Are you seething with anger? Or celebrating with joy? Perhaps you’re playing it cool and waiting to see more before making a final judgement.
I’m talking, of course, about the new trailer for Greta Gerwig’s debut Narnia film, The Magician’s Nephew.
We could discuss many points of controversy, from the gender-bending casting of Meryl Streep as the voice of (an apparently still male) Aslan, to the dissonant pairing of hard rock pioneers Led Zeppelin with glimpses of wartime Britain and the fantasy world of Narnia. And if I were more of a clickbait-y provocateur, perhaps I would.
Instead, this week on The Shock Absorber podcast, Joel McMaster and I dig into the world of art, literature, and the devotional impact that C.S. Lewis's original Narnia series has had on our faith formation. We talk about the spectrum of “Christian” art, from the Catholic-informed moral world of Tolkien’s Middle-earth, to the allegorical The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (despite Lewis’ own aversion to the term “allegory”), to the more heavy-handed sermonising of modern films like God’s Not Dead.
Along the way, we ask questions about “good” Christian art, the Gospel as the true myth, and the resonances of the Christian story in Marvel, the Matrix and murder mysteries.
Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.