But where is it referenced in CoN that the 'lesser deities of Narnia' and 'the rival pantheon of Calormene' have any power other than what Aslan allows? I truly would like to know, I've never noticed it but I haven't ever looked for it before.
I don't think it's ever said that they have any power other than what Aslan allows them. On the other hand, it's never said that they don't have independent power, nor that Aslan has absolute power over them. It's true that Bacchus, Silenus, and the river god defer to Aslan, but that can be seen as respect for a more powerful deity just as easily as it can been seen as respect for someone who grants them their power. In the absence of hard evidence, both interpretations are valid.
I think my problem with understanding your relation of Aslan as a pagan deity stems from long years studying Greek, Roman, and Norse myths, combined with my understanding of them being 'real' in the sense that there were spiritual entities that took those 'forms' and were worshiped by many .... I saw the Zeus/father-god figure in Narnia as more along the lines of Tash: the most powerful god in the pantheon, but not all-powerful. After all, Zeus was subject to fate (hence he couldn't save his son Sarpedon), while the majority of the Norse pantheon actually die (and stay dead) .... Aslan just never fit my image of the pagan gods I've studied since I was a little kid.
Interesting! The idea of a deterministic plan for the universe is totally alien to my understanding of the world, so it never occurred to me as an issue. In any case, if there is such a thing as fate, I can't think of any action Aslan takes that breaks any such foretold events. In fact, the only foretellings I recall are the prophecy about four thrones at Cair Paravel and the defeat of the White Witch (fulfilled), the auspicious meeting of stars in PC (justified), and the inauspicious stars in TLB (also justified).
Also, my reading of LWW is that if Jadis had managed to kill Aslan in some other fashion, he would have stayed dead; he was only resurrected because his sacrifice met the terms of the Deeper Magic. So despite his power, I never saw Aslan as inherently indestructible. In fact, I figured that if he hadn't been resurrected, while he might have still been alive in other worlds (as Caspian was able to be alive in England for five minutes though he was dead in Narnia) he would have been either barred from Narnia altogether or reduced to a ghost. If you work from the assumption that Aslan is Christ, a lack of a physical body might not have reduced his power, but if you don't start from that assumption, you're left with a dead god, just like what happens to the Norse pantheon at Ragnarok.
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Aslan's deference to the Emperor still fits with Christianity. The Trinity is a complicated thing to go into, but I'll try as best I can. In the Trinity, Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are one and the same, and yet three and separate. In the Bible, Christ defers to God's command: he doesn't want to be crucified, but he says "Your will be done". It's part of what makes him fully human as well as fully God. I can't really explain it better: of course, Christian theologians have been arguing about specifics for donkey's years, so I can hardly do it justice. I will say that I thought the triple succession of "Myselfs" in HHB when Shasta is alone with Aslan points to a Trinitarian idea, though.
So far as I can tell -- and I admit my knowledge on this subject is shallow -- every way to rationalize the essential nonsensicality of the Trinity has been declared a heresy; the only correct way to see it is to say that yes, it makes no sense, but it's beyond our comprehension and we must take it on faith. This, I confess, I flat-out can't do. From a Christian perspective, that's a failure on my part. From my perspective, that just means I have a different approach to religion. *shrug* You are probably right that Lewis meant the three 'Myselfs' as a nod to the Trinity. That had never occurred to me; I simply thought Aslan was expressing different parts of his personality, which is not a totally dissimilar idea, but which does not require one to see him as three separate people.
on theology, ethics, and authorial intent, part 2
I don't think it's ever said that they have any power other than what Aslan allows them. On the other hand, it's never said that they don't have independent power, nor that Aslan has absolute power over them. It's true that Bacchus, Silenus, and the river god defer to Aslan, but that can be seen as respect for a more powerful deity just as easily as it can been seen as respect for someone who grants them their power. In the absence of hard evidence, both interpretations are valid.
I think my problem with understanding your relation of Aslan as a pagan deity stems from long years studying Greek, Roman, and Norse myths, combined with my understanding of them being 'real' in the sense that there were spiritual entities that took those 'forms' and were worshiped by many .... I saw the Zeus/father-god figure in Narnia as more along the lines of Tash: the most powerful god in the pantheon, but not all-powerful. After all, Zeus was subject to fate (hence he couldn't save his son Sarpedon), while the majority of the Norse pantheon actually die (and stay dead) .... Aslan just never fit my image of the pagan gods I've studied since I was a little kid.
Interesting! The idea of a deterministic plan for the universe is totally alien to my understanding of the world, so it never occurred to me as an issue. In any case, if there is such a thing as fate, I can't think of any action Aslan takes that breaks any such foretold events. In fact, the only foretellings I recall are the prophecy about four thrones at Cair Paravel and the defeat of the White Witch (fulfilled), the auspicious meeting of stars in PC (justified), and the inauspicious stars in TLB (also justified).
Also, my reading of LWW is that if Jadis had managed to kill Aslan in some other fashion, he would have stayed dead; he was only resurrected because his sacrifice met the terms of the Deeper Magic. So despite his power, I never saw Aslan as inherently indestructible. In fact, I figured that if he hadn't been resurrected, while he might have still been alive in other worlds (as Caspian was able to be alive in England for five minutes though he was dead in Narnia) he would have been either barred from Narnia altogether or reduced to a ghost. If you work from the assumption that Aslan is Christ, a lack of a physical body might not have reduced his power, but if you don't start from that assumption, you're left with a dead god, just like what happens to the Norse pantheon at Ragnarok.
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Aslan's deference to the Emperor still fits with Christianity. The Trinity is a complicated thing to go into, but I'll try as best I can. In the Trinity, Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are one and the same, and yet three and separate. In the Bible, Christ defers to God's command: he doesn't want to be crucified, but he says "Your will be done". It's part of what makes him fully human as well as fully God. I can't really explain it better: of course, Christian theologians have been arguing about specifics for donkey's years, so I can hardly do it justice. I will say that I thought the triple succession of "Myselfs" in HHB when Shasta is alone with Aslan points to a Trinitarian idea, though.
So far as I can tell -- and I admit my knowledge on this subject is shallow -- every way to rationalize the essential nonsensicality of the Trinity has been declared a heresy; the only correct way to see it is to say that yes, it makes no sense, but it's beyond our comprehension and we must take it on faith. This, I confess, I flat-out can't do. From a Christian perspective, that's a failure on my part. From my perspective, that just means I have a different approach to religion. *shrug* You are probably right that Lewis meant the three 'Myselfs' as a nod to the Trinity. That had never occurred to me; I simply thought Aslan was expressing different parts of his personality, which is not a totally dissimilar idea, but which does not require one to see him as three separate people.