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Professor and author Joe Rigney wants Christians to Live Like A Narnian and by that he means, live like Christ. In C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia , the good characters, both human and creature, epitomize characteristics of true disciples of Jesus. Joe uses the imagery from Narnia to push Christians “further up and further in,” as Farsight the Eagle says in The Last Battle.

In the first part of our discussion, Joe explained why grown-ups can benefit from a so-called children’s series, how good fiction can be like John the Baptist, and how Lewis used his fiction to attack progressivism. Today, he tells me why I’m wrong about one of the Narnia books, but I’m right about reading the series as a whole. He also describes how Lewis’ work helped him overcome dark periods in his life.

Trevin: My least favorite book in the Narnia series is the one you claim as your favorite: The Horse and His Boy. I’ll admit, your words about it intrigued me enough to go back to that book in the series and give it another look. What have I been missing?

Joe: In a word: King Lune (okay two words). The King of Archenland is my favorite character in the books, and I’m convinced that what the church today desperately needs is an army of Lunes: stable, wise, great-souled, big-hearted, and willing to fight, suffer, and die with laughter in their hearts.Live Like a Narnian

Let me put it this way. I have two young boys (4 years old and 2 years old). Every night when they go to bed I ask them, “What does it mean to be a man of God?” They respond, “First In, Last Out, Laughing Loudest.” If you want to know what that means, you’ll have to buy the book and read the chapter on Lune.

I could say more about The Horse and His Boythe picture of glorious humility when Shasta sees the Narnians for the first time, the humbling of Bree after his sojourn in Calormen, and Shasta’s encounter with Aslan in the mountain pass (a scene that always brings tears to my eyes). So, yes, I think you may have missed something, and I’m glad you’re going back to look again.

Trevin: A few months ago, I wrote that Narnia should be read in publication order. In your book, I see that you agree. Why is this so important?

Joe: I read your post and agreed completely, especially your second reason. Lewis believed in the power of tacit, or implicit, communication. He advised writers this way:

“Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is ‘terrible,’ describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was ‘delightful’; make us say ‘delightful’ when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers ‘Please, will you do my job for me.'”

A perfect example of Lewis following his own advice occurs when the children first hear the name of Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Peter feels brave, Susan smells a wonderful smell, Edmund shrinks back in horror, and Lucy has the feeling a child (and a professor!) has on the first day of summer.

In the midst of that, the narrator says this:

“Now none of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do.”

Well, if you’ve read the books in chronological order like the knuckleheads at HarperCollins want you to, you do know who Aslan is — you read a whole book about him! The entire effect of that scene is lost, and as the saying goes, you can’t read a book again for the first time.

In my mind, there’s Deep Magic in that moment (and in the overall unfolding of the first book), and I would hate to rob people of that experience (and the subsequent re-living of that experience) by violating the publication order.

Trevin: You recently had a blog post at the TGC blog called “Questioning Within the Borders of Faith,” in which you described some seasons of doubt and depression that you’ve walked through in your life. In the chapter on Tirian, the last king of Narnia, you mention that the Narnian stories actually helped to sustain your faith in the midst of your doubts. Could you unpack that a bit?

Joe: Over the years I’ve had a handful of bouts with significant questions, anxieties, and doubts about the Christian faith. Being somewhat of a bookish guy, my doubts are usually sparked by intellectual or theological questions, which then spiral into emotional upheaval and panic. During those seasons, I get lost in my own head, unable to break out of the prison of my own mind. It’s like there’s this incessant accusing voice in my head, and I end up in endless debates with him which rob me of joy and life (and sleep).

One of the things that has helped me when my sense of God and myself and my place in this world is so fragile has been a strong dose of what Lewis called “quiddity,” or the “realness” of things. For me, quiddity has usually hit me as the experience of deep beauty and desire, like when I can’t help but find the way that the sun hits storm clouds on the horizon to be beautiful.

Lewis himself once said that his apologetic “argument from desire” was a kind of spell that might be used to break us from deadly modern enchantments. The Narnian stories, and the way that my soul cries “Yes!” when I read them, have helped to anchor me in those uncertain times. When I’m overwhelmed by intellectual doubts, it is profoundly helpful to me to experience the undeniable and insatiable desire for the glorious vision of reality that Lewis depicts in Narnia.

I’ve come to think of it in this way. We often talk about the classical triad of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. What I’ve come to see is that these three are so interwoven that when one of them falters or grows dim in our eyes, the others can be used to keep us hanging on. When the Truth about Christ and the gospel feels shaky, the Beauty and Goodness of the Christian vision of life can shore up its weaknesses.

In other words, to continue to hold on to the gospel in the dark valley of intellectual doubt because you find it irresistibly beautiful is a good and gracious thing, a gift from God. Narnia has that sense of irresistible beauty, and so I’ve been enormously helped by the grace of God through it.

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