David speaks to Dr. David Marshall about his Narnian apologetics book, “The Case for Aslan”.
S6E41: “The Case for Aslan” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Drop-In
Quote-of-the-week
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe grew out of Lewis’s experience of being stung back into childhood by his defeat at the hands of Elizabeth Ancombe at the Socratic Club… It awakened all sorts of deeply seated fears in Lewis, not least his fear of women. Once the bullying hero of the hour had been cut down to size, he became a child, a little boy who was being degraded and shaken by a figure who, in his imagination, took on witch-like dimensions.
A.N. Wilson, C.S. Lewis: A Biography
Biographical Information
David Marshall is a writer and teacher. He blogs over at Christ the Tao and has spent a good chunk of his life living in China. He has written many books, such as “How Jesus Passes the Outside Test: The Inside Story” and the “Faith Seeking Understanding” anthology, but he is here today to talk about “The Case For Aslan: Evidence for Jesus in the land of Narnia”.
Biographical Information
Chit-Chat
Toast
- David was drinking chrysanthemum tea
- His guest was drinking soda
Discussion
01. “More background”
Q. Very often when I’m interviewing someone I can find out a lot about them from Google and their digital footprint on the internet. However, your digital footprint is very small, particularly for someone who has a blog! So, would you please mind us more about your life?
Q. Where did C.S. Lewis fit in to your spiritual journey?
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02. “Responding to A.N. Wilson”
Q. I opened the episode by quoting A.N. Wilson’s biography where he makes various claims about Lewis’s debate with Elizabeth Anscome and his writing of fairy tales. What do you make of them?
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03. “Book Genesis”
Q. So over the past few days I’ve been reading “The Case for Aslan: Evidence for Jesus in the Land of Narnia”. How did this book come about?
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04. “Structure and content”
Q. There are a few chapters I’d like to talk about in more detail, but would you mind explaining to our listeners how this book is structured and the sort of material you cover?
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05. “Puddleglum’s Wager”
Q. I think probably one of the best chapters for giving our listeners a flavour of your book is the opening chapter: “Puddleglum’s Wager: Is Narnia just a dream”. This is clearly a reference to The Silver Chair when there is a debate in the Underworld. What do you talk about in this chapter?
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06. “The Lion’s Song”
Q. Your second chapter is “The Lion’s Song”, a reference to the creation of Narnia in the book we read at the beginning of this month, The Magician’s Nephew. I was also delighted to see lots of references too to the book we’ve read this season, Out of the Silent Planet. What are some of the issues you explore in this chapter?
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07. “Susan’s story”
Q. So, there is a question mark over the fate of Susan Pevensie at the end of The Last Battle. We addressed this in an episode about Racism and Sexism (S5E54 – AH – “Sexism and Racism in Narnia”, After Hours with Dr. Devin Brown) and we will dig into the question when we read “The Last Battle” next season… When children wrote to Lewis asking what happened to Susan, he said that her adventure wasn’t over yet and that they should take up her story… and that’s exactly what you do in Chapter 5! So, what happens to Susan next?
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