From a netfriend:

I¹m looking forward to seeing the Narnia movie, but I¹m wary of the Christian marketing etc.

I¹d also personally be very cautious about using the Bible Society materials as I think they run the risk of promoting a form of God that I find not only potentially inconsistent with the God of Jesus but also developmentally inappropriate for the age of the children who are likely to be seeing the movie. We¹ll be doing things with the movie here, and encouraging people to see it, but not use the Bible Society materials.

And, as a matter of interest, reading (or seeing) Narnia as a telling of the Christian story is a bit of a moot point. See below the quote from CS Lewis¹s stepson

But I wont be engaging in any bah humbugging of the times 🙂

~~~

C S Lewis’s stepson spoke about the ‘meaning’ of the narnia stories:

Paradoxically, Gresham has not joined the Christian bandwagon gearing up around the film. Won’t it at least impart a subliminal Christian message to young audiences, I ask?

“I sincerely hope not,” he snorts. “Because – and this is what people always get wrong – it’s not a Christian film and the Narnia books aren’t Christian novels.”

This will come as news to the thousands of churches that are endorsing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because of its Christian message – and to the Disney organisation, which, to the fury of liberal commentators, has appointed a Christian “outreach” organisation to promote the movie to British congregations when it opened in the UK last week.

“Jack didn’t intend the Narnia books to be an evangelistic fantasy,” explains Gresham.

“The myths of Narnia are partly those of the great man-made religions – Norse mythology, Hindu mythology, as well as the true myth of Christ. Exposure to man’s myths will make young viewers ask questions about themselves – and only later will the seed of faith take root.”

This is a man who knows that he speaks with a special authority.

He was responsible for ensuring that the script stayed faithful to his stepfather’s vision – “and that meant resisting the temptation to insert my own Christianity into it”.

December 2005