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Though the Chronicles do function as testaments to Christian truths, Lewis did not set out to write a book that would do so. He began with images (a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen in a sledge, a noble lion) that he wanted to embody, then found a genre (the children's story) that would enable him do so, then (and only then) considered how those images and that genre could be used as a vehicle for "smuggling" Christian principles into a post-Christian age.

The Chronicles incorporate stories and figures from a number of different traditions (both Christian and pagan); rather than attempt to synthesize these traditions in a systematic way, Lewis forges a deeper link that plays on the almost unconscious reactions we have to mythic archetypes. The result is to render the spirit of Christ an integral part not only of our theological and philosophical beliefs but of our individual and cultural dreams.

Aslan is a type of Christ not only because he does and says many of the things that Christ said and did but because he inspires in us the same kind of numinous awe that Christ does. When we read of how Aslan was sacrificed on the Stone Table, we receive more than a theological primer of the Crucifixion; we actually experience, viscerally, the pain and sorrow of Calvary. In his apologetics, Lewis uses words to defend Christian doctrines; in his fiction the Word becomes flesh. In Aslan, Christ is made tangible, knowable, real.

Louis A. Markos is an associate professor of English at Houston Baptist University. The Teaching Company (www.teach12.com) released his audio and video course, The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis, in 2000.

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Christian History, another Christianity Today sister publication, profiled Lewis for its issue on "The 10 Most Influential Christians of the Twentieth Century."

On the one-hundredth anniversary of Lewis's birth, Christianity Today ran an article by J.I. Packer titled "Still Surprised by Lewis | Why this nonevangelical Oxford don has become our patron saint" (Sept. 7, 1998)

Last year, Virginia Stem Owens wrote an article on the magazine about taking a C.S. Lewis-oriented pilgrimage.

See also our earlier story, "Jack Is Back | The search for the historical Lewis" (Feb. 3, 1997) as well as articles on what C.S. Lewis wrote about Botticelli, Christmas, and other topics.

If it's Lewis you're interested in, Into the Wardrobe should fill your every desire.

The Discovery Institute's C.S. Lewis and Public Life site is another wonderful resource of papers about and by Lewis.

Beliefnet also has a series of Lewis-centric articles, including a C.S. Lewis essay contest.

Still hungry for more? You'll probably never have the time to read everything linked at the C.S. Lewis Mega-Links page.

Houston Baptist University has a biographical sketch of Markos.

Markos's Life and Writings of C.S. Lewis can be ordered in audio or video at The Teaching Company.

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April 23 2001, Vol. 45, No. 6