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Narnia for Churches



I found out from my mother yesterday that the new Chronicles of Narnia movie(s) have a dedicated branch of their PR department which is aimed squarely at churches and religious educators. They offer a variety of resources and educational materials based on the film.

This seems like a very intelligent strategy to me. In case you don’t know, the Narnia books were written by C.S. Lewis who was a very noteworthy Christian apologist (Catholic, I believe) and writer for his time. The Narnia books function as a sort of parable for the Gospels. But I think it’s nice because it doesn’t let evangelization get in the way of telling a decent fantasy story. You could also potentially read the books without even being aware of that subtext.

Anyway, I’m curious about how many other media events are clever enough to pull in the church market. With the rise in cultural importance over the past 5 or so years of faith-based organizations, it seems like too big of a target not to aim for - especially when your content is already religious. The only other movie I can think of in recent history to use a similar tactic of going to church groups for support is the ant-Walmart documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. Oh, this article also says that Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ used this same tactic. I wonder if this trend is going to grow and continue.

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7 Reader Responses

  1. james Says:
    November 17th, 2005 at 5:30 pm

    C.S. Lewis’ theologically themed books are actually pretty good reading, both fiction and non-fiction. I never got into the Narnia series but The Screwtape Letters is one of the finest works of fantasy literature by any author, ever. It is written as a correspondence of letters from an elder demon (Screwtape) to his protege. There is a lot of humor and satire in it.

    No one faults Milton or Dante for their forays into fantastic religious literature, but Lewis gets slammed for it, while Tolkien (who pillages myth and religion as well as history and language) remains relatively unharmed.

  2. Haeresis Says:
    November 17th, 2005 at 6:34 pm

    I was all set to go see that film until it got promoted by Dobson..now I’m thinking I’ll wait until video, just to avoid the ‘ick’ facor.

    On a totally unrelated note, did you get my response to your email the other day?

  3. Tim Boucher Says:
    November 17th, 2005 at 7:23 pm

    Yeah I did. I’ve been too busy watching twin peaks to do much of any writing. plus ive been mulling it over in my head. anyway ill get back to you shortly.

    who’s dobson and why does this persons endorsement ruin it?

  4. slomo Says:
    November 18th, 2005 at 10:23 am

    Slight correction: C.S. Lewis was Anglican. Lots of other interesting essays besides Narnia, Screwtape (e.g. Great Divorce is worth a read). I don’t agree with everything he writes, and I’m not really that much of a Christian, but his viewpoint is informed and intelligent.

  5. Haeresis Says:
    November 18th, 2005 at 7:04 pm

    I dunno if I could accept that, slomo- “Liar, Lord, or Lunatic” was a particularly putrid exercise of logic, for example.

    Tim, James Dobsoin is the Head of “Focus on the Family.” Their mailing list is trumpeting the movie like it’s the second coming.

  6. Error 404 Says:
    November 18th, 2005 at 7:17 pm

    One of the things the Narnia books get slammed for is that there is a character who ends up being left behind, and wearing makeup is mentioned in the explanation as to why she isn’t along on this rather significant (to avoid a major spoiler) trip. The accusation is that she’s being punished for wearing makeup. But if you read the passage, the problem isn’t the makeup, it’s that she has decided Narnia isn’t real and makeup (among other things) is what she’s into now. She’s not even really being punished, just not included in what she isn’t interested in and therefore missing out. Anglicans are not Fundimentalists (ecept for my cousin, but she’s a freak) and that faith doesn’t have anything against women wearing makeup.

  7. Tim Boucher Says:
    November 18th, 2005 at 7:18 pm

    Haeresis: Oh okay, yeah I know who that is. Hmm, that’s interesting. I’ll look more into it when I have a chance.



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