This first appeared under the title “The Relationship of Fiction and Evangelization” in Inland Catholic Magazine.
On February 2, 1948, C.S. Lewis entered the room where the Oxford Socratic Club met. The club had been founded by chaplain at Oxford, Stella Aldwinckle, in 1942. The idea was a simple one. Scholars were invited to come and debate ideas related to religion, Christianity in particular. The debates were sometimes more formal debates with two thinkers presenting and responding to opposing positions. Sometimes the guest speaker would give a paper which would be followed by questions. On the night of February 2, 1948, the two thinkers were C.S. Lewis and Catholic philosopher G.E.M. (Elizabeth) Anscombe. They were debating some particular wording in Lewis’s book Miracles. By all accounts, Lewis lost the debate. He never wrote another apologetic work.
Or so some, like British journalist A.N. Wilson, would have us believe. Wilson’s take on the debate is that Lewis was so defeated he retreated into a child-like state and so gave us the Chronicles of Narnia. This is, of course, untrue. While Lewis certainly wrote no more books like Miracles (Mere Christianity being published in 1952 but being based on radio talks he had given from 1941-1944), it was not shame or anything like it that led Lewis to writing children’s fiction. In 1956 Lewis wrote an essay for the New York Times entitled, “Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said.” The essay’s main emphasis is that Lewis did not set out to write about Christianity for children when he wrote Narnia. Instead, Lewis tells his readers that everything began with images, “a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion.” He goes on to add, “At first there wasn’t even anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself of its own accord.” More explicitly, Lewis tells us, “I wrote fairy tales because the Fairy Tale seemed the ideal Form for the stuff I had to say.”
Lewis was not retreating from a supposed horrible debate with Anscombe. In fact, the chapter and wording she objected to in Miracles were revised and the work was republished with those changes made. Instead, what is far more likely is that Lewis began to have new ideas and realized that those ideas, which mapped onto these pictures he first had, were best able to be communicated not through a reasoned debate, but through the imagination. The effect has been fairly clear. Many people credit Lewis with introducing them to Christ through the name he bore in Narnia. This is the approach to evangelization which I think will best serve us today.
Oh don’t get me wrong. I am a teacher. I want my students to be able to reason well, to argue for their positions logically. But if what we want to see is a conversion of hearts and minds, then literature, film, and song might be some of the ways we can do this best. But let me give some examples to show you both people who are, I think, doing this intentionally as well as some places we might find these ideas presenting themselves “accidentally.”
In the early 2000s two films came out which I think have behind them Christian messages which have and will (or at least could) help with this kind of conversion. Two films from the 2000s provide excellent examples. The first is 2008’s Horton Hears a Who featuring Jim Carey and Steve Carrell. The movie is, of course, based on the 1954 Dr. Seuss book of the same title. Both book and film carry the same message, repeated often: “A person’s a person no matter how small.” A person is a person, there is a weight to this that cannot be ignored. It overcomes racism, sexism, ageism, classism. A person is a person, their personhood cannot be taken from them. No matter how small, whether an infant developing in the womb or grown bowed with age, they remain a person.
The second early 2000s film is Marvel’s Thor. The film has everything you would expect from a superhero movie. Beautiful and buff people (Volstagg’s Chestertonian physique a wonderful addition) running around fighting monsters and each other. What perhaps is not expected is how the Kenneth Branagh directed film presents us with a meditation on Philippians 2, specifically verse 6-11:
“Who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
While Thor is certainly not Jesus, he goes through a similar transformation, though he begins his unwillingly. His father does not consider him his equal and so casts him out of Asgard, for divinity is not something to be grasped at. He finds himself human and is humbled when he learns he cannot reclaim his power. Instead he learns to serve, going so far as to cook breakfast for his newfound friends. Then he gives himself up to death as a ransom for many. And this act makes him worthy and he is raised up and wins the day. I do not know if Branagh intended this or not, but it’s there and it serves as a wonderful example of who Christ is and who we are meant to be.
I could point to many similar examples: the secular success of Christian musical group The Oh Hellos, the commercial success of Andrew Peterson’s book series (now made into a television show) The Wingfeather Saga, or the success of shows like The Chosen. And of course, there are plenty of people still creating this art today and many others who remain enamored with the works of writers like Lewis, Tolkien, Sayers, and others. Our job then, is to find where these opportunities give us openings in the relationships we have with those who don’t yet know Christ. Perhaps instead of getting into another debate with that cousin or uncle every Thanksgiving or debating with that old high school friend on Facebook, we turn our attention to creating and promoting the works of art that will do the subtle work of evangelization. Then, if we combine that with living out our own faiths we will find opportunities making themselves known to us and we can step up and help those we love to see the light that’s already shining all around them. After all, the Kingdom of God is already among us, we just need the eyes to see it and the strength to help others see it for themselves. Then they too will want to travel “further up and further in.”
Don’t worry, I’m still planning on finishing my series on the planets, but right now my novel is taking priority.