Last weekend I went to see the second movie in the Chronicles of Narnia series, Prince Caspian, with Laurie. She was quite excited to see the film as she loves the book series and as it takes her back to childhood memories. Me on the other hand, was less excited and secretly wanted to see Iron Man instead.
There is a ton I could say about the movie, but really, I'm not in the mood to write much. What struck me the most while watching it was the similarities to a recently popular series, Harry Potter. I'm sure there are many ways to draw similarities and differences between these books, but what I realized was the centrality of magic in the stories. As an admission, I've never read a single Harry Potter book, but I do remember when it first came out and the scores Christian organizations and Christians themselves who blasted it's wizardry for teaching children evil things. Even more interesting was the amount of media coverage it received. In contrast, now that C.S. Lewis' series is in the mainstream, where is the opposition? Is not a potion that restores life, talking animals, and rituals to call powerful spirits magical?
I'm not trashing the Narnia series, but rather desire Christians (and everyone for that matter) to cast the same critical eye on all literature. Lets not play favorites. My fear is that Harry Potter received so much opposition is because it was written by an author who denies a sovereign God, whereas Narnia by an affirmed Christian. How can a secular world take what we say seriously if we are hypocritical in our judgments?
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