Marginal Christianity

This is another topical post rather than from one of the remaining Chronicles . Another recurring criticism of the stories is that they are too violent for children. There is plenty of fighting and war in them. If your standard is that any violence is too much, that children should not be exposed to such material, then, yes, Lewis’ stories are too violent for children. But is this reasonable or even possible in our world? Taking possibility first, I doubt anyone would think that a child raised in the West today can be shielded from violence. It hardly seems possible even if one deems it desirable. This seems to me self-evident. For good or ill violence sells and whatever sells hits the media. And what’s in the media gets into our homes, heads, and hearts. No matter how vigilant we as parents may be. Even if we could block our children from every hint of violence, is this a good thing? I don’t think so. Unrestricted abundance of violence is surely bad. And not just for chil...

http://www.faith-theology.com/2011/04/on-violence-and-childrens-stories.html by Ben Myers My children love adventure stories, and in their games together they often recreate scenes from their favourite stories. In the comfort of the living room, in the darkness of the bedroom, or in the eerie twilight of the backyard, they have been Peter Pan and a lawless crew of pirates, Bilbo Baggins and a ferocious dragon, Aslan and the white witch, a scarecrow and a tin man and a cowardly lion; they have slain giants and battled dwarves and roamed beneath the earth and peered down on tiny cities from a soaring carpet. There are people – mostly people with PhDs who have never met a real child – who say the old fairytales and adventures are too violent. For my part, I tend to avoid contemporary children’s writing because it is, for the most part, not violent enough. Only an expert could think that what children really need is stories about tolerance, multiculturalism, sensitivity to difference,...

Prince Caspian: Faith’s Vision Grows           It is Lucy, the youngest of the four Pevensie children called into Narnia, who is Lewis’ model for faith in the first two stories of the series.   In Prince Caspian a beautiful scene makes this clear.   The children and the dwarf Trumpkin are making their way to the embattled Prince Caspian.   One morning they faced the choice of which way to go.   One way seems preferable to the other, save that Lucy catches a glimpse of Aslan, the great Lion, who takes off down the less preferable path.   He obviously intends the group to follow him.   The others, however, not having seen the Lion themselves, vote down Lucy.   She acquiesces and follows them on the seemingly more preferable path.           This turns into a disaster.   The group is ambushed and ends up having to retrace their steps.   They end up ba...