It is certainly true that Tolkein’s work is richer and more mature, but you can also make the case that Lewis’s vision is clearer and more appropriate for children. Both of them were writing for children, of course, but Tokien’s work is, in the end, an adult story (and a great one at that). My four your old daughter thoroughly enjoyed the Narnia series when I read them to her, and understood their allegory. I was alos impressed with the levels and layering that I didn’t remember from when I read them as a kid.
Okay, sorry about that, but you got my dander up. Now what were you saying about evangelism? Oh yeah.
I’ve long suspected that the problem with literature is not that there aren’t excellent protestant writers out there, but that they disguise their belief for fear of being misidentified as rabid fundementalists. Roman Catholics are safe, because they have an artistic tradition behind them. Protestants originally have an anti-artistic tradition associated with their churches (Luther’s anti-graven images thing, and so on) and so they have to either write books for Chrisitan bookstores, or, if they want to be taken seriously by the world, call themselves agnostic or vaguely spiritual.
BBC
Jan 27 2004
02:56 am
Dude, don’t be dissin’ C.S. Lewis.
It is certainly true that Tolkein’s work is richer and more mature, but you can also make the case that Lewis’s vision is clearer and more appropriate for children. Both of them were writing for children, of course, but Tokien’s work is, in the end, an adult story (and a great one at that). My four your old daughter thoroughly enjoyed the Narnia series when I read them to her, and understood their allegory. I was alos impressed with the levels and layering that I didn’t remember from when I read them as a kid.
Okay, sorry about that, but you got my dander up. Now what were you saying about evangelism? Oh yeah.
I’ve long suspected that the problem with literature is not that there aren’t excellent protestant writers out there, but that they disguise their belief for fear of being misidentified as rabid fundementalists. Roman Catholics are safe, because they have an artistic tradition behind them. Protestants originally have an anti-artistic tradition associated with their churches (Luther’s anti-graven images thing, and so on) and so they have to either write books for Chrisitan bookstores, or, if they want to be taken seriously by the world, call themselves agnostic or vaguely spiritual.