cb.blog

Christians love it; liberals hate it

Last week’s release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (LWW) has created quite the media buzz, and quite a blogstorm. Blog coverage began long before the movie’s release, and reached a crescendo just before release. And even before its release, the vitriol was evident, as RedState.org pointed out (more on the vitriol later). Several bloggers have weighed in, and collected the thoughts of those that did:

• Blog4God’s roundup, another post-release roundup
• Pajamas Media’s roundup

Much great discussion among the God-Bloggers about the movie:

• LaShawn Barber’s Fantasy Fiction for Chrisians Blog: here, here, here, and here
• Rhett Smith: here and here
• OneTrueGodBlog’s Narnia Question, with responses here, here, here, here, and here
• Glenn Reynolds’ contributions, including a link to this Times (UK) Online article
• Albert Mohler (HT: Hugh Hewitt)
• The View From Her

I think nothing sums up the difference of viewpoint than the following:
This oft-quoted section of John Mark Reynold’s review:

If you think the wolves in the wood should never be fought, then you will hate this film. If you think evil does not exist, you will be uncomfortable. If you believe forgiveness is cheap and bad behavior has no cost, then this film will make you furious. But if you are like most of us, then this film will make you shout for joy.

Tonight for the first time in a long time I watched a film that made my heart ache with the beauty of the scenes, made me cry, stirred my passions, and made me think. (All those neo-Platonisms! Surrounded as I was by Torrey students all of whom have read the Timaeus, we were the only audience in the world to burst into applause when Aslan asked, “Where is the fourth?”)

Compared to this oft-quoted passage from Polly Toynbee’s column (itself deserving of a good fisking):

Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to?

If you look deep enough, contained in these two divergent viewpoints is the entirety of the source of the excitement and agitation generated by Chronicles.