The Lion's World: A Journey Into The Heart Of Narnia - Softcover

'Reading Rowan Williams on C. S. Lewis is like watching two old friends in animated discussion of great, powerful themes. It helps that both are (of course) highly literate: Shakespeare, Thomas Merton, Augustine and others flit across the pages. It helps more, particularly for those just discovering Lewis (or indeed Williams) that both write with lucid and engaging clarity. But what really counts is that, as with the two on the Emmaus Road, we constantly sense a third presence, that of the Lion who will not let us rest in our own little self-deceits but who constantly challenges us to discover the larger joys of his new creation. Those who have loved Narnia since childhood will here discover fresh and sometimes disturbing depths of meaning and power. Those who don't know it will be stimulated to read the stories for themselves. Those who have tried to debunk Lewis and his children's books will find Williams more than a match for them, not as an uncritical apologist but as a wise and humane expositor. How fortunate, and appropriate, for Lewis's old Cambridge college to have Williams as its new Master.' --Tom Wright, Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, University of St Andrews

'I have often thought there was more to Lewis than is often noticed by his enthusiastic readers. Now he has Rowan Williams, who helps us see that Lewis, who certainly had his limits, was an extraordinary imaginative mind who was able to 'rinse out what is stale in our thinking about Christianity'. Williams' account of the Narnia Chronicles, therefore, helps us rinse out any too-easy criticisms of their author. And together Lewis and Williams enable us to imagine what it might mean to see God in the everyday. We are in Rowan Williams' debt for this deft reading of C. S. Lewis.' --Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School, North Carolina

'Like the Wardrobe, this book opens a door into another world. It takes the reader further up and further in to that world, a world that deepens the imagination and warms the soul. In the company of Rowan Williams, the already rich world of Narnia becomes a theological feast of delight.' --Paula Gooder, Canon Theologian of Birmingham and Guildford Cathedrals

A compelling account of the Narnia novels, unlocking their Christian symbolism and exploring the moral and spiritual wisdom that C. S. Lewis intended to convey. Full of fresh insights into the thought world of Lewis, drawing on his life, his beliefs and themes in his other works - both fiction and non-fiction. Answers contemporary critics of Lewis (such as Philip Pullman) over charges of sexism, violence and racial stereotyping. Containing specially commissioned illustrations, this is an arresting, illuminating and ultimately joyful book for believers and non-believers alike.