Katelyn Joyce- Lewis' Potential Impact on Non-Believers

 I have always been very interested in the way C. S. Lewis incorporated Christianity into his fiction writings. We saw this in The Chronicles of Narnia with Aslan’s connection to Jesus, and in The Magician's Assistant with the parallels to the Garden of Eden and the fall of man, in how Maledil coming to earth, just to name a few. These themes may be obvious to a Christian reading it, but I do not believe it is as noticeable for those who are not believers or are not familiar with the storys. I am aware that he did not set out to draw so many parallels. We see this in his quote from his essay Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to be Said.” “Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument, then collected information about child psychology and decided what age group I’d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn’t write in that way. It all began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord.” This may not have been his purpose in writing, but I believe it has been able to make a great impact in the way readers can understand Christianity. Through my research in my Senior Seminar class, I began to understand the extent of how individuals could have been hurt by the church. When people have been hurt, it is often times more difficult for them to open back up to the thing that had caused them pain. This is especially true in the Christian church. Presenting the stories and the morals associated with Christianity in a covert way could give those hurt by the church the space to hear the stories in a new light. This eliminates the possibility for their personal bias to come in, ultimately leading them to understanding Jesus in a way they could have never before, opening up the possibility of them coming to him. Whether or not it was purposeful on Lewis’ part, I believe that his way of writing has the potential to play a great role in the salvation of many individuals.