This four-part series explores how we can fulfill our calling as Christians by cultivating “Narnian” hearts that sow the kingdom on earth, growing “little Edens.”
By Karissa Riffel
One of the most difficult challenges in life is watching those we love face illness. I have seen my grandparents deteriorate into dementia and Alzheimer’s, my mother deal with breast cancer, and my father go through a quadruple bypass heart surgery with years of recovery and maintenance. It is an ever-present reminder that our world itself is sick.
Among the epic worlds and cosmic themes of The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis, it is easy to miss the main character’s struggle: his mother is terminally ill. Lewis's brilliance is that, through the characters, he makes his examination of the familiar creation themes intimate and personal.
In Charn we see a world reminiscent of Babel, a people given over to their own sinful desires, building a monument to their own greatness. In Narnia we see Eden, a luscious garden untouched by sin and teeming with goodness and life. But evil comes to Narnia, too. Throughout the narrative, Lewis draws parallels between these two worlds as well as between different human hearts, causing us readers to ask the question of ourselves: are we cultivating hearts of Charn or hearts of Narnia?
Another Babel
Digory and Polly accidentally travel to a different world, one with a dying, red sun and the ruins of a civilization. Queen Jadis—later the villain—tells them the history of Charn. It was a world where cruelty reigned, slavery prospered, and—it’s hinted—human sacrifice occurred. Nothing lives within those ruins, and the mighty river has turned to dust, once “the wonder of the world, perhaps of all worlds” as the queen tells the children.[1]
This description reminds us of Babel, the city that built a tower to reach God, concerned only with making their own name great. It might also turn our minds to pre-flood civilization where “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and . . . every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 8:5, ESV). Like Charn, this civilization was also destroyed.
Seeking the Kingdom
When we look at our world today, it is easy to see Charn: chaos, conflict, and destruction—not only on an epic scale, but also in our individual daily lives. How many times does a small inconvenience cause impatience or—let’s be honest—evil thoughts in our hearts? How many times do we choose selfishness, domination, and despair?
However, in our world there are also echoes of Narnia, a land so bursting with life that even a shard of broken metal sprouts into a whole lamppost. There are echoes of the mountaintop garden reminiscent of Eden, where trees bear the fruit of eternal youth and where love, biblical dominion, and hope flourish. The beautiful paradox of the kingdom is that it’s “already but not yet,"though it is easy to dwell on the “not yet” because sometimes that is all we see.
So how do we as Christians seek the kingdom in our Charn-like land? How do we face the scars of sin, such as illness? Theologian Peter Leithart points out that God commands Adam and Eve, not to leave creation untouched, but to work the land, setting up other “gardens” or places of worship throughout the world.[2] To do this is to join in God’s work of renewing and restoring the creation.
Planting Toffee Trees
On their journey to the mountain garden, Digory and Polly split a bag of toffee, their only food, for dinner, planting the last piece in the ground. The next day—impossibly—it has grown into a tree bearing scrumptious fruit. This is an image of our calling as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve: to plant our “toffees” and to tend and grow them into little Edens.
In parts 2, 3 and 4, we will explore ways in which Lewis’s classic tale illuminates our task as “gardeners” of Eden: cultivating love over selfishness, dominion over domination, and hope over despair. We will trace the echoes of God’s plan for restoration and how we as Christians can join Him in that work—cultivating Narnian hearts and creating a counter-narrative of life and goodness in the midst of a world filled with death.
NEXT TIME: Part 2, “Take of My Fruit for Others.”
Karissa Riffel is an English teacher, mother, and cohost of the Lit Ladies podcast. Her short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Her nonfiction has appeared on The Rabbit Room blog and is forthcoming by the CiRCE Institute. She writes about art, literature, and faith on her Substack Midnight Ink.
[1] C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew (Harper Trophy, 1994).
[2] Peter J. Leithart, Theopolitan Liturgy (Athanasius Press, 2019).