Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens In The Imagination Of C. S. Lewis

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For over half a century scholars have laboured to show that C S Lewis's famed but apparently disorganised Chronicles of Narnia have an underlying symbolic coherence pointing to such possible unifying themes as the seven sacraments the seven deadly sins & the seven books of Spenser's Faerie Queene None of these explanations has won general acceptance & the structure of Narnia's symbolism has remained a mystery Michael Ward has finally solved the enigma In Planet Narnia he demonstrates that medieval cosmology a subject which fascinated Lewis throughout his life provides the imaginative key to the seven novels Drawing on the whole range of Lewis's writings (including previously unpublished drafts of the Chronicles) Ward reveals how the Narnia stories were designed to express the characteristics of the seven medieval planets
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- Jupiter Mars Sol Luna Mercury Venus & Saturn
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- planets which Lewis described as spiritual symbols of permanent value & especially worthwhile in our own generation Using these seven symbols Lewis secretly constructed the Chronicles so that in each book the plot-line the ornamental details & most important the portrayal of the Christ-figure of Aslan all serve to communicate the governing planetary personality The cosmological theme of each Chronicle is what Lewis called 'the kappa element in romance' the atmospheric essence of a story everywhere present but nowhere explicit The reader inhabits this atmosphere & thus imaginatively gains connaitre knowledge of the spiritual character which the tale was created to embody Planet Narnia is a ground-breaking study that will provoke a major revaluation not only of the Chronicles but of Lewis's whole literary & theological outlook Ward uncovers a much subtler writer & thinker than has previously been recognized whose central interests were hiddenness immanence & knowledge by acquaintance