Despite his brilliance, C.S. Lewis was a humble man. A recent post about him brings this feature of his personality to light-
C.S. Lewis was talking to his lawyer one day when the attorney told him he had to decide where his earnings would go after his death.
Lewis, who had already written “The Chronicles of Narnia” book series, told the lawyer he didn’t need to worry.
“After I’ve been dead five years, no one will read anything I’ve written,” Lewis said.
Wow.
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A couple of humorous thoughts on this most prolific yet truly humble man of God. I heard and interview between Max McLean and C.S. Lewis’s adopted son, Douglas Gresham. The story goes, the legalist and often offensive and overly verbose Bob Jones wanted to meet this “Cigar smoking, Scotch drinking” Christian to set him straight. Gresham tells the funny story about their meeting. “After a few hours of casual and deep conversation and a bit of “spiritual volleyballing” back and forth, Jones walked away with a different outlook about the controvery.”
Right after the recent release of the newest Gresham directorship Voyage of the Dawn Treader I was bummed out to hear the interview with Liam Neson. Actor Liam Neeson, the voice of the lion Aslan in the latest Narnia film, has drawn criticism for saying the character is a Christ-like figure who also symbolizes other spiritual leaders. Even though Neeson was raised Catholic, he said, “Aslan symbolizes a Christ-like figure but he also symbolizes for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries. That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me.”
The interviewer went on to say the Gresham family was not at all pleased with Neeson’s remark. Walter Hooper, Lewis’ former secretary and a trustee of the CS Lewis estate, said that C.S. Lewis would have been outraged by the claim. “It is nothing whatever to do with Islam,” Hooper told the Telegraph. “Lewis would have simply denied that. He wrote that the ‘whole Narnian story is about Christ.’ Lewis could not have been clearer.”
He attributed Neeson’s remarks to political correctness and a desire to be “very multicultural.”
William Oddie, a former editor of The Catholic Herald who is a lifelong fan of the Chronicles of Narnia series, charged that Neeson had committed “a betrayal of Lewis’s intention and a shameful distortion.”
“Aslan is clearly established from the very beginning of the whole canon as being a Christ figure. I can’t believe that Liam Neeson is so stupid as not to know.”
"I can’t believe that Liam Neeson is so stupid as not to know.”
I can! :-) But he was great in "Taken" -- last year's best movie!
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