if the books could not be read intelligibly without holding the Aslan=Jesus idea in one's mind. As I see it, a truly great work of literature works on multiple levels and has many possible interpretations, and I consider it a great strength of Narnia (and a significant factor in its popularity and survival) that it can be read in ways that Lewis did not intend and might even have been horrified by.
I am also not attempting to make claims about what the majority of Christians believe when I talk about how I first read the books, and I apologize if my words came off that way. Anything I say there refers to my understanding of Christianity as a child and a pre-teen, which was, naturally, an outsider's half-informed perspective. (I don't claim to be vastly better informed even now, though I have, at least, read more, and so am more aware of my ignorance. *grin*)
I have failed to clearly communicate my point about my assumption that Aslan's equivalent in our world was a pagan god. I am not saying that there is such a god. What I meant is that, because I was reading the books with the assumption that Aslan was a god along the lines of ancient Greek gods (though with ethics more agreeable to modern Western civilization), I naturally jumped to the assumption that his identity in our world would be a pagan god in an ancient pantheon... but I never assumed that this hypothetical god really existed, because I considered Aslan entirely fictional, and I considered the Pevensies' England fictional as well (by virtue of its presence in a fantasy novel and its magical links to other worlds). So it doesn't matter that there most likely is not any such god who parallels Aslan more closely than Jesus, because the existence or non-existence of such a god is beside the point.
Also, please remember that I am not Christian and I was considering Aslan as a pagan deity rather than the singular Christian deity. Therefore, when I assumed that the Calormene gods were real, I assumed that, being gods, they were exactly the same type of being as Aslan and that he was simply stronger -- not that he was a 'true' god and they were somehow a different type of being. (Rather than God and a fallen angel, think of, say, Zeus and Proteus -- Zeus is much stronger and has greater authority, but they are both gods.) Therefore, their existence would subvert the exact Christian parallels, because it would preclude Aslan having Christ's (in Christian theology) status as a uniquely holy being.
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Re: REALLY long comment, part 1
Date: 2009-05-08 03:00 am (UTC)First, I'm not saying that I cannot currently see the parallels Lewis presumably meant to draw between Aslan and Jesus. I am saying that it is not necessary to see them in order for Narnia to work as a story, nor is it necessary to see those parallels in order for Narnia to impart ethical lessons. I am also saying that it is perfectly possible to miss the links Lewis inserts and to enjoy the books as pure fantasy or even as an exploration of a fictional pagan religion... and, in fact, I consider that to be a greater artistic achievement than if it were not possible to miss them, and if the books could not be read intelligibly without holding the Aslan=Jesus idea in one's mind. As I see it, a truly great work of literature works on multiple levels and has many possible interpretations, and I consider it a great strength of Narnia (and a significant factor in its popularity and survival) that it can be read in ways that Lewis did not intend and might even have been horrified by.
I am also not attempting to make claims about what the majority of Christians believe when I talk about how I first read the books, and I apologize if my words came off that way. Anything I say there refers to my understanding of Christianity as a child and a pre-teen, which was, naturally, an outsider's half-informed perspective. (I don't claim to be vastly better informed even now, though I have, at least, read more, and so am more aware of my ignorance. *grin*)
I have failed to clearly communicate my point about my assumption that Aslan's equivalent in our world was a pagan god. I am not saying that there is such a god. What I meant is that, because I was reading the books with the assumption that Aslan was a god along the lines of ancient Greek gods (though with ethics more agreeable to modern Western civilization), I naturally jumped to the assumption that his identity in our world would be a pagan god in an ancient pantheon... but I never assumed that this hypothetical god really existed, because I considered Aslan entirely fictional, and I considered the Pevensies' England fictional as well (by virtue of its presence in a fantasy novel and its magical links to other worlds). So it doesn't matter that there most likely is not any such god who parallels Aslan more closely than Jesus, because the existence or non-existence of such a god is beside the point.
Also, please remember that I am not Christian and I was considering Aslan as a pagan deity rather than the singular Christian deity. Therefore, when I assumed that the Calormene gods were real, I assumed that, being gods, they were exactly the same type of being as Aslan and that he was simply stronger -- not that he was a 'true' god and they were somehow a different type of being. (Rather than God and a fallen angel, think of, say, Zeus and Proteus -- Zeus is much stronger and has greater authority, but they are both gods.) Therefore, their existence would subvert the exact Christian parallels, because it would preclude Aslan having Christ's (in Christian theology) status as a uniquely holy being.
More tomorrow!