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"The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy opens doors not only to the shimmering realms beyond the lamp-post, but also to the great questions of philosophy.
The authors are eminent contemporary philosophers who find in Narnia rich subject for meditation. One may read this book both as an introduction to philosophy and as a fresh outlook on Narnia.”
–Carol Zaleski.
Extreme Makeover: Moral Education and the
Encounter with Aslan, a 13 page article by Bill
Davis in the book The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy, edited
by Gregory Bassham and Jerry Walls, Open Court, 2005.
Cornerstone
members and friends will remember that Bill Davis is our supported
missionary to the children of the denomination and others at Covenant
College. Some will remember him and his family from the days when they
were members of Cornerstone.
This article, the only part of the book being reviewed, is one of his recent works.
The New Birth is only the beginning of the Christian life. The rest of life is largely our struggle, our “makeover”, to become persons closer to the ideal that God has set out for us. Part of this struggle is the development of our own sense of morality.
In the introduction to this article, speaking of the “not saintly or heroic” children who enter Narnia, Davis says, “Narnia is the remedy for their moral shortcomings. And Lewis, drawing on a classical moral framework rooted in both ancient Greek philosophy and Christian principles, wants us to see that our own moral development needs what they found in Narnia.”
Davis emphasizes the way that being in Narnia, “fundamentally a good place”, changes the children. In some cases they fell back when returning home. Yet for most of them, “these visitors are changed so deeply that they can resist the corrupting influences of our world. They aren’t just virtuous when they are in the morally rich air of Narnia; they have become virtuous at their core. What all these characters share is a life-transforming encounter with Aslan.”
In the last section of Extreme Makeover, titled “Why We Still Need Narnia”, Davis notes that, “In recent years many schools, both public and private, have come to include ‘character education’ and even ‘moral values’ among their educational goals. … Despite this, Lewis would probably think that students today need a trip to Narnia just as badly as the children in the Chronicles did, because today’s character education programs base moral growth on love for self rather than on love for the good. … Boxed in by political taboos, today’s character education attempts to treat goodness without any mention of moral reality, that is, without any mention of religion. … It won’t be easy to fix today’s character education programs. … Until we have an encounter with the good one that remakes us, we will only pursue virtue out of love for ourselves. We all need Narnia …; but we need Aslan most of all.”
When I was handed this book for our library in the Davis home in June, 2007, the three younger children were eager to be sure that the first thing I read was the concluding footnote. It said, “I am indebted to my children Amy, Rachel and Mark for their enthusiastic help with this chapter…“!
I haven’t read the other articles in this book by others dealing with Narnia, but they may be of interest.
See also on this website the review of another Davis article, Choosing to Die: The Gift of Mortality in Middle-earth, in The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy, from this same series of books. Another Davis publication, which is not in the library, is Thomas Reid's Ethics: Moral Epistemology on Legal Foundations (Continuum Studies in British Philosophy), 2006. This 158 page book is available from Amazon for $120.
— Dean Brown
Bill Davis is Professor of
Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Covenant College.
He has contributed articles on moral philosophy in several recent books.
The book’s editors are at King’s College, Pennsylvania, and Berkeley
College in New York City.
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email: info@cornerstonepch.org