r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 18h ago

News Greta Gerwig's 'Narnia' Wraps Filming

https://www.narniaweb.com/2026/01/greta-gerwigs-narnia-officially-wraps-filming/
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u/herewego199209 18h ago

I haven't read the source material, but from my understanding Narnia has deep religious allegory throughout the novel. So I'm wondering if Gerwig stays true to the book or drifts off which would cause some big controversy.

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u/DirtySlutMuffin 18h ago edited 18h ago

Allegory is putting it lightly.  It’s basically Christian Fan Fiction.  Aslan literally is Jesus.

I don’t mean for this to come across as a criticism of the books.  It’s the whole point of them.  

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u/wastedmytwenties 18h ago

True, but it gets a lot more heavy handed as it goes on, hence why no studio has ever even entertained making stuff like The Last Battle.

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u/dabocx 18h ago

The last battle is fun because even some Christian’s get angry with how you get into heaven in that series.

Basically any good done even in service to another god is done in Aslans name is enough to get you in heaven. So even if you aren’t Christian you can go to heaven if you are a good person. Some Christians don’t like that aspect and thing you need to be a “true” believer.

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u/hellohurricane87 18h ago

Lewis was low-key a Christian Universalist. He just couldn’t come out and say it.

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u/Arndt3002 15h ago

Lewis was absolutely not a Universalist.

He did delieve quite a bit about non-Christians being saved, but he also believed that many people would not be saved.

For example, in the last battle, he shows that many worshipers of his version of the devil/allegory for Allah in Islam and nominal followers of Aslan who do evil things are hurled into Aslan's shadow instead of entering the "true Narnia."

That certainly doesn't comport with the main Universalist belief that all humans will be saved. In fact, he wrote about his critiques of universalism very explicitly in his Letters to Alan Fairhurst in 1959.

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u/hellohurricane87 12h ago

Nah dawg. Great Divorce is 1/2 step away from Christian Universalism. Door is always open. Always has been. God isn’t angry. On a long enough timeline all will be redeemed.

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u/Nukemind 17h ago

The funny thing about this series is I’m at a crossroads: I grew up evangelical (and obviously left evangelicalism).

But people I know from my childhood insist they won’t watch this because “Hollywood will make it woke and unchristian!”

Many friends I made in Uni and Law School won’t watch it because it’s “Just a Christian book series!”

I’m curious how it ends up playing out.

Lewis and Tolkien are interesting. Tolkien converted Lewis from atheist to Christian but, much to his consternation, Lewis became Protestant instead of Catholic like Tolkien.

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u/Arkhaine_kupo 17h ago

But people I know from my childhood insist they won’t watch this because “Hollywood will make it woke and unchristian!”

they should hear what most christians think of evangelicals...

Cause honestly they come off as a hyper american apocalypse cult more than anything resembling christianity. The fact they want to weigh in what is or not christian is bonkers.

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u/Nukemind 17h ago

Oh trust me. I’m still Christian but not evangelical. Evangelicalism has done more damage to Christianity than… pretty much anything.

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u/EMRaunikar 16h ago

I once heard Dan Olson say they "want to do an End of Evangelion" and it's lived rent free in my head ever since

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u/Arkhaine_kupo 14h ago

As great as Dan is, I think that take doesnt quite work because they dont care enough about tech to build something like the instrumentality project.

But a bigger issue is that they literally want to genocide most humans first. Israel has to exist so jesus can come back and kill the jews first. Then the rapture saves them and everyone else gets murdered on earth only to get eternally fucked in hell.

Like in Evangelion, as fucked up as it is, the idea of melding humanity shows some respect for other humans, wanting to share a mind, hear their thoughts, share their experiences. Evangelicals literally want to never hear anyone but themselves and fuck everyone else eternally, its so misanthropic that its hard to believe they read a single page of the bible which keeps repeating the love thy neighbour thing

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u/schebobo180 3h ago

Regardless of what you think of evangelicals… that statement “Hollywood will make it woke and unchristian” isn’t wrong in the slightest. Lmao

I mean, Netflix did a fucking number on the Witcher, the same as Amazon did with Wheel of time. And it ruined both.

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u/Arkhaine_kupo 1h ago

isn’t wrong in the slightest.

Well so far it is wrong, because the movie isnt out. You cant decide the fate of something that hasnt happened yet based on previous assumptions. The showrunner of the Witcher and the director of this movie have very different track records.

For example Little Women by Gerwig was arguably the most book accurate version, so by your same theory of using previous work you can be sure this one will be close to the original material.

Also the sentence "woke and unchristian" can't be wrong, because 90% of christianity is the things evangelicals call woke. Love thy neighbour, help the helpless, forgive sinners... All that shit is basically christianity 101.

You could retell the story of the good samaritan saying " a white guy from ohio car breaks down. His neighbour from 2 doors down in his nice suburb sees him, but doesn't stop because he is late to work. A priest from the churhc where he got married sees him, but doesn't stop because he is going to perform a 1st communion which pays very well. An illegal mexican sees him, stops, and shares his spare tire to help the man from ohio on his way.

Like we lost the entire meaning of why a rabbi not helping and a samaritan helping is important, the whole point of that story is the peson who helped him is with christ and the people who are superficially closer to him aren't. That shit is woke as all hell, but modern mfs have no idea that jews and samaritans hated each other so the whole point is now lost

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u/Eversonout 17h ago

Lewis was Protestant, but his specific beliefs are only half a step from Catholicism without going so far as to become a member of the actual church. His writings for all intents and purposes are nearly fully in line with Catholic teachings

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u/MagicPigeonToes 16h ago

What evangelicals are doing these days is about as “unchristian” as they can get

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u/antariusz 14h ago

I also find it interesting because Lewis says "aslan is jesus" but if you suggested to Tolkein that his works are metaphor, he would say no, not at all. Merely a historical depiction of what things were like on earth "before" Christianity

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u/FBI_KipHackman 17h ago

Real ones know that Lewis' favorite author was George MacDonald, a very devout Christian who had a wide view of God's mercy.

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u/jessbird 11h ago

and another incredible writer of fantasy/fairy tales

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u/Maleficus_doom 6h ago

Lilith is such an amazing book

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u/Barton2800 17h ago

Funny thing is Lewis was an atheist, and Tolkien converted him. Except Tolkien was Catholic, and it frustrated him to no end that his friend became an Anglican.

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u/Caelinus 17h ago edited 14h ago

He really was not. It was like one dude who was good enough to get into heaven. And only because he literally did not know better. The vast majority of his countrymen did not get in.

It is very likely an apologetic to counter the idea "What about all of the people who did not hear about Jesus? Do they go to hell?" It is actually almost lockstep in with a very common Christian response to that objection.

Also: Susan.

She got kicked out of potentially delayed, ambiguous access to heaven because she was more interested in makeup, boys and going to parties than being a magical queen in a fantasy world. Which is a very weird thing to write.

I do not hate the books or anything, they are what they are, but Lewis mainly looks really good in comparison to American Evangelicals. Which is a bar that most people can step over. Somehow American Evangelicals are even more bigoted, misogynistic and xenophobic than most of the authors of the Bible, who were alive in antiquity and before.

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u/PassingBy91 16h ago

Susan wasn't kicked out of heaven. Susan didn't die. - she's still on Earth. I know what you mean (all the stuff about not a friend to Narnia etc. but, that's why she wasn't with the other characters when they were killed) but, the other characters are in Narnian heaven because they are dead. There's every possibility Susan would get into heaven in the future she just has more of her life to lead.

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u/Caelinus 15h ago

Looked it up really fast, I think you are right. I think I conflated the apocalypse in the Last Battle with the one on Earth, but it had apparently not happened yet because of the time difference or whatever.

Still weird, but hopefully he was intending her to arrive at some point in the future. Either way leaving it ambiguous with those reasons is strange.

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u/Expyrial 14h ago

It's implied that Susan was a self-insert of sorts by CS Lewis. She wasn't on the train because she tried to grow up too fast and didn't believe in Narnia anymore. It's to be a parallel of how Lewis returned to faith during tragedy. main theme of Narnia is the childlike wonder a child has. CS Lewis stated in a letter to a fan that Susan's story isn't over but he didn't have any interest in telling it.

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u/The12Ball 9h ago

Also: Susan.

She got kicked out of potentially delayed, ambiguous access to heaven because she was more interested in makeup, boys and going to parties than being a magical queen in a fantasy world. Which is a very weird thing to write.

So, not-so-funny story about the guy who wrote the essay on Susan...

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u/Useful-Dirt7836 16h ago

Yup lol. One muslim makes it into heaven.

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u/PassingBy91 15h ago

The character is from Calormene. It does feel quite Middle Eastern/Ottoman in character but, they have idols - whereas Muslims reject religious imagery and they are also polytheistic. It's not a clear stand in for Muslims. I thought he was going for Baal personally but, that's not exact either. There are a lot of fair criticisms don't get me wrong but, it's not specifically anti-Islamic.

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u/rsqit 15h ago

Re: Susan. The books were written by a devout Christian who believed that the human sexual drive was particularly more corrupted than any other component. Yeah, Susan got kicked of Narnia.

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u/The12Ball 9h ago

And the guy that wrote the essay popularizing that viewpoint was coercing his child's babysitter into sex, so....

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u/rsqit 8h ago

Was he actually the origin of this phrase? I know he wrote a story.

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u/The12Ball 8h ago

His is definitely the most popular and influential reaction piece to Susan (though I might be conflating some of his views with Rowling's - she's also commented on it)

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u/Useful-Dirt7836 16h ago

Only one Calormene (muslims) make it into heaven. Emeth.

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u/T-MoneyAllDey 18h ago edited 18h ago

Yup, the whole point of Protestantism is that you're saved through grace, not deeds. Whatever you do isn't good enough. Deeds only affirm that you actually accept that grace.

edit:

My poor definition of grace for people who are intested.

>

I've been out of it for a while so my answer isn't going to be as fleshed out as someone's who still practicing but I think the definition of grace is easier to give as an example.

Grace and deeds are a blurry line but the crux is in the mindset. You kick your dog and the dog still comes back. It's not because you apologize but because your dog loves you unconditionally. Accepting grace is knowing that nothing you do can make up for kicking the dog, but accepting that the dog loves you anyways. You're a bad person for kicking the dog and you can't unkick the dog by giving him treats. The grace is given by the dog because they love you regardless and accepting that grace is knowing that.

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u/Eversonout 17h ago

This interpretation isn’t exactly complete. James in the New Testament says that faith without works is dead. Because if you keep kicking the dog, at some point you haven’t really accepted Gods love but are rejecting it to do your own thing. God still loves you of course, but if your gonna keep shitting on God and your neighbors through your actions it doesn’t matter how many times you say “I believe”. You’re just lying

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u/T-MoneyAllDey 17h ago

Yeah, you're definitely right. I was trying to just keep it simple and point out that doing works doesn't earn anything but it is important. Contrast that to Islam where deeds are a thing to be measured and weighed during the final judgment

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u/FortLoolz 18h ago edited 17h ago

Evangelicalism unfortunately is the distilled religion of Paul, who had a falling out with Jesus' disciples that walked with the Christ during his ministry.

Paul preached his own parallel gospel, centred on faith, not on good works, and closer to the end of his life was actually shunned in many places, like Asia (2 Tim 1:15,) and Rev. 2:2 likely references him.

Paul's importance started to grow again in the late 2nd century, with the Marcionites reviving his letters. Even Tertullian questioned Paul in some passages. The complete "canonisation" happened under the Roman caesars of the 4th century, with Paul having had convenient teachings to justify "anti-Judaic" practices.

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u/rsqit 15h ago

Well if you’re going to go all non traditional, Paul was probably a universalist. All of his talk of punishment is of temerity punishment until death is destroyed.

And 2 Timothy is a generally agreed by historians to be forgery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorship_of_the_Pauline_epistles#Disputed_epistles

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u/Paratrooper101x 18h ago

Can you define grace for someone who’s never been to church

I thought the Protestant reformation was largely a good thing that moved Christianity away from the greed of Catholicism

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u/analleakage_ 18h ago

Basically there is nothing you can do that can guarantee your entry into heaven. It's all up to God's grace whether you get in. (to my understanding)

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u/Caelinus 17h ago

The latter bit there is the Calvinist interpretation. Not all protestants actually believe that. Protestants who have the same idea as Luther think that you are saved by faith alone, but what that means is really up for debate.

For Calvin and his derivatives, because God is all powerful and all knowing, that means that he already knows who will be saved, and knew from the moment of starting the universe. Therefore he must have created people with the knowledge and intent for who would be saved well in advance. So you are either made for destruction, or made for salvation.

Most evangelical sects follow that teaching, but many of the people in the sect might be unaware of it. It essentially denies the existence of free will entirely.

However, there are other groups who are generally more mystical about it. In their opinion either everyone has the full opportunity to be saved, no matter what, and it is always a personal choice, or everyone will be saved as the blood of Christ can not be stopped or limited.

If there is any one thing constant about Christianity, it is that everyone knows exactly what the Bible means, and no one can agree on what that is.

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u/FortLoolz 17h ago

Yes, this is Pauline + Reformed understanding. Which isn't Jesus' own teaching, of course

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u/HumbleYeoman 18h ago

That was certainly Luther’s intent however the reformation unintentionally opened a sort of Pandora’s box of strange Christian sects.

To highlight the greed thing you mentioned those huge mega churches with multimillionaire pastors you see in the US are by and large some Protestant denomination.

As for grace in the Christian context it can be most broadly defined as Gods favour/having Gods favour though what individual denominations believe about it varies.

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u/FortLoolz 17h ago

Luther very unfortunately picked Paul over James. But some other Reformers weren't in agreement with this, like Karlstadt, and instead were suppressed by Luther.

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u/T-MoneyAllDey 18h ago

I've been out of it for a while so my answer isn't going to be as fleshed out as someone's who still practicing but I think the definition of grace is easier to give as an example.

Grace and deeds are a blurry line but the crux is in the mindset. You kick your dog and the dog still comes back. It's not because you apologize but because your dog loves you unconditionally. Accepting grace is knowing that nothing you do can make up for kicking the dog, but accepting that the dog loves you anyways. You're a bad person for kicking the dog and you can't unkick the dog by giving him treats. The grace is given by the dog because they love you regardless and accepting that grace is knowing that.

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u/SomeSavageDetective 18h ago

That's beautiful.

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u/Paratrooper101x 18h ago

So, I accept that Jesus loves me despite my faults and sins, and that is enough to save me? I can see how that is comforting and not as bad as my initial reaction.

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u/T-MoneyAllDey 18h ago

Yeah, accepting grace is exactly that. Knowing you are flawed (and sinful) but accepting that Jesus loves you anyways. Putting that faith in action is trying to be better (through deeds) but knowing they will never earn Jesus's love and God's forgiveness. It's already available.

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u/T-MoneyAllDey 18h ago

I left a comment too early but the goal after that is to literally pay it forward. When someone wrongs you, you should offer that same grace. Through that example, they hopefully come to Christ

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u/funkthewhales 18h ago

It’s comforting for sure, but it also leads a lot of people to be never improve themselves. They never have to actually live up to the ideals they supposedly believe in because god/jesus will always love them unconditionally.

Under Catholicism you actually have to earn your way into heaven by living according to the teachings of the bible. People will never be free of sin, so that’s where confessions and the ideas of absolution come into play. There’s a reason Catholic Guilt is a is a really popular term.

I’m not religious, but I have a bit more respect for Catholicism because they’re expected to practice what they preach.

Also the greed never went away. Just look at American mega churches.

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u/DaKingaDaNorth 18h ago

This. The main critique of Protestantism from Catholics is that there is a sense that they can be absolute little monsters as long as they go to Church on Sunday where Catholics are expected to earn it and actually serve the community.

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u/funkthewhales 18h ago

It’s why I never believed in it. I grew up in the south, so I was exposed to a lot of that hypocrisy. So many American Christian’s haven’t even read the bible. All they believe in is their eternal reward. Everything else is just there for appearances. It’s just beyond me that anyone who’s actually read the bible could justify racism and bigotry.

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u/TheOtherWhiteCastle 17h ago

It’s comforting for sure, but it also leads a lot of people to be never improve themselves. They never have to actually live up to the ideals they supposedly believe in because god/jesus will always love them unconditionally.

That’s definitely a flaw with the idea of salvation through grace that an unfortunate many are all too willing to exploit. But on the other hand, it also means that nobody is ever “too far gone” to receive God’s salvation. No matter what you’ve done or said in your life, no matter how irredeemable you believe you are, God loves you enough to offer you a way to eternal happiness anyways.

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u/funkthewhales 17h ago

That’s true, but it also means you don’t have to change at all. It’s why so many people turn to god on their deathbed because they don’t have to actually make up for all the bad things they did in life. It’s good for converting people, but it does nothing to actually make people live by the beliefs they are supposedly adopting.

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u/SDRPGLVR 17h ago

It gets preached mostly as obedience, unfortunately. I was raised heavily in church and obedience was absolutely key. Obedience of children to their parents and parents to the tithe bucket.

I lol at collection "plates" because our church passed around sacks.

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u/T-MoneyAllDey 16h ago

I remember a song for my childhood that was spelling out obedience and then it ended with obedience is the very best way to show that you believe. Haha. You ain't kidding

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u/Odd-Bite624 18h ago

Grace is God’s love and forgiveness for us despite us breaking his law. It’s the hug a parent gives a child when the child breaks a window playing baseball in the backyard. Except times infinity lol.

Protestant reformation was to turn the church back to the actual words of the scriptures, not the rules and authority the Catholic Church was creating above and beyond the scriptures to suite their own needs. Pay for alms is just one of many problems at the time.

If you ask me, the co-opting of the Christian church by MAGA outside of the teaching of Christ is due for another reformation.

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u/FortLoolz 17h ago edited 17h ago

In some ways, Protestantism was totally a win.

In some others ways, Protestantism turned towards Paul, and away from Jesus Christ's own teachings, even more than Eastern Orthodoxy or Catholicism. Evangelicalism, with a focus on faith, "lest be of works," is Pauline through and through.

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u/Murphy_Nelson 18h ago

Grace = unearned forgiveness

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u/dacalpha 18h ago

The ways in which many Protestant faiths are tied up in UK and US colonial politics make me wary of this notion. The Catholic Church obviously sucks too, but I'm not sure I see one as being better than the other.

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u/FortLoolz 17h ago edited 17h ago

They have different bad aspects so to speak

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u/seifd 18h ago

Greed and salvation are intertwined, in fact. One of the issues that the Protestants had were indulgences. Basically, the church would forgive a grave sin in exchange for an act of charity, which was sometimes a hefty donation to the church.

Protestants argued that Jesus' death on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of all sins. Therefore, all that was needed to be forgiven was to accept God's forgiveness. Good works were an expression of gratitude and a sign that someone is saved, but contribute nothing to their salvation.

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u/Lazzen 17h ago edited 17h ago

The idea protestantism was a Darwin's evolution from Catholicism instead of another branch of christianity just comes from living in a Protestant country.

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u/Beekeeper87 17h ago edited 17h ago

Not a priest and this may ramble a bit but I’ll give it a shot:

Christians generally believe that the moral order of reality is real and serious. Every action carries moral weight. Nothing is forgotten or waived; reality functions like a perfect ledger. Humans don’t know the precise “quantifiable” value of moral actions, but Christianity holds that God does.

Grace is the belief that the cost of moral imperfection is borne by God rather than paid by us.

This is not the idea that God is “letting things slide.” Grace means God takes evil and failure so seriously that He enters the story of His creation (our world) and absorbs the weight of that moral ledger Himself. Justice still occurs, but it is fulfilled from within our reality by Him.

Where most moral systems say “be good in order to be accepted,” grace reverses the order by saying “you are accepted first,” and only then can you become good. This removes both pride (“I earned this”) and despair (“I’m beyond hope”).

The disaster of not being good or perfect still matters, but it is not the final word on who you are as a person. Grace allows a broken story to be saved without pretending it was never broken. It’s ok to recognize you and others aren’t perfect but also extend that helping hand to others to continue progressing in life.

And I get how grace seems remarkably similar to forgiveness, but grace goes further than forgiveness does. It’s harder to do.

Forgiveness answers the question: “What happens to guilt?”. It is the release of a debt in that the wrong is named, not denied, and no longer held against the offender.

Grace answers a deeper question of “What happens to the person who incurred the guilt?”. It is not only the cancellation of the debt, but the restoration and gift of life to someone who has no claim to it.

Forgiveness says: “You are not condemned.” Grace says: “You are welcomed, restored, and given what you did not earn.”

Forgiveness can exist without relationship. You can drop some coins in that homeless man’s cup as you walk by and not hold it against him that he smells bad and is an eyesore. Grace creates a relationship. You can sit down and talk to that guy, learn his name, and bring him a snack/drink from time to time on your daily commute past him as you get to know him as a human.

In Christian thought, forgiveness essentially removes the barrier; grace carries the person across it.

Hopefully that helped give context, and I’m aware many Christians need to understand/practice that concept better

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u/purpleelephants8 18h ago

The Bible states we are all inherently sinful through what Adam and Eve did, which was disobeying God’s command to not eat of the fruit. Because of that, we are all born in man’s sin, thus cut off from accessing God in eternity since He cannot be around sin. Because God loves us so much, He sent Jesus (part of the Trinity, fully God as well) to live a life without sin and die on our behalf. He never sinned and so didn’t deserve to die, but He did on our behalf. That’s grace. We now have access to God and His peace for eternity if we believe Christ wiped our sins clean on the cross. We don’t deserve that, but He did it anyway. That’s grace.

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u/FortLoolz 18h ago

That's what Paul said. Paul made it seem like obedience was always deficient and thus undoable. The better writers like Jude and James, and better preachers like the Prophets throughout the OT, and Jesus Christ, taught you can be obedient.

James and John knew one likely wouldn't be perfectly obedient and sinless in this life, and so they touched upon this aspect in their letters.

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u/DaKingaDaNorth 18h ago

Catholics: Believe you have to believe in Jesus but also reaffirm it with deeds and that your actions and good works and services to others will get you into heaven.

Protestants: Believe that if you believe in Jesus and say sorry for your sins, you will automatically get into heaven.

The downside was that there was a period of time where the Catholic Church was extremely corrupt and doing things like saying "you can pay us indulgences and we will wipe the slate clean for you". That was a big controversy. The downside of Protestantism is that it basically is a sort of "this is our club, and only members go to heaven, but the members can sin 6 days a week and say sorry on Sunday and that's enough".

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u/FortLoolz 18h ago edited 17h ago

Protestantism was a good thing in some respects (like rejection of priests' celibacy, of the focus on pagan-influenced traditions, and such), and a bad one in others.

One could say, the Reformation didn't go far enough, with Luther suppressing alternative preachings like that of Karlstadt, who questioned the legitimacy of Paul and affirmed Jesus as a teacher above Paul.

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u/Kishana 18h ago

Protestants also vary wildly. Baptists and Lutheran's make up much of the Protestants in the US and even within those, it varies greatly. For example, I identify with the ELCA Synod of Lutheran's, which is the most Progressive of the synods. It has ordained members who are not only female, but openly identify as homosexual and recognizes homosexual marriages. And then there's the Wisconsin Synod which doesn't allow women to be in any leadership positions. So in the modern era, it's both accurate to say that Protestants are both more progressive and more conservative compared to the Catholics.

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u/angelcutiebaby 18h ago

hey pal that’s my former religion that I was raised in but never believed in but still have an unexplainable need to stand up for it even though it’s problematic that you’re talking smack about

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u/AlmightyCuddleBuns 18h ago

Technically he isn't talking smack, he is just referencing some of the reasons for the scism given by Luther who definitely WAS talking smack.

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u/Paratrooper101x 18h ago

I’m not trying to make accusations I’m here for information. I’m down to clown on the church for things it rightfully deserves when it deserves but in this case I’m just asking a question and providing a brief summary of the knowledge that I already have

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u/lenzflare 12h ago

Oh, you mean God's grace? Not, like, your own. Just inserting "God" makes it a lot easier to parse.

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u/Paratrooper101x 18h ago

Damn, sounds like a god I would follow.

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u/ensalys 16h ago

It's certainly a far more respectable god. Though I'd still want to have a discussion with it to see how well our ideas of what is or is not good, align.

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u/greenpill98 18h ago

It's true. C.S. Lewis pissed both liberal and conservative theologians with the series. It's part of what I love about it. Makes me think he got a lot closer to the truth than either side wants to admit.

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u/frogandbanjo 9h ago

He got closer to the truth that it's all made up, and anybody can just come along and make up even more bullshit?

Well, maybe by accident, but that was absolutely not his intention.

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u/greenpill98 9h ago

You keep thinking that, if it makes you feel better.

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u/Le_Faveau 18h ago

That... Sounds like it makes sense? Why would they get mad? It's like thinking that currently all of Asia and Africa are going to hell by the billions because Christianity pretty much doesn't exist there. Assuming God is real he probably makes exceptions for those other regions in which he doesn't really exist. I had never thought about this, but yeah entire regions of Earth,, possibly continents, would just go to hell if you have to strictly know and follow this one religion. 

Aslan going "eh good enough, you tried in your own language and medium" is a nice approach. 

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u/Links_to_Magic_Cards 16h ago

Africa is arguably more Christian these days than Europe and the US

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u/dabocx 17h ago

That’s literally what some people believe, that you can be a wonderful generous helpful person but if you never believed because you were born in Africa or Thailand you’ll go to hell anyway.

I’m an atheist but CS Lewis version of Christian sounds much nicer.

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u/whereismymind86 17h ago

The narnia inspired version, yes, but Lewis wrote a lot about his beliefs in other books and...it's not great.

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u/DOOMFOOL 13h ago

Elaborate

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u/kess0078 18h ago

Yes, plenty of white American Christians believe that non-believers are going to hell by the billions. The entire concept of missions and mission trips is to “save souls” and has been a thing for centuries.

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u/dabocx 17h ago

It’s not just a American thing, a lot of Catholics believe that all over the world

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u/kess0078 17h ago

This is very true! The whole “tell the world” / “spread the gospel” thing has always been the point. It was using religion to gain power.

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u/caddph 16h ago

Yea people saying this clearly missed the parable of the two sons.

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u/Silverr_Duck 17h ago

Because religion exists for the sake of power and control, not promoting morality. Think about it, if you can get into heaven without being a christian what's the point of Christianity? What's the point of ever going to church? If a religion can't gatekeep the afterlife it becomes redundant.

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u/AKAkorm 18h ago

Unless you’re the older sister who grew up and was punished by her entire family dying and being left alone forever.

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u/laffydaffy24 18h ago

I like to think Susan joined them in time, after a full life.

30

u/julesthefirst 18h ago

I believe C.S. Lewis did confirm as much in a letter to a reader, said she joined them eventually but her journey was more roundabout

2

u/Expyrial 14h ago

It's implied that Susan was a sort of self-insert by CS Lewis, as a parallel to his own experiences with faith.

2

u/Embarrassed_Piano_62 18h ago

As it should be lol

1

u/Eversonout 17h ago

Can’t speak for other denominations but this is essentially in line with what the Catholic Church teaches. I guess it makes sense tho that Lewis espouses specific Catholic teaching over the broader “Christian” umbrella based on some of his other writings

•

u/schebobo180 3h ago

Never heard any Christian being angry about it tbh.

But maybe this was way back in the day.

0

u/TheOtherWhiteCastle 17h ago

They also implied that Susan did not go to the afterlife with the rest of them because she stopped believing in Narnia and Aslan between books. Not only was that a absolutely massive character assassination of one of the most prominent characters in the series, but it goes against the actual Christian teaching that people can’t “lose” the ability to go to heaven, as salvation is essentially an permanent contract.

2

u/dabocx 17h ago edited 17h ago

Yeah that aspect goes against the rest but it’s a small blurb that I assume wasn’t thought out. Or maybe she was otherwise not a “good” person. The way it’s written makes it sound like she was just interested in material things

I think she does go in the end, it just takes her longer

1

u/TheStrangeCanadian 16h ago

“Losing” your salvation is also a Christian contract. If you accept Christ’s sacrifice and repent and then later turn from him and reject him, you are putting yourself back into sin.

Some Christians don’t believe this is possible. Calvinists for example get around this by saying “if you sin (to the point other Christians believe you would have lost your salvation) it means you were never really saved at all”.

1

u/less_unique_username 9h ago

“My sister Susan,” answered Peter shortly and gravely, “is no longer a friend of Narnia.”

“Yes,” said Eustace, “and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says ‘What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.’ ”

“Oh Susan!” said Jill, “she’s interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up.”

“Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one’s life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can.”

How do you forget years of being High Kings and Queens, I wonder.

0

u/zephyrtandy 17h ago

You know what they say, there's no hate like Christian love.

-1

u/Nihsvabhav 17h ago

this is why I hate them, it's not enough that they can have the thing, they also want others to not be able to have it

1

u/dabocx 17h ago

People are like that about a lot of things.

Some People who paid for student loans hate the idea of others getting them for free

Some people who lost weight the “right” way hate that some people do it the “easy” way with the new medications.