Narnia, Magnifying Glasses, and Finite Understanding

During class conversation last week, the veracity of Lewis’ Narnian world came into question. How would Mr. and Mrs. Beaver acquire potatoes or jam, and how would the sudden thaw of a century-long winter not cause massive flooding? Why does Lewis choose to carefully explain some things, repeat seemingly unremarkable phrases as if they were very important, and leave us entirely bewildered at his meaning in other things? However much we can ascertain of Lewis and his world, we cannot ultimately know the mind of the writer. Many years from now, students studying Lewis will be asking similar questions and seeking to unravel the meaning behind the same words. Though Lewis does not flesh out the particulars as clearly as Tolkien, the details do not ultimately contain the scope of the story. Looking too closely through a magnifying glass creates distortion, but pulling back brings an object into clearer focus. Lewis doesn’t need all aspects of his Narnian world to make sense to us, but if we entrench ourselves in the details and discrepancies, his meaning may become lost on us.

Tangentially, though we are seeking to expand our understanding of C.S. Lewis, our class discussions have reminded me of the limits of the human mind. This is not to disparage the ideas that have been spoken, but no matter how expansive the thoughts we ponder and articulate, we are simply not able to wrap our mind around all the ideas we encounter. In our logical world of reasoned arguments, the thought that we cannot understand it all may seem threatening, disconcerting, or simply affronting. However, I think there is freedom both in plying the limits of our understanding and accepting that such limitations exist.

As philosophically as we may approach Lewis’ work, Narnia is still a world that takes the spirit of a child to fully enter. Lucy never doubted the reality of what she had seen, even though she did not understand it all. This makes me think of life in the Kingdom of God. We sometimes do not believe God for the things we do not understand of Him. How greatly we limit His power and misunderstand His being by relegating Him to the chambers of our finite understanding. “Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heaven – what can you do? Deeper than Sheol – what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea” (Job 11:7-9).