The Lion's World - A journey into the heart of Narnia - Softcover

Williams, Rowan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 028106895X ISBN 13: 9780281068951

Publisher: SPCK Publishing, 2012

Synopsis

Following the appearance of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1950, C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia have enchanted children and adults alike for over half a century. In The Lion's World, Rowan Williams explores the moral landscape of all seven novels in the series, and offers an astute guide to their spiritual subtext. He draws on significant aspects of their author's life and thought, and on key themes in his other novels, painting a richly textured picture of his aims and achievements. At the same time, Williams gently but firmly rebuts those critics who have charged Lewis with sexism, racial stereotyping and the glorification of violence. Whether you have read the whole Narnia series or simply enjoyed one of the films, The Lion's World is a rewarding and ultimately joyful read - one that will send you back to the novels with a deeper sense of their subtle literary artistry, and the powerful spiritual insights they contain.

About this title

Review:

'Reading Rowan Williams on C. S. Lewis is like watching two old friends in animated discussion of great, powerful themes. It helps that both are (of course) highly literate: Shakespeare, Thomas Merton, Augustine and others flit across the pages. It helps more, particularly for those just discovering Lewis (or indeed Williams) that both write with lucid and engaging clarity. But what really counts is that, as with the two on the Emmaus Road, we constantly sense a third presence, that of the Lion who will not let us rest in our own little self-deceits but who constantly challenges us to discover the larger joys of his new creation. Those who have loved Narnia since childhood will here discover fresh and sometimes disturbing depths of meaning and power. Those who don't know it will be stimulated to read the stories for themselves. Those who have tried to debunk Lewis and his children's books will find Williams more than a match for them, not as an uncritical apologist but as a wise and humane expositor. How fortunate, and appropriate, for Lewis's old Cambridge college to have Williams as its new Master.' --Tom Wright, Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, University of St Andrews

'I have often thought there was more to Lewis than is often noticed by his enthusiastic readers. Now he has Rowan Williams, who helps us see that Lewis, who certainly had his limits, was an extraordinary imaginative mind who was able to 'rinse out what is stale in our thinking about Christianity'. Williams' account of the Narnia Chronicles, therefore, helps us rinse out any too-easy criticisms of their author. And together Lewis and Williams enable us to imagine what it might mean to see God in the everyday. We are in Rowan Williams' debt for this deft reading of C. S. Lewis.' --Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School, North Carolina

'Like the Wardrobe, this book opens a door into another world. It takes the reader further up and further in to that world, a world that deepens the imagination and warms the soul. In the company of Rowan Williams, the already rich world of Narnia becomes a theological feast of delight.' --Paula Gooder, Canon Theologian of Birmingham and Guildford Cathedrals

From the Author:

Rowan Williams Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

About this edition

• Publisher: SPCK Publishing
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 028106895X
• ISBN 13: 9780281068951
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176