What is Real - Lessons from Narnia

Why does it seem so difficult to accept all we are told about our Orthodox faith? The difficulty lies in our understanding of the nature of reality. What is real? To embrace the realm of the divine we need clarity on this question. Is God a thing? Or, is God something formed in each persons mind? Is heaven a part of imagination? For Christians none of these are appropriate. God is not part of things of this world. He is other. God is not subjective based on a personal view, He is absolute. He is as Scripture says, the foundation of reality, the Creator of what we commonly think of reality. Heaven is real, not imaginary. Reality is much larger than what we normally experience. 

Living and being brought up in this world we have developed an idea about what is real versus what is imaginary. We know our home and our feelings are real and that fairytales are not real. These fixed notions about what is real lead to thinking that blocks our ability to see the larger reality. We remain stuck trying to understand God based on the physical, psychological and philosophical realties grounded in this world. God is in another world so to speak, beyond what we see as the world. But His is as real as everything of this world. He is the Creator of all things. His kingdom includes our world but also the heavenly realm. 

 

C. S. Lewis a twentieth century writer and Christian apologist has penned many stories in an attempt to help us see this bigger reality. He is the author on the well known Narnia Chronicles. This is a fictional story about children who mystically enter into another world. In the second book of the Narnia Chronicles, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy, the youngest, had an experience of entering into Narnia, another world. She had many encounters that could not be easily explained by our worldly thinking (She is analogous to the enlightened saints like Saint Paul who were taken up to heaven or the Apostles who bore witness to the life of Christ). When she returned from Narnia, the others would not believe her story which included such unknown things like witches and talking animals. To them it sounded like pure fantasy, make believe. They thought she was making this up, lying or had simply gone mad.

Think of her experience as analogous to a Gospel writer who has seen Christ, witnessed His miracles, his death and resurrection. They were told that He was both man and God, born of a virgin whom they also knew. How were others going to understand what they witnessed?  Can you see the underlying point C S Lewis is making in his story about Narnia? The Apostles, like Lucy, had an experience of a reality greater than one’s normal view and they were called to share it with the whole world. How would others accept it?

Lewis helps us see a way to overcome the issue the children were having with Lucy’s tale that is applicable for those who have a similar issue with the story recorded by the Apostles. Like the Apostles, Lucy’s story did not fit the experience of the other three children and she was seen to be either mad or lying. Respecting Lucy, but not believing her, they took their situation to an old professor for guidance (He may be seen like a spiritual father in our Orthodox life.). The professor engages with them about Lucy’s story. Being detached and using logic he points out that Lucy must be either lying, mad, or telling the truth. They all agree that she is not a lier by nature, nor is she mad. Therefore the professor concludes, she must be telling the truth. Seeing that Lucy must be telling the truth about her experience in another world, the other three children have their minds opened to the possibility that there may be a greater reality of things unseen or unheard of by them. For many of us this is what we must do as well, open our mind to a reality larger than what we have experienced.

This is the main aim of the stories C S Lewis presents to us. Through fiction he wants to open our minds to the possibility of a greater realty. The life of Christ is a story, a lived story. It is filled with events that cannot be explained by the normal occurrences in our daily lives. Through His Apostles we learn about a heavenly realm that is beyond understanding of a worldly person.  In Lewis’ Chronicles we see the main characters living in the worldly reality as students. They then enter mystically into another world of Narnia where reality is quite different, even the nature of time. They encounter a Christ like figure in a lion named Aslan and then return back to their worldly reality with minds now expanded.

When you read his fiction your imaginative mind is expanded. He wants you to learn to consider the reality something greater than things observed in this world. In reading a story of fantasy our minds are not examining it in a critical thinking way. We accept the story as presented. Like the children in Lewis’ fantasy, the Apostles were witnesses to a story that doesn’t fit the normal way things are seen to behave. They experienced a man who is also God. Existing from before time He was born as man of a virgin, both fully God and man. He performs miraculous acts of healing. He demonstrates a virtuous way of life. He is unjustly convicted and crucified by those who could not believe who He was. He then comes back to life with a spiritualized body. Then, after teaching these select men, He bodily ascends into heaven. Shortly thereafter sends to them the Holy Spirit transforming them sending them out to establish communities where anyone can come to experience a greater divine realty.

Like the tales of Narnia were to the children, the story about Jesus Christ is hard for many to believe in full. To believe we must follow the guidance of the old philosopher and ask: Were the Apostles the kind of people who lied and made up such tales, or, were they known to be mentally unstable? We know that these Gospel writers had no motivation to lie and fabricate such a story, nor were they mad men. They must have been telling the truth about what they had seen in the best way they could. 

Once we accept that the Gospels are truth then we can read their stories with a mind open to greater possibilities, embracing realms greater than what we may have observed. In this way we can discover the full truth of our own reality. Lewis says this Christian story is similar to the mythical stories of ancient gods. The difference is that this one is true. It is a lived story told to us by eyewitnesses.

The dilemma many face in the Gospel story is much like that of the four children in the story posed by C S Lewis. He is showing us that the biggest challenge in our spiritual quest to be united with God is one of expanding our understanding of reality. We may be freed from the limits we have created in our minds.

Saint Theophan emphasizes the importance of this in his book, Path to Salvation. As a key part of our spiritual path he directs us to develop a spiritual vision. A vision that includes a higher kingdom where God our creator sits on the high throne surrounded by angels. This is a realm where we’re are destined to live an eternal life.

He writes:

The entire structure of the spiritual, invisible, mental, but nonetheless real world can be briefly expressed this way: “God is One, worshipped in Trinity, the Creator and Upholder of all things,”  or as the Apostle says, the Head of all things (cf. Eph 1:10) in our Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, active in the Holy Church, which, having perfected the faithful, transports them to another world. This will continue until the fullness of time, or the end of time, when, at the resurrection and judgment all will receive according to their deeds—some will descend into hell, while others will dwell in paradise, and God will be all of all (cf. 1Cor. 15:28).

…

“Strive to enter the temple within yourself, and you will see the heavenly temple,” says St, Isaac the Syrian. And truly, whoever goes within himself sees a certain other world similar to the temple that is uncircumscribable, invisible and indescribable.

The path to paradise begins when we believe, when we embrace this vision of a greater world. This accepting the Gospel story as truth will lead one to receiving God’s grace. This experience will give you unwavering faith.

References 

C. S. Lewis, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” 

Saint Theophan the Recluse, The Path to Salvation.