One opposition I have often seen in people towards Narnia is that "it is an allegory and Aslan is blatantly Jesus". They find that it is too simplistic, and when they pursue their evidence, they find it is tangled and confusing, which is even worse because it's not even a perfectly clear allegory or metaphor for Christ and Christianity.
I disagree with this, however. I am reading Wetherbee's translation of Silvestris's Cosmographia (I may yet drag Greg into reading it in Latin with me!), and I am seeing parallels in the story telling to what I see in Narnia. Or rather, parallels in the understanding of the relation of the story to the "real" world. Especially right now I am seeing a different way of understanding the figure of Aslan. In Cosmographia there is a character called Noys (νουσ). She is not God, nor is she Jesus. Neither does she appear to be created or creation. She is rather the mens dei, the mind of God, Providence, "true Minerva to me".1 She is, in a way, that pattern of God's mind upon which the universe is founded. From what I understand of the whole story, God never once figures Himself in it. Rather, Noys is His representative to Natura, Hyle/Silva (primordial matter personified), et al.
The role of Aslan holds some similar characteristics to the role of Noys. Aslan is not the Emperor over the sea, nor is he really an exact parallel to Jesus. Aslan's primary role, in many ways, is as a guide for Narnia, and he ultimately keeps and restores Narnia to order, to the pattern intended for it. He creates the world and sets people to rectify its flaw from the beginning (the presence of Jadis, also similar to the flawed nature of Silva); later he restores Narnia from the curse of the Hundred Years' Winter; and throughout all of the story of Narnia we see Aslan acting as a director and judge of sorts, conforming creation to the pattern for which it was created.
I'm still only just beginning to investigate, so this is still a certain degree of speculation, of course. We will see how far I can reasonably take this and hopefully I'm not stretching it beyond reasonability.
1 Vite viventis ymago,
Prima, Noym -- deus -- orta deo, substantia veri,
Consilii tenor eterni, michi vera Minerva"
The image of living life, first, Noys -- God -- rising from God, substance of truth, course (pattern) of eternal counsel, true Minerva to me
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2 comments:
Have you also noticed that in many ways, Aslan is quite passive? He's not necessarily an active director, but more of a director who merely steps in to correct things when it's necessary.
Narnia's essentially left to find its own way. In that sense, Aslan's not meant as a (spiritual) guide or a Prime Mover of sorts. To me, I also don't see him as pointing us in the right direction - his role is more to set things properly so we can have a fair shake at making the right choices.
The interesting thing to me, though, is the idea of mens Dei: is there perhaps a link of sorts to the 'mind of humanity', if you will? Since Aslan's not an active Mover or whatever you want to call him, Narnians have to rely upon their wits to decide what is important for them and Narnia and act accordingly. In this sense, it's slightly different from the idea of Christianity, in which there's a slight sense of passivity upon the part of the members of the Church. We're guided by the Pope and the Curia, so - at least in terms of our age - there's a sense that all we need to do is show up to church every Sunday and everything will be all right.
Perhaps what Lewis is attempting to argue is for a more 'intellectual' Christianity, one that's more active, particularly in terms of discerning God's purpose for us in life instead of being passive actors?
As for reading the Cosmographia, we can do that after I finish the damned thesis!
But that IS Christ's role! The world is flawed, (Arda Marred as Tolkien would say, there is a VERY cool philosophical dialogue between Finrod and Andreth in Morgoth's Ring I think about the necessity for God to enter the world for its redemption) and he came to give us a chance to rebuild it--to restore us to grace so we could restore all things in Him, the Logos of God. And I'm not the best Greek scholar, but I'm fairly certain that Logos isn't all that far from Nomos. Christ is the Word of the Father, Aslan is the son of the Emperor over the Sea, Nomos is the daughter of God, if I'm reading you right--more like Sapientia in the old readings for the feasts of Our Lady. And as for the similarity of Mary's role as co-redemptress, that would be a whole other post I guess.
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