Well, not my musings on the well loved books. No, my musings would be short and elementary as in, wow, they are great. That Aslan ,eh? He's super. No, that just would not do. I have just returned from a lecture by the author of the book you see pictured on this blog. Michael Ward has come up with a theory so incredible, that even C.S. Lewis's stepson, Douglas Gresham is skeptical about its validity. Ward believes that C.S. Lewis, in a very secretive way (that he was known for) has hidden a deeper linking of the Chronicles of Narnia books together. He believes that yes , they are, as Lewis claimed-a story of Christ but they are also something so much more and significant. Basically, that Lewis intertwined the concept of the mediaeval cosmos in the books. He explained that there were thought to be 7 levels of the heavens and in order they are: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Anything beyond that was thought to be where God existed. Each level has its place in astrology (it's a scary word for the Christian but here we mean it without harm) and in mythology. When using these levels as analysis Ward has found it easy to label each book as one of the levels of heaven. Namely:
Moon-The Silver Chair
Mercury-The Horse and His Boy
Venus- The Magician's Nephew
Sun-The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Mars-Prince Caspian
Jupiter- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Saturn-The Last Battle
Obviously, these are not in chronlogical order, but you get the idea-there are elements in each book that Ward would argue that contain the associations with the levels of the heavens. I don't know if I completely agree with him yet, it's been some time since I read the Chronicles, but as I prepare for my Study Abroad course in Oxford that is on C.S. Lewis I find it intriguing to be able to read the books with a 'new light' as it were. I was a child the last time I read them. I look forward to reading Ward's book to get his full argument as he didn't have near enough time to cover it all in a 45 minute time period. He signed my copy which was neat- not that I'm 'that' big on getting autographs ,but I have a feeling this book is going to be causing a great stir in the literary and academic circles.
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