A call to arms, or why I’m not going to stop talking about obscure Lewis works for the next six months.

Much has already been said about Greta Gerwig's casting of Meryl Streep as Aslan in the movie adaptation of The Magician's Nephew. In some ways, this feels new, twisting something so beautiful and beloved in ways that are almost creatively egregious. It has the look of a fresh attack, a newly opened battlefront in the culture war.

I don't think it's new. For one thing, bad Narnia film adaptations have come and gone, as anyone who has seen the recent Voyage of the Dawn Treader could tell you. Narnia, for all its succinct plots and beautiful imagery, has a quality that is difficult to capture on-screen. Of course, leftism-infused adaptations are also not new, and the coming storm of controversy over the film will not be new either. The culture war has been fought a hundred times on a hundred different fronts, and this will be another of them. I can almost see the Twitter battles, the angry articles, the months of irreverent and bitter discussion about God and Jesus and masculinity and femininity; good things surrounded by the flame of anger.

But what if that didn't happen? What if we suffocated the whole conversation?

They want us to talk about it. (My boogeyman "they" in this case is Hollywood and the media—"us" represents conservative Christians.) They want us to be upset. Gerwig just did something controversial and transgressive, and we shouldn't take the bait. Don't get me wrong, I have seen some very well-considered essays: one addressed the need for Aslan to be a father figure, another considered the idea of twisting beauty as a "deathwork." In that essay, Tim Challies also wrote: "Though Lewis did not intend for Aslan to be Jesus, he explicitly intended for him to be like Jesus—to be a supposal, an answer to a question like this: Supposing there were a world that was different from this one, how might its story be like the biblical story?" An important consideration to keep in mind throughout this discussion.

I believe this conversation, months before the movie comes out, is reasonable and appropriate. We are clearly outlining what is happening and why it is wrong. But after this discussion ends, we absolutely need to stop talking about the movie. We shouldn't give it any attention whatsoever.

I imagine the natural audience for a Narnia movie would be Christians along with some non-Christians who happened to like the books as fantasy. This particular movie probably won't attract Christians, but it might draw some leftists, especially with the allure of gender controversy. I predict that the bigger the gender controversy, the more leftists in the audience. If we don't feed the gender controversy by talking about it, the remaining audience ends up being small. Without Christians, they'll entertain a few leftists who like Gerwig or transgressive adaptations of popular works, and a few non-Christians who enjoyed the novel. A few movies have flopped because they were too woke for the audience's taste--Pixar's Lightyear comes to mind. Counterproductive internet arguments, however, will serve as advertisement for people who otherwise wouldn't be interested in a movie.

Gerwig and Streep, and even the media and Hollywood, after all, are not our enemies. We have very real enemies, but Hollywood is just a tool they are using. Might I even suggest that those people are the hostages of our true enemies?

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12, KJV).

When our enemy is making a mistake, we shouldn't interrupt them.*

Who thought it was a good idea to use a C.S. Lewis work to push gender ideology and irreverence toward Christ? Thankfully, Lewis, through his posthumous works, can speak for himself on both topics. I propose that anytime Gerwig's adaptation comes up in the coming months, we use this as an excuse to start talking about Lewis.

"Oh, are you a Lewis fan? Have you read The Screwtape Letters?"

"I liked The Magician's Nephew book, but no, I haven't seen the movie. Hey, if you liked The Magician's Nephew, you should read Perelandra!" (Which contains quite an intense passage about the truth of masculinity and femininity).

"Oh, we should talk about the themes of joy and beauty running through all of Lewis' work! Have you read Surprised by Joy?"

We shouldn't just ignore Gerwig. We should use any discussion, any attempt to stir up controversy, as an excuse to talk about Lewis. From that starting point, we can advance the cause of the great modern apologist who, in Mere Christianity, offered an excellent summary of Christian belief.

Our battle cry should be "For Narnia and the North!" Or, nerdier still, "For Logres!" This is preferable to some anti-Greta Gerwig sentiment. Gerwig is just someone's pawn making an attack on Lewis' work. The attention should be going to him, not to her. And perhaps Gerwig's plot could be turned inside out, providing an opportunity for a productive discussion and reading of C.S. Lewis.

I suppose Lewis is also a pawn, but for the other side. Which should remind us: We know the outcome of this battle. Let us behave cheerfully, and kindly, as people who know they've already won.

*Thank you, Matt Whitman, for introducing me to that phrase. Rewatching that video is making me realize his thinking on that topic is influencing my thinking on this one.