Past Watchful Dragons: The Origin, Interpretation, and Appreciation of the Chronicles of Narnia
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Overview
C.S. Lewis said about the Chronicles of Narnia, “I thought I saw how stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition which had paralyzed much of my own religion in childhood. Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or about the sufferings of Christ? I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings. And reverence itself did harm. The whole subject was associated with lowered voices, almost as if it were something medical. But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not steal past those watchful dragons?”
Want more on C.S. Lewis theology? Check out the Studies on C.S. Lewis Collection (22 vols.).
Key Features
- Analyzes how Lewis used his fiction to express the core of the Christian religion
- Explains how Lewis felt the Narnia books eliminated inhibitions a child might feel regarding religion
- Supplies fresh insights into the difference between obligation to God and truly loving him
About Walter Hooper
Walter Hooper became C.S. Lewis’ secretary just prior to Lewis’ death in 1963. Thereafter, he was invited to edit Lewis’ literary remains, and this has kept him busy ever since. He is coauthor, with R.L. Green, of C.S. Lewis: A Biography, author of C.S. Lewis: A Companion & Guide, and editor of The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis. He is the literary adviser to the C.S. Lewis estate.