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They begin with a wardrobe. They end with the words: "Further up and further in." And in between, C.S. Lewis created a world so fully realised, so morally serious, and so suffused with Christian meaning that readers who first encounter it as children return to it as adults and find it richer than ever. Premier Christianity rightly includes the Narnia chronicles among the books that have shaped the Church.
Lewis always insisted the books were not allegory — Aslan is not simply "a symbol for Jesus" — but rather a way of exploring what it might feel like to encounter the redemptive reality of Christ in a different world. The effect is to make the familiar new. Readers who have grown numb to the language of sin and sacrifice and resurrection find in Aslan's death and return on the Stone Table something that hits them before their defences are up.
The seven books span a vast moral and theological range: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe gives us atonement; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader maps the Christian life; The Last Battle dares to dramatise eschatology. Together they are one of the great achievements of Christian imagination.
Want to know more about the full 100 Books list then read our blog article here.
About the Author: C.S. Lewis (1898–1963) was professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge and one of the twentieth century's most gifted Christian communicators. His non-fiction works — Mere Christianity (Voted #4!), The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters (Voted #14) — are equally essential reading.
