Planet Narnia

Over the last few days I have been devouring Michael Ward's remarkable new interpretation of The Narnia Chronicles by C. S. Lewis.  The book is called Planet Narnia, and it was published this month by Oxford University Press.

Dr. Ward and I were students together at Oxford, where we spent happy hours together at the Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society.  His new book grows out of his doctoral work on Lewis at St. Andrew's University.  Its central argument is that each book in the Chronicles is related in theme, imagery, and theology to one of the seven heavenly bodies (the five visible planets, plus the sun and the moon), as understood in Medieval cosmology. 

I find the book's argument thoroughly convincing.  It is also spiritually nourishing.  Dr. Ward shows how each book draws out a different aspect of the character of Aslan, which is also to say a different aspect of the character of Christ.

This Sunday evening at 8pm Dr. Ward will give a talk at Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church.  It is entitled: "The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God: C. S. Lewis, Narnia, and the Planets."  As an added attraction, the Sunday evening worship service (6:30pm) includes "The Heavens are Telling" from Haydn's Creation.