Mere Atonement
C. S. Lewis & the Multiple Angles of Redemption
by Ariel James Vanderhorst
When The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe opened in theaters in December 2005, the feature-length film generated cries of wonder, huge box-office takes, skyrocketing Lewis book sales, and considerable gnashing of teeth. Posthumously, C. S. Lewis had gained thousands of new fans—but his critics were all the more vehement. Specifically, they faulted him for the “magical” Atonement represented so vividly in Lewis’s acclaimed children’s book—a gory death on a Narnian stone table—a depiction that some detractors found non-biblical. But while the anti-Lewis voices were insistent, they were generally drowned out by the movie magic.
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Ariel James Vanderhorst , having recently earned his M.Div., lives with his family—wife Lindsay and their two young sons—in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, where they are in the process of planting a gospel-centered, culturally targeted urban church. He also blogs about theology and culture at arieljvan.com.
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more on C. S. Lewis from the online archives
33.2—March/April 2020
Lewis, Chesterton, et al. Against the Frauds, Experts & Revisionists by Vigen Guroian
18.3—April 2005
on Being a Free Narnian & the Joy of Subordination by Donald T. Williams
more from the online archives
35.2—Mar/Apr 2022
on Fatigued Christians Deciding to Engage the Culture by Keith Lowery
37.5—Sept/Oct 2024
An Abandoned Ruling Principle & How to Get It Back by Adam MacLeod
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