Schakel, Peter J. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005. ix + 202 pp., $14.00 (USD), $16.32 (CAN). ISBN: 0-8028-2984-8.

[1] Peter Schakel moves past the most obvious allusions to Christian imagery in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia—namely the reference to Christ in the character Aslan—to present a reading more revealing of Lewis’s artistic and philosophical intent. Schakel reminds readers that Lewis did not intend for The Chronicles of Narnia to function as a one-to-one allegory with the Bible. Rather, the Chronicles present a suppositional outlook concerning God’s involvement in other worlds that are not like ours: “The Chronicles are about his [i.e., God’s] lordship over Narnia, not over planet Earth” (45). Consequently, the account of Aslan’s sacrifice at the Stone Table in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe holds significance beyond its apparent parallels to the Passion narratives of the Gospels: “The general meaning of Aslan’s death is very similar to the meaning of the death of Christ in our world, but one does not need to know or refer to the Biblical account of Christ to gain that meaning” (45). Lewis did not seek to expound any particular theories of atonement in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; and to pin any theory to Aslan’s death and resurrection is to impose something on Lewis’ text that is absent.

[2] The significance of Aslan’s death and resurrection arise without the reader’s reliance on biblical knowledge, because Lewis constructed the story world of Narnia in such a way that it enchants readers and transports them into what Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien called the world of Faërie. With Lewis’s artistic intent in mind, Schakel opens The Way into Narnia with a discussion of Lewis’s fascination with fairy tales from a young age (chapter 1) and the importance of understanding the fairy tale genre to appreciate the original, non-chronological ordering of the individual books within the Chronicles favoured by Schakel (chapter 2). Before a close examination of each of the Chronicles volumes, Schakel explains Lewis’s understanding of myth and fairy tales (chapter 3). Influenced by Tolkien’s understanding of myth, Lewis constructed the Chronicles “to awaken and at least partially satisfy a sense of longing, a longing inherent in the nature of Faërie itself” (28). The escape offered in such stories appeals to readers because it enables readers “to recover, or regain, a clear view of life, and to recover realities not recognized by those who limit reality to material objects” (29).

[3] Lewis explores his understanding of myth through the Chronicles, practically demonstrating his belief that “[m]yth conveys realities that are universal and feel inevitable to the human heart or the spirit” (34-35). The eucatastrophe (good catastrophe)—around which each book as well as the Narnian epic as a whole is structured—communicates the human desire for the transcendent in its denial of defeat and offer of joyous hope. Pointing to Lewis’s understanding of myth and use of the eucatastrophe, Schakel turns to a discussion of each of the books comprising The Chronicles of Narnia in chapters 4 through 10. As such, Schakel provides a thorough analysis of the Narnian epic that illuminates the Chronicles for both first-time and familiar readers alike.

[4] In addition to the commentary on the thematic content of the individual books, Schakel provides a useful and comprehensive annotated reader’s guide to the Chronicles. This appendix compares and discusses the editorial changes made in the printing of subsequent versions page by page. Explanations of archaic language and English colloquialisms as well as notable allusions to biblical and classical texts also make this appended reader’s guide a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand The Chronicles of Narnia in greater depth. 

[5] The importance of The Way into Narnia is not only that it explains the enduring allure of the Narnian epic to readers, but also that it connects the Chronicles with Lewis’s political and religious thought, revealing something of the socio-religious climate of mid-twentieth century England addressed so often in Lewis’s writing. Schakel reminds readers that Lewis’s “smuggling theology” (45) into the Chronicles was not included to make the Chronicles a tool of evangelism or a theological work but rather to serve as part of his larger critique of modernity. Consequently, Schakel avoids apologizing for Lewis’s apparent Christian “didacticism” (117), reminding readers that the Chronicles present a specific understanding of myth as well as Christian identity that was common in Lewis’s context.

Michael N. Friesen
Toronto, Ontario
michaelfriesen@gmail.com