C.S. Lewis has his works examined
Many C.S. Lewis readers were alarmed earlier this summer when rumors spread that all Christian references would be absolved from his children’s work, The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe to make it more marketable to children.
These rumors began when an e-mail memo between publisher HarperCollins and the C.S. Lewis Company concerning re-marketing of the books was leaked. The memo merely read “No attempt should be made to correlate the [Narnia] stories to Christian imagery/theology,” according to Christianity Today. There was no discussion of actual re-writing of the books without the references to God.
Although these rumors are not true, readers and critics alike had plenty to say in defense of “perhaps the 20th century’s preeminent literary apologist for Christianity,” according to Christianity Today. Some felt it was a moral dilemma.
“In an age that regards nothing as obscene, the energies of censorship are turned against unseemly expressions of Christianity,” wrote Joseph Sobran, a syndicated columnist in The Deseret News.
Others said it was useless to try to take out these references when they are the basis of Lewis’ writings.
“Nobody’s going to finally undercut what C.S. Lewis did. His publishers will never change his image. I don’t think they’ll be able to pull it off. Lewis will live on, and the discerning reader will see the difference between the garbage that comes out to sell and the real thing,” Lyle Dorsett, a Wheaton College professor, said.
The C.S. Lewis Company agrees. Simon Adley, managing director of the C.S. Lewis Company, publicized that the rumors were false.
“It’s fatuous to suggest that we’re trying to take the Christian out of C.S. Lewis. We wouldn’t have made the effort that we have with Mere Christianity if we felt that way. It’s just crazy,” he said in The New York Times.
At a time when magical novels such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone are reaching a financial high-point, it seems like a logical idea for new marketing strategies for Lewis’ work, but that does not mean rewriting them. While they are not planning to absolve any of the religious symbolisms of Lewis’ works, HarperCollins is planning to make them more easily accessible.
“The goal of HarperCollins Publishers and the C.S. Lewis Estate is to publish the works of C.S. Lewis to the broadest possible audience and to leave any interpretation of the works to the reader. The works of C.S. Lewis will continue to be published … as written by the author, with no alteration,” the company said in Christianity Today.
So far, HarperCollins has released special editions of Lewis’ nonfiction works, such as A Grief Observed and Mere Christianity, with forewords written by well-known Christian authors such as Madeleine L’Engle and Kathleen Norris.
There are also multi-million dollar plans to publicize other works such as Miracles, The Problem of Pain and Surprised by Joy. All references to Christianity will remain intact for those who wish to enjoy them.
“The Christian audience is less in need of Narnia than the secular audience, and in today’s world the surest way to prevent secularists and their children from reading it is to keep it in the Christian or Religious section of the bookstores,” said Douglas Gresham, one of Lewis’ stepsons, in USA Today.