Fast-forward
a few years. Last week I finished a book of short stories by the clever and
ever-engaging Neil Gaiman. I do not know what Mr. Gaiman’s personal views on
religion are, but a good guess is that he is not an orthodox Christian. In one
particular story, a young school-boy recounts the day when he made the
connection between the Chronicles of Narnia and the Christian Bible. He feels
cheated and reluctantly ceases to believe in Narnia.
What do
these two events have in common, you ask? They both caused me to wonder: Why is
the anti-theist metanarrative considered more true than the Christian one? For
both Pullman and the character in Gaiman’s short story, the discovery of an
underlying Christian worldview in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia forever
scarred them. Gaiman’s character came to the conclusion that writers shouldn’t
have any sort of agenda in their writing. Pullman came to the conclusion that
if Lewis could do it for Christianity, he could do it for atheism, or rather,
anti-theism (It seems to me that Pullman hates God more than he doesn’t believe
in God’s existence).
So why is it
somehow sneaky or wrong or unsportsmanlike to write a story, particularly a
children’s story, with underlying themes that point us to God? I have a theory
that every story-line every written is contained in the Bible. Are the stories
of Chaos more real than the stories of Restoration? Is Sodom or her sister
Gomorrah more genuine than Zion?
I hated
Pullman’s series. If his miserable view of the world is true, I would rather,
with Puddleglum, be “on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it.”[1]
There is
such a difference between the endings of The Chronicles of Narnia (and even
Lord of the Rings) and Pullman’s series. Pullman’s story ends with life and
separation. Two young people who are very much in love, but must forever live
apart for no good reason (that I could tell). The Last Battle ends with death
and restoration. The children from our world die in a train crash, but are
reunited in Aslan’s country for endless holiday.
No, the
people in the Narnia books don’t have perfect lives (Lemony Snicket’s thoughts
on the nauseatingly saccharine “Littlest Elf” come to mind). They have to
fight, there is pain, friends die and betray, but in the end, everything that
is sad comes untrue[2].
For Pullman, this isn’t an option. God is just a power grubbing liar, the
pitiful shell of a being who deceives others into believing that he is the Creator.
Why, then,
are those stories, bent on propagating the lie that God does not love us, more
true that the story of the Prince who died to save His Bride? Which one
causes your blood to boil and your heart to race and goose-bumps to break out
all over your skin and fierce joy to flood your soul? I contend that it is the
fairy tales that speak to our souls. Even if you do not believe in the
Christian metanarrative, it is the most compelling and most captivating story
there is or ever will be. And the best part about this fairy tale: It’s true.
