The Mythology of Truth

“Truth,” C.S. Lewis said, “is always about something, but reality is that about which truth is.”

For Lewis, the late Christian apologist, author and lecturer in medieval and Renaissance literature at Oxford and Cambridge, that truth was best conveyed through mythology. Myth, as Lewis saw it, far from being a lie, was the best way of conveying truths which would otherwise be inexpressible. They were the imaginative expressions of the deepest meanings of life – meanings that are illusive when one attempts to express them in concrete, rational, dissectible terms. Myths, which are generally concerned with strikingly similar themes the world over – creation, divinity, and the significance of life and death – affect their recipients in much the same way: awe, enchantment, and inspiration. It was for this reason, Lewis felt that the myths and stories that capture the essence of the human condition are, therefore, the best vehicles upon which to relate meaning.

“It must not be supposed that I am in any sense putting forward the imagination as the organ of truth,” Lewis said. “We are not talking of truth, but of meaning: meaning which is the antecedent condition of both of truth and falsehood, whose antithesis is not error but nonsense. I am a rationalist. For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.”

We live in a world shaped by stories. As children slipping into the embrace of slumber, our parents introduced us to realms of enchanted fairy tales. Later, tall tales and ghost stories entertained faces splashed by campfire light. In school, we were charmed by the stories of Aesop or the exploits and machinations of the Greek gods. Even as adults we look to a variety of story forms to entertain, instruct, and sometimes even to transform us.

As spiritual people, we want something even more from our stories. As our origins are from God, inevitably the myths woven by us, though often erroneous, will reflect a splintered fragment of His true light.

Lewis and his good friend J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings and the man to whom Lewis credited his conversion to Christianity, believed that the story of Christ was the True Myth, a myth that operated in the same way as the others, but, in fact, really happened, existing in the realms of both fact and truth. While myths could be seen as God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, Christianity's sole difference was that the poet who invented it was God Himself, and the images He used were real men and actual history.

Truly, Lewis and Tolkien were the vanguards of the Postmodern movement.

Perhaps, it is these yearnings that help to explain the heightened expectation surrounding the release of the new film version of the beloved classic fantasy tale by C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia: Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which has sold more than 85 million copies in 29 languages.

Wednesday night, my wife and I had the opportunity to see a sneak preview of the film.

It has never been a secret that C. S. Lewis composed his great collection of the seven children's fantasy novels the make up The Chronicles of Narnia with the New Testament in mind. It is difficult for people to argue with the author’s own words. “The whole Narnian story is about Christ. Supposing there really was a world like Narnia . . .and supposing Christ wanted to go into that world and save it (as He did ours) what might have happened? The stories are my answer.”

Evacuated from a London besieged by German bombs, four siblings are trundled off to an isolated country manor where they stumble across a wardrobe which mysteriously opens into the icy, magical land of Narnia. The snow and ice, while beautiful, mirror the cold heart of the evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton, sumptuously terrifying in the role), who reigns over an endless Narnian winter.

There is a prophecy, that four human children will defeat the witch and return Narnia to spring. The children’s roles are beautifully portrayed, especially that of wide-eyed and open-hearted Georgie Henley as Lucy. The enslaved populace is naturally thrilled by the children’s arrival, while they themselves are decidedly less enthusiastic. After all, they left London to avoid a war, not participate in one. (The comparisons of the fantasy battle and those of a very real Nazi bombardment serve as a reminder that the war between good and evil is not merely a metaphorical conceit).

Things are complicated immeasurably, when one of the brothers willfully betrays his siblings and the army of good to the queen. Fortunately, they have a formidable ally in Narnia's savior, Aslan the lion, voiced by Liam Neeson in velvet and rendered with astonishing realism. Aslan is the Christ-figure--brave, wise, forgiving and willing to sacrifice himself for the boy’s considerable sins.

While much has been made of this story's Christian roots, Director Andrew Adamson's (Shrek I and II) approach ensures that they are only truly evident to those who want to believe. Which is the way it should be. While many can rightly see theological underpinnings to the movie, what most viewers will see instead is a straightforward exploration of good and evil, friendship and family, courage and cowardice.

And if these aren’t the epic themes of every great myth, what is?

To the millions of readers and now viewers, Lewis's religious intentions have either been obvious, invisible or beside the point. Which is part of the appeal of allegory, as Lewis well knew. It is a symbolic mode, not a literal one and it constructs distinct levels of meaning along which readers travel freely. As an allegory, Narnia is both a reflection of the real world and a reality unto itself. One can read the books and see the movie as a Christian allegory or as an ornate story of wonder—or both.

It was once thought that there was no market for The Chronicles of Narnia. Who in America would want to watch a movie about proper British children battling evil? Then came Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings and all such reservations were quickly cast aside. With seven novels in all, welcome to Disney’s newest cash cow. But don’t think this is Lord of the Rings lite. These are distinctly different stories that deserve to be judged on their own merits despite the inevitable comparisons.

The Chroicles of Narnia could not have been made until now. Lewis himself feared of his books ever being made into films because of the inevitable lack of believability. But modern technology has rendered his fears moot. Narnia is a world populated by every sort of mythical creature imaginable: centars, giants, dwarves, fawns, unicorns, mermaids, cyclops, minotaurs, griffins, phoenixes, not to mention a host of talking animals. Thankfully, these creatures are blessedly un-Disneyfied and rendered with hyper-realism. Adamson and his team of magic makers, many who turned from The Lord of the Rings films to Narnia practically overnight, use computer technology to capture both the mythic power of Lewis's tale and, even better, its charm. While there are fantastical creatures and massive battles, they are never allowed to overshadow the overtly human elements of the story.

This is a comfortingly familiar and excitingly original tale which works surprisingly well both as a boisterous fantasia and as the Christian fable that Lewis intended. But generations of readers have found The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe to be a gripping adventure that reaches well beyond its religious underpinnings, and this robust film version respects both aspects and finds the same winning balance of excitement and meaning.

While there were moments when the digital seams show through and the magicians are more visible than the magic, this is a problem, I think, more with me than with the children for whom Narnia will utterly transport. We grown-ups are heavy, sluggish oafs when it comes to recognizing wonder much less embracing it. Children and the children at heart demand no such perfection. For them, the strange, disturbing and delightful experience of being whisked away to a fantastical land is quite enough. This is an utterly enchanted fantasy, one made as though children had their way with every element of its production. It is nothing short of magical.

And for those with the eyes to see its deeper meanings, it is Truth itself.