Last year, Ben Sasse was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given a few months to live, but thanks to “Providence, prayer, and a miracle drug,” he’s still alive.

While that drug has extended his life, it has not (at least yet) changed his long-term fortunes. Barring an actual miracle, he will die soon.

You may remember Sasse as a senator from Nebraska or the president of the University of Florida. But if you’d ask him, he’d say those former titles rank low on his list, especially now that he is living on essentially borrowed time.

Recently, Sasse has been doing numerous interviews.1 I have to believe that he’d rather be spending every second of his time remaining with his family. But likely, these public interviews will be a blessing and comfort to his loved ones in the coming years. They have certainly been a testimony to the world about what it means to live and die.

The more I listened to his interviews, the more I remembered why I was such a fan of Sasse politically and philosophically. He embodies the idea, not of a politician, but of a civil servant.

In a very real way, he is now serving the public by giving us a good and godly perspective on this life and what comes after it.

He embodies C.S. Lewis’ sentiment about being heavenly-minded. “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next,” he writes in Mere Christianity.

“It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in;’ aim at earth and you will get neither.”

Sasse is aimed at heaven and is making a difference here on earth by reminding us that there is so much more than what is here on earth.

“I did not decide to die in public,” he told Ross Douthat. “I obviously ended up with a calling to die, but there’s time to redeem. It is not how things are meant to be. But it is great that death can be called the final enemy. It’s an enemy, but it’s a final enemy, and there will then be no more tears. I believe in the resurrection, and I believe in a restoration of this world.”

In his interview with Sasse, Douthat spoke of a previous guest, Bart Ehrman, the New Testament scholar and skeptic. Ehrman says he rejected the evangelical Christianity of his youth because of the problem of evil and human suffering. He claimed unanswered prayers are evidence against God’s existence.

Sasse said he prayed for a miracle, but even if he didn’t receive that it wouldn’t change his view of God.

I wouldn’t want a sovereign God to defer to all of my prayers with a yes, because I’m not omniscient. I don’t know what the weaving together of the tapestry of full redemption should look like, but going through the period of suffering that I’m going through is a benefit, because it is a winnowing. I’m filled with dross and this suffering is not salvific. But it’s sanctifying, and I’m grateful for it.

Douthat asked him if he was ready to die.

I don’t feel ready. But to whom would I go? I have confidence that when Jesus says to the disciples he didn’t want to be identified as the Messiah yet, keep these crowds away. … But he says you can’t keep the children from me. And we’re told that we get to approach the Almighty. We get to approach the divine and call him Daddy, Abba, Father? That’s pretty glorious. And I know that that’s what I need.

In another recent interview with 60 Minutes, Sasse said his last wish for the country that he loves and leaves behind is to deliberate more about our mortality and therefore “get back to wisdom about what living a life of gratitude looks like.”

Scott Pelley asked him about his faith and why he believed God put him to this test. Sasse made clear that death was evil, but the diagnosis has also been “a touch of grace because it forces me to tell the truth [about my own mortality and brokenness]. … I hate cancer, but I’m also grateful for it.”

Asked if cancer has made him closer to God, Sasse responded, “Definitely because I can acknowledge my dependence in a new way.”

Fighting back tears discussing the next phases of life he is going to miss with his wife and three children, Sasse said, “But it’s not a surprise to God.”

Pelley, who was also emotional in the interview, asked him if he believed God had a plan. “Absolutely,” Sasse replied. Alluding to an R.C. Sproul quote, he noted, “There are no maverick molecules in the universe.”

In Lewis’ final months, one of his frequent correspondents wrote to him with fears of death. Lewis had endured the death of his mother when he was a young boy and, more recently, his wife—both from cancer. He fought in the death-filled trenches of World War I and endured the tragedy of World War II.

Much like Sasse, Lewis sought to focus her attention beyond herself and beyond this world. “Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave it with regret?” he asked. “There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

In a culture obsessed with achieving maximum comfort in this world and avoiding the reality of death, Sasse is showing us what it means to suffer and die well. His temporal life is fixed with an eternal aim to those “better things”—to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Someday, probably soon, Ben Sasse will hear those words. In the meantime, we are blessed to hear his words.

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Both Uncle Andrew and Digory face the consequences of their actions. For his part, Digory accepts the need for confession. Meanwhile, the Cabby begins to accept his new (but true) identity as king of Narnia.

Chapter 11 “Digory and His Uncle Are Both in Trouble”

Interestingly, chapter 6 is titled “The Beginning of Uncle Andrew’s Troubles,” and now in chapter 11, it’s “Digory and His Uncle Are Both in Trouble.” What Lewis means by “in trouble” is facing the consequences of their actions.

In chapter 6, Uncle Andrew is confronted with someone, Jadis, who epitomizes and embodies all his bluster. Now, he faces the very degradation he imposed on animals and the dehumanization he inflicted on Polly and others through his experimentation. This is what my grandmother would call his “chickens coming home to roost.”

But even in this moment, there is grace and humor, which provides Uncle Andrew another opportunity to change his ways.

The newly awakened animals are ignorant of humans and clothing, so they aren’t sure what Uncle Andrew might be. Interestingly, just as Uncle Andrew can’t understand them, the animals can’t understand him. Their unintentional ignorance and his purposeful stupidity have created a communication gap—Narnia’s Tower of Babel moment.

Unlike the way he treated others, the animals attempt to treat him well. Unfortunately, Uncle Andrew has masked his humanity, so the animals debate his essence. It’s a reminder that the more we engage in the dehumanization of others, the more we dehumanize ourselves.

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Since the Walden Media adaptations, the general picture of “Narnia” has been the script-heavy fantastical font used in that trilogy. Not only is Greta Gerwig seemingly bringing her own spin to the story, but the new logo appears to be a radical departure as well.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) introduced us to what became an iconic logo.

Later movies would use a flatter version of “Narnia” but still with the same script font.

NarniaWeb has a photo of a director’s chair from the set of Gerwig’s movie with a very different logo. You can see the image on their site, but it feels more whimsical—closer to Willy Wonka than Middle-earth.

That font treatment would help distinguish the fantasy worlds of Lewis and Tolkien. No one would expect the more self-serious, high fantasy approach of Middle-earth with the new logo.

From NarniaWeb:

The logo features a stylized serif font with gently curved, storybook-inspired letterforms. It appears notably simpler than the Walden-era design, favouring a flatter and more minimal look.

They also clarify that this may not even be the final logo or font style.

It is worth noting that on-set logos are often temporary and do not always reflect the final marketing design, but they can offer an early sense of the logo’s overall style and design direction.

The Walden Media trilogy even had early newspaper ads with a very different feel from what became the final look.

But if the set photo features what will be the new logo, it’s going to take me some time to get used to it. The font is different, but the early 2000s logo obviously doesn’t date back to Lewis’ original writing. It was a representation of the franchise’s visual style from those filmmakers.

The potential new logo feels retro, like a 1970s album cover, which would likely be at home in a film with a mid-century “rock and roll” vibe, as some have attributed to Gerwig’s adaptation. The logo doesn’t fit with the “contemporary” language used by the IMAX CEO, but a movie set in the 1900s shouldn’t have a modern-day aesthetic. He also spoke of bands like The Who as modern, so maybe he’s not a good judge of these things.

This new logo is not what I would’ve gone with, but I’m not an Oscar-winning screenwriter and director looking for a new storytelling angle on a classic book. And if you’re going to go in a certain direction, the look and feel of everything related to the movie should be consistent.

Not Safe But Good

C.S. Lewis quote of the week

“Friend,” said the Spirit. “Could you, only for a moment, fix your mind on something not yourself?”

The Great Divorce

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Books by or about Lewis or Tolkien

• The Hobbit (ebook) — $2.99 (75% off)

Behind the Wardrobe

Sneak peek at the bonus articles

• Netflix finally mentions Narnia again

• A look at the producers of the Narnia movie

• More Narnia cast share about their experience working on the film

• Lewis on why people prefer vague spirituality instead of a personal God

• Landscapes and towns that inspired Lewis and Tolkien

• Rings of Power season 3 likely arriving sooner than you think

• Middle-earth casting rumors

• And more!

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Looking around at the science-fiction writing of their day, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were frustrated. That frustration and a coin flip changed their literary futures.

Bad writing filled much of the sci-fi in their day. The stories that rose above artistically were often nihilistic propaganda for a religious devotion to science divorced from ethical considerations.

“Tollers,” Lewis said to Tolkien one day, “there is too little of what we really like in stories. I am afraid we shall have to try and write some ourselves.”1

Lewis suggested they write about space travel and time travel, so they tossed a coin to determine who would write on which topic.2 Tolkien was assigned time travel and Lewis space.

Lewis’ space-travel story

Lewis turned his space travel story into a three-part series: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. He saw space stories in his day being used to advocate for a materialistic perspective that centered the advancement of the human race as the primary goal in life and science.

Roger Lancelyn Green eventually became a close friend and literary encouragement to Lewis. Early in their relationship, he wrote to thank Lewis for writing Out of the Silent Planet. They discussed literary inspirations for the story. Lewis explained he was “spurred to write” because of several works that had a “desperately immoral outlook.”3

He told Green, “I like the whole interplanetary idea as a mythology and simply wished to conquer for my own (Christian) point of view what has always hitherto been used by the opposite side.”4

As he continued pondering his story idea, Lewis saw firsthand that the atheistic materialism inherent in the sci-fi stories of his day was not limited to the page. Students of his began advocating for humans to travel to and conquer other planets, destroying any and all lifeforms as we hope across the universe.

“What set me about writing the book was the discovery that a pupil of mine took all that dream of interplanetary colonization quite seriously,” he wrote in a later letter, “and the realization that thousands of people, in one form or another, depend on some hope of perpetuating and improving the human species for the whole meaning of the universe that a ‘scientific” hope of defeating death is a real rival to Christianity.”5

In many ways, the trilogy is the fictional outworking of Lewis’ theological contemplation about humanity’s place in the cosmos. It was with this series that he discovered the way fiction could be used to subtly communicate theology.

Out of 60 reviews for Out of the Silent Planet, only two noticed what Lewis was doing by having Earth ensnared by the “Bent One.” He saw this as an opportunity.

But if only there were someone with a richer talent and more leisure, I believe this great ignorance might be a help to the evangelization of England: any amount of theology can now be smuggled into people’s minds under the cover of romance [his word for fantasy literature] without their knowing it.6

Lewis didn’t realize he would be that someone with “richer talent,” even if he never found “more leisure.” The Chronicles of Narnia were the direct fruit of his literary mission to sneak past “watchful dragons” and deliver theology to unaware readers.

Tolkien’s time-travel story

Tolkien’s half of the science-fiction deal ended like much of his writing, another unfinished piece of the Middle-earth legendarium.7 “The Lost Road” was published posthumously as part of The Lost Road and Other Writings, a collection of essays and drafts.

But Tolkien’s influence lasted long after that fateful coin toss. The hero of Lewis’ space trilogy begins the trilogy as a philologist and professor on a walking tour.8 Also like Tolkien, he’s a World War I veteran.

Additionally, the hero’s name, Elwin Ransom, bears some connection to Tolkien’s faith and writing.

In English, “Ransom” is obviously connected with the idea of a sacrificial substitute. It comes from Anglo-Norman for the Latin redemptio and is linked to English Catholicism, particularly in Oxford. “A painting of Our Lady of Ransom was (and still is) venerated in a special chapel in Tolkien’s parish church.”

Even more to the point, Elwin is Old English for “elf friend,” an homage to Tolkien’s literary masterpiece. Even if Tolkien never finished his half of their deal, he will forever be a part of Lewis’ half.

One coin toss and a desire to craft quality stories for the good of others changed everything.

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The Bishop of Durham Attempts to Surrender the City by Susanna Clarke is releasing later this year. I’ve already preordered it.

If you know me or have read this newsletter for any length of time, you know I wouldn’t throw around a title like “modern day C.S. Lewis” lightly. But I do believe Clarke fits that label as well as any writer could.

Her debut novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, tells an alternative history of 19th-century England, where magic, frequently studied but long since absent in practice, has returned. The Bishop of Durham is set 700 years before the events of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

During the conquest of Northern England, the fairy host sweeps across the countryside. The city of Durham finds itself surrounded. But the encircling forces are not fairies, nor even other humans, but trees that trap the city within an eerie wood.

Ranulf, Bishop of Durham—a consummate politician—understands that the survival of the Northern English people depends on his finding a way to unite the two races, human and fairy. And he's not averse to improving his own position at the same time. With these aims in view, he sets off for the New Castle, in search of the new King—the leader of the fairy host, rumored to be a mysterious human boy, no more than fourteen years old, who speaks no word of any human language.

There are hints at Narnia and Lewis in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. One scene was an homage to Maugrim lying on the door of the White Witch’s castle, but she didn’t make the connection until later. She said Lewis provided the “furniture for the inside of [her] head.”

Clarke has said that her imagination works more like Lewis’ than Tolkien’s. But Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell reminds me more of Tolkien. It has footnotes about historical facts and books that only exist in the world of the story. She had recently reread The Lord of the Rings before writing it and was inspired to “write a novel of magic and fantasy.”

Her second novel, Piranesi, is much more Lewisian, however. She’s spoken of how much the book borrows, directly and indirectly, from the Narnia series, especially The Magician’s Nephew.

The book begins with a quote from the Narnia prequel. One character takes their name from a character from The Magician’s Nephew, even hinting that he could be a descendant. The book’s setting is inspired by both The Wood Between the Worlds and Charn.

Her books aren’t as obviously Christian as Lewis’ works, but much like Tolkien’s, the language, symbols, and concepts of the faith clearly underpin Clarke’s stories.

In a recent conversation about Lewis and his books, she spoke about her connection to him at an early age.

The [Narnia] books were always there in my home. My mother had been an English undergraduate at Oxford, and she’d actually been to Lewis’ lectures, although she said they came immediately after something else she had to do, so she was always late, so she was always in the back, so she never really heard what he said, which was a bit unfortunate. But my father was a Methodist minister, so he was very interested in the Christian side, so we always had Lewis’ books at home. And I don’t know how old I was when I read them, but they sort of became the primary books for me. The books I compared all other books to. … I think when I first read them, we were living in a very small mining town in Staffordshire in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s. It wasn’t particularly exciting. And Narnia became almost like my real home, or at least books following on from Narnia, books became my real home. That was where I lived.

In the video, you can also hear her read the passage where Digory encounters Aslan in The Magician’s Nephew.

Not Safe But Good

C.S. Lewis quote of the week

Symbolism exists precisely for the purpose of conveying to the imagination what the intellect is not ready for.

The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949

The Problem of Printers

Bad C.S. Lewis book covers

I have no idea what’s happening in this obviously AI-generated cover, but it has no connection to what happens in Perelandra, other than green being a very prominent color.

Behind the Wardrobe

Sneak peek at the bonus articles

• Carey Mulligan is “maybe” in Narnia

• Gerwig set for a repeat “Barbenheimer” phenomenon with Narnia on Christmas Day

• Where to start with C.S. Lewis

• What Philip Pullman gets wrong about Narnia

• New Lord of the Rings movie finds its new Aragorn

• The WWI relationship Tolkien captured in The Lord of the Rings

• What two words define The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy?

• And more!

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Using Uncle Andrew, C.S. Lewis demonstrates that “the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.” Meanwhile, the Talking Beasts of Narnia learn that “jokes as well as justice come in with speech.” Both are good and necessary.

Chapter 10 “The First Joke and Other Matters”

As the chapter begins, the creation narrative continues. After the Talking Beasts, Aslan calls forth fauns, satyrs, dwarfs, tree gods and goddesses, the river god, and naiads.

All the created beings respond to Aslan’s words from the previous chapter. They echo his call to awake, love, think, and speak, but they also pledge to hear and obey him, and say they now know. Though Strawberry, who is now a talking horse, clarifies that they don’t know very much yet.

Interestingly, you can trace our responsibilities as created beings in the response of the Talking Beasts. Above all else, we are to hear and obey our Creator. Humbly recognizing our limitations, we are also to grow in knowledge of the Creator and His creation.

Aslan gives dominion of Narnia and the dumb beasts, those who can’t talk, to the Talking Beasts. And most importantly, he gives them himself, as they have been chosen to serve as his regents in Narnia.

In Perelandra, because of the good and godly care of the unfallen king and queen, the dumb animals on their planet will eventually become Talking Beasts.1

Lewis writes in The Problem of Pain how man was meant to “restore peace to the animal world, and if he had not joined the enemy, he might have succeeded in doing so to an extent now hardly imaginable.”

Because we have only seen the relationship between a fallen ruler and a fallen creation, it may often be hard for us to imagine a good regency, authority exercised positively. But the existence of the bad does not negate the existence of the good.

Authority, whether between humanity and animals or between humans themselves, can be good and right. In fact, as Lewis often argues, our recognition that things in our current reality, the only reality we have known, are bad demonstrates that we instinctively know the good.

Lewis pictures this relationship between the good regent and the rest of creation in Narnia, but Aslan also warns the Talking Beasts to “not go back to their ways lest you cease to be Talking Beasts. For out of them you were taken and into them you can return. Do not so.”

This mirrors the dual blessing and curse motif we often see in God’s call to His people in the Old Testament. We can hear Moses tell the Israelites not to return to worshipping the false gods of the people around them, or they will be taken into captivity.

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Have you ever had doubts? Not about whether you remembered to lock your car door, but about your core beliefs. I have.

The doubts were lurking and stalking in my mind. I didn’t ask for them. I didn’t want them. In fact, I felt wrong for even having them. But they wouldn’t go away.

So I assumed I would have to suffer through this alone—or worse yet, give in. Slipping under in a sea of doubts and questions, succumbing to the waves increasingly felt like the only option left.

But then I opened a book and read:

Every one has heard people quarrelling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things they say.

The more I read, the more I realized I wasn’t alone. Someone had tossed me a rope. Almost 30 years before I was even born.

People often wonder why I’m so enamored with C.S. Lewis. For many of his fans, their journey with “Jack” began through the wardrobe into Narnia. Mine started there as a child as well, but it was Mere Christianity as a young adult that changed everything for me.

For a host of reasons, some of which were self-inflicted, I believed that doubts, in and of themselves, were wrong. I had them, but it was sinful for me to have them.

I remember at least one pastor preaching on the evils of doubting, and the cure was to simply have more faith. Seemingly, everyone around me accepted this, while I was crying the prayer of the father with a demon-possessed child: “I believe; help my unbelief!”1

I needed answers, but apparently no one else even had questions. That is, until I read Mere Christianity. There actually was a mental component to faith. I saw what it meant to love Jesus with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Tearing through the pages, I began to underline and write notes in the margins. It was the first time I had ever done that to a book.

I saw many of the questions I had, but I saw there were answers as well. Someone had already been wondering the same things. My Christianity wasn’t somehow defective for seeking understanding.

After finishing Mere Christianity, things were different. I knew at least one person thought through the same issues I had, so I devoured all of the Lewis books I could collect. I went back through Narnia with a renewed sense of awe at that world, its creator, and his Creator.

Lewis taught me to love and trust God more, even with my doubts. In facing them, I discovered that God could be trusted when I didn’t see the answer immediately. Simply because it wasn’t visible at that moment didn’t mean it didn’t exist.

The entire trajectory of my life was altered by reading through Lewis’ explanation of the Christian faith.

My master’s degree focused on philosophy and Christian apologetics. I bought and read dozens of scholarly and popular works on doubts, questions, and the validity of Christianity. Many of them I still consult regularly.

But to this day, outside of Scripture itself, I still go back to Mere Christianity more than all the others. To me, it’s like the classic hymn that never ceases to comfort and challenge.

What would be a more appropriate way to end than to quote the last two sentences from the book itself?

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

Looking to Christ, you find everything, including the answers to the doubts you feel ashamed to have and the questions you feel embarrassed to ask. Sometimes, we need someone else to remind us of that.

I’ve met many people who have a similar story with Mere Christianity. Is that you? If it wasn’t Mere Christianity, what other book affected your faith the most?

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Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep is all but officially confirmed for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia adaptation. Her role is still technically a mystery, but I’m fearing the worst.

One year ago this month, several outlets reported that Streep would be voicing Aslan. Nothing was ever confirmed about her involvement, and other casting announcements came and went.

Now, we have multiple comments, including some from Streep herself, that indicate she is involved with Narnia and acted on set.

Emma Mackey, who will be Jadis Queen of Charn, told an Italian publication that in the Narnia movie she will be acting with Daniel Craig, Carey Mulligan, and Streep. Both Craig and Mulligan have been confirmed as Uncle Andrew and Digory’s mother.

NarniaWeb highlighted a quote from an interview Streep did on The Last Show. She said she recorded her brief voice cameo in Project Hail Mary as a favor for Amy Pascal while they both were working on another film in London. Streep also mentions Gerwig later in the interview. That other film in London is most likely Narnia.

In reporting Gerwig signing with a new talent agency, Deadline said that Streep would be the voice of Aslan.

Is it possible that, despite all the rumors and reporting, Streep is portraying someone else in the film with a smaller role, like Jadis’ sister in flashbacks to the battle for Charn? Sure. Is it likely at this point? No.

I won’t repeat all of what I said last year when the rumor first surfaced, but I can’t think of a move more detrimental to the movie’s success than casting a famous actress, even one as talented as Streep, to voice Aslan.

Even in the best-case scenario—Aslan is still male on screen, but with a well-known woman voicing him—the potential negative impact will overwhelm any positives.1 Why alienate the audience who loves the books?

I hope my fears prove unfounded, and we see Streep bring her talents to a different role in Narnia, but I worry this movie is about to be subsumed by unnecessary cultural controversy.

Not Safe But Good

C.S. Lewis quote of the week

The miracles in fact are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.

“Miracles” in God in the Dock

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Books by or about Lewis or Tolkien

“Cultivated from his many essays, articles, and letters, as well as his classic works, The Reading Life provides guidance and reflections on the love and enjoyment of books.”

The Reading Life (ebook): $1.99 (87% off)

Behind the Wardrobe

Sneak peek at the bonus articles

• A few more tidbits from Gerwig about Narnia production, including hugging a child who was sad filming was over

• How Lewis’ childhood wardrobe ended up on display at a U.S. college

• Exploring Lewis’ perspective on gender

• More casting news for The Hunt for Gollum

• Live-action Legend of Zelda reportedly filming in Lord of the Rings locations

• Rare Tolkien book, one of 15 known copies, up for auction

• And more!

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Not all fears are the same. Some are appropriate senses of awe when we are in the presence of something or someone far beyond us. Other fears hinder us from becoming what we should be. Uncle Andrew had the chance to encounter the first, but the second kept him in a place of exploitation instead of experience.

Chapter 9 “The Founding of Narnia”

Aslan has begun a new song.1 The “softer and more lilting” song called up the grass and vegetation on the planet.

Lewis betrays his Irishness in using “lilting” to describe Aslan’s song that calls up the lush green grass that runs up hills like a wave. I wouldn’t be surprised if, as he wrote this passage, he wasn’t imagining the hills outside his boyhood home.

While Digory and Polly, like the cabby, are amazed by the Lion, his song, and what’s happening all around them, they’re annoyed because they have to constantly be on guard for Uncle Andrew trying to sneak and grab their ring.

This leads to one of the few moments of Uncle Andrew standing up for himself to Jadis. She threatens to “knock out his brains” if he gets close to Digory again because she realizes he would leave her there. Andrew retorts that she has mistreated and embarrassed him all across London, but the cabby interrupts his complaints by calling everyone’s attention to the song and creation happening around them.

The cabby serves as a Martha among the other Mary-like adults. They are constantly busy about all the other concerns when they could be listening to and observing the miraculous right in front of them. Uncle Andrew could’ve benefited from James’ advice—“Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger” or maybe better yet, the psalmist: “Be still and know that I am God.”2

The children begin to notice the connection between what the Lion is singing and what is created. Fir trees emerged with “a series of deep, prolonged notes,” and primroses sprang up with a “rapid series of lighter notes.” Meanwhile, the lion grew closer to the humans.

Jill was excited. The cabby and Digory couldn’t help “feeling a bit nervous.” Uncle Andrew’s knees were shaking, and his teeth were chattering. For her part, the witch steps out and throws the lamp-post bar, hitting the lion directly between his eyes. The bar fell to the ground, and Aslan continued as if he’d never been hit.

Jadis shrieked and ran into the newly grown forest. Uncle Andrew tried to follow, but tripped over a root and fell into a small brook. The other three remained while Aslan walked past them, close enough to touch, but gave no notice of them.

This is an opportunity for Andrew to experience grace. The witch has revealed her character by fleeing from Aslan’s presence. The other three stayed and were not attacked by the lion. Something kept Andrew there. He could’ve had a moment of self-reflection, but he’s focused on the wrong fears. He missed his moment with the numinous.

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What tips you off that you are around a selfish person? There may be numerous signs, but one is likely that they try to take something that belongs to someone else.

That may include them always wanting to take credit. But there’s one thing a selfish person will never take—the blame.

The tendency to accept (or reject) responsibility in difficult moments or for outright mistakes serves as an indication of self-centeredness in our hearts and the hearts of others.

Look at Uncle Andrew, the titular magician in The Magician’s Nephew. He wants credit for being a skilled magician, but he refuses to truly endanger himself. He wants glory without risks. He wants power with blame.

Andrew kills numerous guinea pigs before one finally disappears, he hopes, into a new world. To test his magical theory, he tricks Polly, a young girl he’s just met, and manipulates Digory, his nephew, into exploring this world.

To justify his deception (and cowardice), Andrew explains why that’s OK for him. Common people should follow moral standards, but those rules “can’t possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages.” Instead, he asserts he has a “high and lonely destiny.”

Yet when Andrew is later drawn into this otherworldly exploration, he begins to complain. “It’s not fair,” he says. “I never meant to be a magician. It’s all a misunderstanding. It’s all my godmother’s fault.”

Uncle Andrew is the opposite of Uncle Ben from Spider-Man. He wants power without the responsibility. Andrew refuses to acknowledge the inherent connection between the two.

The moment he is faced with danger or even an inconvenience, Andrew whines, blames everyone but himself, and tries to use others to get himself out. This has been the nature of sin from the beginning. Sin refuses to accept personal responsibility.

Look at Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When God confronts them with their sin, the first sin, what do they do? Blame someone else. Neither takes accountability for their actions.

One way to spot sin in our lives is a tendency to reject responsibility when consequences arise. We know we are being selfish when we want to take anything but the blame.

In his essay, “On Forgiveness,” reprinted in The Weight of Glory (And Other Addresses), C.S. Lewis makes this connection with our asking for forgiveness. “But the trouble is that what we call ‘asking God’s forgiveness’ very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses.”

“Forgiveness says ‘Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology; I will never hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly as it was before.’ But excusing says, ‘I see that you couldn’t help it or didn’t mean it; you weren’t really to blame.’ If one was not really to blame then there is nothing to forgive. In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites.”

We can’t grasp for forgiveness while holding on to our excuses and attempts to avoid blame.

“Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it. That, and only that, is forgiveness, and that we can always have from God if we ask for it.”

Once we have embraced what true forgiveness means with God, we can freely extend that to others. “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you,” Lewis writes.

As backwards as it may seem, we have access to forgiveness because we take the blame. We can’t have forgiveness while refusing blame. Accepting responsibility is the key that opens the door to forgiveness—with God and those around us.

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• Churchgoers Aim to Serve in and out of Church — Lifeway Research

• Churchgoers Eager, if not Intentional, About Sharing Their Faith — Lifeway Research

• Infrequent Churchgoers’ Theology Lags Behind More Frequent Attendees — Lifeway Research

• Pastors Support Legal Immigration, Split on Deportation Levels — Lifeway Research

• Growing Number of Churchgoers Face Doubts — Lifeway Research

A 2024 Lifeway Research study found pastors report Easter as the highest attendance Sunday for their church. Those of us who regularly attend church know this to be the case. Everyone shows back up on Easter Sunday.

Apparently, this was also the case almost 100 years ago because C.S. Lewis wrote to his brother about the crowd in 1940. From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949:

On Easter morning, we had the biggest crowd at the 8 o’clock that I’ve ever seen—I was one of four in our pew; trying to rejoice in spirit that there should be so many communicants but very far from comfortable in the flesh—my hip being tightly wedged against the pillar and my bottom resting on the angle at the end of the bench. Also slightly twisted, as one usually is in a crowd.

Lewis and his brother had a usual pew at Holy Trinity Headington Quarry. It was a few feet of bench divided from the main part of the pew by a stone pillar.

Lewis’ stepson, Douglas Gresham, said Lewis liked to sit behind the pillar so the pastor couldn’t see his facial expressions. Lewis thought he was a good man, but often a boring preacher, so he didn’t want to hurt the pastor’s feelings with the looks he gave during the sermon.

But through it all, Lewis was a faithful member and encouraged regular church attendance because of all He believed God would do through it and the people you encounter there.

So if you had mixed feelings about the Easter crowd at your church this Sunday or have suffered through a boring sermon, you are not alone. Just don’t allow that to hinder your worship of God and your communion with other believers.

Not Safe But Good

C.S. Lewis quote of the week

Eve’s and Adam’s son and daughter,
Sinful, weary, twisted, mired,
Pale with terror, thinned with slaughter,
Robbed of all your hearts desired,
Look! Rejoice! One born of woman,
Flesh and blood and bones all human,
One who wept and could be tired,
Risen from the vilest death, has given
All who will the hope of Heaven.

From C.S. Lewis’ “Easter Hymn” that was part of an October 6, 1958 letter to his colleague Francis Turner included in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy.

Tumnus’ bookshelf

Books by or about Lewis or Tolkien

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (ebook) — $3.99 (69% off)

Behind the Wardrobe

Sneak peek at the bonus articles

• More on Greta Gerwig’s apparent changes to the Narnia story

• Star of a hit show says he loves C.S. Lewis and wants to be in a Narnia movie

• Fate of Rings of Power revealed

• Challenging the recent claim that The Lord of the Rings is pagan and not Christian

• What Tolkien story actually needs to be adapted

• Confirmation of Hunt for Gollum casting rumors

• Should The Lord of the Rings movies be rebooted?

• And more!

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While this chapter is titled “The Fight at the Lamp-post,” it quickly moves from London to the Wood Between the Worlds to a new world where Digory, Polly, Uncle Andrew, Jadis, the cabby, and his horse, Strawberry, experience its creation.

Both Lewis and his friend J.R.R. Tolkien craft creation myths in their worlds that involve singing. They highlight for us the beauty and brokenness involved in creating.

Chapter 8 “The Fight at the Lamp-post”

The previous chapter ends with Jadis declaring herself empress in a seemingly triumphant moment for her. Still, as chapter 8 opens, she learns the people of Earth (specifically Londoners) are not so easily ruled.

However advanced Charn was in magic, they were certainly behind in sarcasm. The crowd “cheers” her claim, but she realizes only too late that they are mocking her. They call her the “Hempress of Colney ‘Atch.”1

Colney Hatch is a small district in London. During the early 1900s, the area was closely associated with a famous psychiatric hospital. The crowd was basically calling her crazy, insinuating that she must be insane to claim she was an empress.

As we discussed last week, Lewis often treats his villains as comic figures who refuse to see themselves as such. Taking their cues from Satan, they are self-serious and will not be mocked. When Jadis hears the crowd laugh at her, she switches her knife to her left hand and rips off a lamp-post crossbar with her right.

Using her physical strength (which has not diminished, unlike her magical abilities) and her dual weapons, Jadis begins knocking down policemen and threatening everyone near her. She redoubles her threats once someone throws a rock and seemingly hits her.2

During all the chaos, the cabby continues to show himself as “obviously the bravest as well as the kindest person present.” He dodges Jadis blows and tries to get to Strawberry’s head to calm him down.

For their part, Digory and Polly also display their character. She returned as soon as she was allowed. As he is dodging Jadis’ blows and Strawberry’s kicks, Digory has Polly ready to touch the yellow ring as soon as he can get close enough to the Witch. Finally, Digory grabs Jadis’ ankle and alerts Polly.

As they are traveling to the Wood Between the Worlds, they realize Uncle Andrew is tagging along. Digory hears him complain: “It’s not fair. I never meant to be a magician. It’s all a misunderstanding. It’s all my godmother’s fault.” So much for the “high and lonely destiny,” he haughtily explained to Digory earlier.3

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It’s March, so there’s only one way to determine the greatest Narnia quote. ’Tis the season for brackets.

Before we announce the winning quote and the winning readers, you can look back through the Valiant Sixteen, Magnificent Eight, Just Four, and Championship match-ups to see some of the close contests or where your favorite quote finished.

2026 Narnia Madness Winning Quote: Puddleglum from The Silver Chair

While Puddleglum may be on Aslan’s side, you all were on the marshwiggle’s side when he squared off against Aslan’s quote from The Horse and His Boy.

The winning quote:

“I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

— The Silver Chair

This quote resonates outside the story, but it is much richer when read within the context of The Silver Chair.

The Queen of the Underworld almost has Puddleglum, Prince Rilian, Eustace, and Jill completely under her spell. Playing her instrument and filling the air of her castle with an intoxicating smell, she assures them that there was no Narnia and no Aslan. They’ve only imagined it.

But just as they were almost ensnared, Puddleglum makes his way to the room’s fireplace and grinds his foot in the fire. The pain rouses him, while the others are snapped out of the spell with the aid of the smell of burnt marshwiggle.

Then, in response to the Queen’s argument, the plain, pessimistic Puddleglum says that because even the idea of Aslan is so compelling, he’s going to follow Aslan whether the Lion exists or not.

In a 1963 letter, Lewis explicitly says Puddleglum’s speech is a version of the ontological argument. To put the apologetic briefly, Anselm of Canterbury argued that God is “a being than which no greater can be conceived.” Since existing in reality is greater than existing only in thought, God, as the greatest being that can be conceived, must also exist in reality.

In Lewis’ version spoken through Puddleglum, the supposed imagined world of Narnia and Aslan seemed better and more important than the tangible world of the Queen. It made no sense to Puddleglum that they could imagine a world greater than the Queen’s if such a world did not exist and they’d never actually experienced it.

We might also hear echoes of Lewis’ argument from desire in Mere Christianity. “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy,” he writes, “the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

You likely voted for this quote because you recognize this desire in your own heart.

For more, read The Silver Chair read-along and my post explaining more fully how and why Lewis used the Anslem argument in his children’s fantasy story.

2026 Narnia Madness winning readers

Many of the questions to enter our giveaway were simply about your experiences in Narnia. I enjoyed hearing about your first entry into Narnia and which books mean the most to you.

Here are trivia questions that had a correct answer:

• What real person was the character of Lucy likely named after? Lucy Barfield, Lewis’ goddaughter and the adopted daughter of Owen and Maud Barfield. If you’ve ever wondered why The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe contains multiple warnings about shutting oneself into a wardrobe, you can thank the Barfields, as I explained in our first Narnia read-along.

• After what real person in C.S. Lewis’ life is Puddleglum from The Silver Chair modeled? Fred Paxford, the gardener at the Kilns, Lewis’ home. Once, when Lewis mentioned plans to fly in an airplane, something he rarely did, Paxford mentioned a recent fiery plane crash that killed everyone on board. You can read more about this pessimistic but deeply loyal friend in our read-along of The Silver Chair.

• Which Narnia book was finished (not published) last? While The Last Battle was published last, Lewis finished writing it before he finished The Magician’s Nephew. As we’ve discussed in our latest read-along, he started a prequel story immediately after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but struggled to finish, likely due to the autobiographical nature of the story. He didn’t finish The Magician’s Nephew until 1954, while The Last Battle was finished the prior year.

But, without further ado, let’s announce the winners!

Those winning a free month’s paid subscription are: Stephanie Loomis, Kennedy W, Brian Villanueva, Caitlyn Haner, Dusty Glassford, and Ree Larsen.

The runners up, who win a free month’s paid subscription and one of the Narnia companion books, are Jan Wiley, Pam Neubauer, and Susan Bell.

The grand prize winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription and their choice of one of four Narnia companion books, is Shannon Stephens.

As a reminder, the four book options are among my most frequently used resources in developing the Narnia read-alongs:

• Companion to Narnia: A Complete Guide to the Magical World of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia — Paul Ford

• Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles — David C. Downing

• Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis — Michael Ward

• Past Watchful Dragons: The Origin, Interpretation, and Appreciation of the Chronicles of Narnia — Walter Hooper

If you are one of the winners, make sure you check your email. I will be setting up your subscriptions and lining up the books to mail.

Thank you to everyone who participated in Narnia Madness by voting and submitting entries. I’m already working on plans for our bracket next year, but if you’ve got any suggestions, drop those in the comments.

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Despite the tight secrecy surrounding Greta Gerwig’s Narnia adaptation, some bits of news dribble out of the production—often thanks to NarniaWeb’s sources.

In their latest reporting, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith was cast in an unconfirmed role. The Ghanaian-born British actor has been involved in major cinematic franchises, Doctor Strange in Marvel, Justice League in DC, Mary Poppins Returns, and, perhaps most importantly, Paddington 2.

Holdbrook-Smith has also appeared in numerous television and theater shows. He appeared on stage in Hamlet opposite Benedict Cumberbatch. In 2019, he won the Laurence Olivier Award as the Best Actor in a Musical for Ike Turner in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical.

His casting has not yet been confirmed by the production or any major trade publication, so his role remains unknown. From NarniaWeb:

Details of his character in The Magician’s Nephew are being kept under wraps, although NarniaWeb did first hear of his involvement before filming wrapped in January. Representatives for Holdbrook-Smith did not respond to requests for comment, and Netflix declined to comment.

The rumor, however, is that he will be Frank the cabby, future first king of Narnia, opposite Susan Wokoma as Queen Helen.

Repeating my comments at the time of the Wokoma rumors, Holdbrook-Smith as King Frank would be a deviation from Pauline Baynes’ illustration, but not necessarily Lewis’s text. The cabby is merely called “red-faced” when we first meet him running to catch up with his horse that Jadis has taken.

One physical change could be that Holdbrook-Smith seems to have a more slender build than the cabby, who is described as thicker than Uncle Andrew. But nothing about the character requires him to have a specific look.

According to the story, the longer Frank is in Narnia, the more he transitions from a rough London cabman into a gentler countryman, so the actor would need to be able to capture both looks. He also has a nice singing voice. Having performed in musicals on stage, I think Holdbrook-Smith would have that part down.

While we have a few adult actors and the two young leads confirmed, it appears there will also be dozens of children in the movie. NarniaWeb is reporting that the Narnia movie has had over 150 children involved in production, including extras, body doubles, and stand-ins.

Not Safe But Good

C.S. Lewis quote of the week

Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument; then collected information about child-psychology and decided what age-group I’d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out “allegories” to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn’t write in that way at all. Everything began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn’t even anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord.

“Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said” in Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories

Don’t miss the announcement of the winning quote in the 2026 Narnia Madness this Wednesday, along with the winners of the free books and paid subscriptions.

Tumnus’ bookshelf

Books by or about Lewis or Tolkien

Lewis’ academic magnus opus, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, gives insight into the leading authors from the Norman Conquest through the mid-seventeenth century, including Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, William Tyndale, John Knox, John Donne, and Thomas Cranmer.

• English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (ebook) — $1.99 (85% off)

Behind the Wardrobe

Sneak peek at the bonus articles

• Project Hail Mary features the work of a major Narnia movie contributor

• Narnia has company from another major fantasy franchise on Christmas Day

• Comedian set to write a Lord of the Rings movie script

• Explaining the timelines of the upcoming Middle-earth movies

• An ignorant Tolkien take that dominated social media

• And more!

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Digory and Polly find themselves waiting for much of the chapter. But while Digory waits and worries about Jadis rampaging across London, he overhears something that sparks hope for his mother.

This hope and longing, even in the most difficult circumstances, is something that followed Lewis throughout his life. He saw the longing as pointing beyond itself to a real joy that awaited us.

Chapter 7 “What Happened at the Front Door”

Jadis is undoubtedly an evil character, but, at least in this chapter, she’s also a comical one.1 Aunt Letty sees her unusual height and scandalous bare arms and assumes she must be from the circus. She calls her a “shameless hussy” and a “drunk.”2

Tired of Aunt Letty challenging her, she stands up to her full height and utters the same “horrible-sounding words” that reduced the palace gates in Charn to dust. But nothing happens. She has lost (at least some) of her magical abilities.

Lewis never fully explains why Jadis’ power seems to come and go in different words. We know that she can destroy gates, people, and an entire world with a single word in Charn. In the Wood Between the Worlds, she is seemingly powerless. On Earth, she retains much of her physical strength, but not her magic.

In some sense, it almost seems like the reverse of Superman, who draws superhuman abilities from our sun. It should be no surprise that Jadis, a character who brings death, would have more power in a world with a dying sun. In the Wood Between the Worlds, with its timeless, eternal sun, she loses all her strength. In our world, she only has her physical strength.

But when she realizes her magical powers are gone, “she did not lose her nerve for a second.” She can still use her physical strength, as she picks up Aunt Letty and throws her across the room.

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Much like March Madness, Narnia Madness is quickly coming to a close. The Valiant Sixteen, Magnificent Eight, and Just Four are finished. Now, we are at the championship match-up.

When I began planning this tournament and even when voting began, I would not have expected these quotes from these two books to meet for the 2026 Narnia Madness championship. …

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Project Hail Mary captures so much of what makes movies special. It’s a grand spectacle best experienced on a large screen and immersive sound, featuring a movie star, Ryan Gosling, in his wheelhouse with s…

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Digory and Polly unintentionally bring Jadis with them to the Wood Between the Worlds and then, even more unfortunately, back with them to London.

Their interaction with her in different circumstances serves as an apt illustration of how temptation comes across in various situations. We must resist even when it seems impossible because we don’t know what the next moment holds.

Chapter 6 “The Beginning of Uncle Andrew’s Troubles”

Unfortunately, Digory and Polly could not escape from Jadis. Because Uncle Andrew really didn’t understand how travel between worlds worked, neither did the children.

Jadis had grabbed Polly’s hair right as she and Digory jumped into the pool, which pulled her along with them. Lewis compares it to picking up a pin with a magnet and pulling along other pins that are touching.

But the location change has brought about more changes for Jadis. This place is seemingly closer to Aslan’s Country, and it often brings about self-forgetfulness. Nothing could be more depowering for the self-absorbed Jadis.

As the children see her in a different light, quite literally, they also recognize the difference in her appearance and power. The narrator refers to her as “the Witch” for the first time.

“She was much paler than she had been; so pale that hardly any of her beauty was left. … Neither of the children felt in the least afraid of her now.”

Later, we are told that Digory and Polly were stronger than she was. Jadis begins staggering and begging with them to take her out of the Wood Between the Worlds.

How often is this true with temptation? In one setting, we can feel overwhelmed. The sin seems almost impossible to resist. But if we simply stand our ground in that moment until a different time or change our setting to somewhere new, we can gain a different perspective and recognize the ability to resist.

Obviously, we see Lewis tackle temptation in The Screwtape Letters, but two quotes from Mere Christianity help sum up the importance of withstanding sin in those difficult moments. We truly learn about evil as we resist it.

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”

And as we resist it in one seemingly small moment, we build the muscles and the habits that allow us to resist it in more difficult and potentially crucial moments later.

“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.”

The children overpower Jadis in this moment. As a result, she begs for mercy and claims the Wood Between the Worlds is killing her.

Polly, having borne the brunt of Jadis’ arrogance, is ready to leave her behind as a “reason of State,” like when the Queen heedlessly killed countless people and dismissed their importance. Digory, on the other hand, feels sorry for her. His delay allows Jadis to grab him by the ear as he and Polly jump into the pool to return to London.

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In May 2024, Greta Gerwig spoke with a French news outlet about adopting Narnia. Almost two years later, with the film set to release in eight months, Gerwig has finally spoken publicly again about her upcoming adaptation.

What has remained consistent over the past two years has been the reverence with which she speaks of Lewis and the series.

Gerwig appeared via video at the Next on Netflix event in Hollywood and shared some thoughts on the film, via NarniaWeb. According to the Los Angeles Times, she said:

“It’s all very under wraps right now, but it’s something that I’m just so thrilled about because it was the book of my childhood. It was the book series that I loved, and I lived through, and I spent so much time imagining myself inside of Narnia. It’s been a joy and an honor to be the person who gets to imagine this universe.”

According to Goldderby, Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria said, “I don't think there is a bigger fan of that book series than Greta.”

This has seemingly been the case for her since childhood. In 2024, the last time she spoke about the adaptation, Gerwig told Augustin Trapenard of Brut:

As a writer and a thinker, C.S. Lewis is so rich and he’s so erudite. He’s written so much about different things that there’s a lot to dig into, and I find myself — it sounds maybe mystical — but it’s like you have a collaborator, and the collaborator is both C.S. Lewis and who I was when I was eight.

And so you’re always checking in with your child and this person who you’ve never met and you’re not going to be able to meet.

As I’ve repeatedly said, every time I hear Gerwig speak about Narnia, I’m encouraged. But she’s not the only one talking about the movie.

At the same event, Netflix film chairman Dan Lin teased a “rock and roll” take at the Netflix event, according to Variety senior writer Matt Donnelly. Similarly, in 2024, producer Amy Pascal said Gerwig’s Narnia would be a “very new take. It’s all about rock and roll.”

As someone who has read and loves the Narnia books, Gerwig has felt as if she is collaborating with Lewis on the project, at least in terms of reading his writing outside of Narnia and bringing that perspective to the film.

Others involved with the project—from a producer to the studio head to the IMAX CEO—believe Gerwig has created some new and different take on Narnia. We don’t know their familiarity with Lewis’ writing in general or Narnia specifically.

Maybe the others don’t realize how relevant and modern Lewis could be, despite writing in the midcentury about the early 1900s, so they assume a faithful version must be a radical departure. Maybe I’m grasping at straws, hoping Gerwig will give us a story that is faithful to Lewis.

As it has been throughout this process, only time will tell.

Not Safe But Good

C.S. Lewis quote of the week

“I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

Puddleglum in The Silver Chair

This is one of the quotes to make the Just Four in the 2026 Narnia Madness. Later this week, we’ll vote in the championship matchup for the greatest Narnia quote.

Tumnus’ bookshelf

Books by or about Lewis or Tolkien

The World’s Last Night and Other Essays is a great collection of seven Lewis essays, including “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” and “Religion and Rocketry.”

• The World’s Last Night and Other Essays by C.S. Lewis: $4.99 (52.4% off)

• Tales From The Perilous Realm: A Classic Fantasy Anthology of Poetry, Short Stories, and Fairy Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien: $1.99 (85% off)

Behind the Wardrobe

Sneak peek at the bonus articles

• Meryl Streep is part of Narnia, but will she voice Aslan?

• Ranking Narnia adaptations, even some you’ve never heard of

• Top philosopher on one of Lewis’ most acclaimed novel

• Frodo actor Elijah Wood gives an update on his reading The Lord of the Rings

• One of the most iconic Lord of the Rings movie quotes was changed from Tolkien’s original

• And more!

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It’s March, so there’s only one way to determine the greatest Narnia quote. ’Tis the season for brackets.

The first two rounds—Valiant Sixteen and Magnificent Eight—have finished. While most of the first batch were blowouts, last week was full of close games. No matchup was decided by more than three votes, and one was separated by only one vote.

Plus, on…

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