Becoming by Beholding

One of the most powerful influences in the formation of my own Christian soul—along with The Lord of the Rings, director Terence Malick, Billy Graham, Thomas Merton, and Van Morrison—is The Last Battle, the great novel by C.S. Lewis. The Last Battle is the final book in The Chronicles of Narnia series. At the end of the book, the four Pevensie kids discover that heaven is real. Whenever I recall that book, I can instantly bring myself back to that summer in 1976 when, as a 12-year-old I first encountered it. I sat on my bed weeping with utter amazement and joy at its conclusion. I had been stamped with the love of Christ via the imagination of C.S. Lewis. Since then, I have been able to see the face of Christ at modern museums, in movies, in novels, and even on skateboards.

Of course, the final source and authority on God’s existence is the Bible. Yet there is nothing in scripture or tradition that forbids the use of the imagination to connect with Jesus. Indeed, as Lanta Davis has shown, to ignore the imagination is to turn our backs on the thing that can make Christianity most real to people. Neglecting to do this in favor of pushing a bland and boring faith risks causing too many to lose it.