Price Caspian

The kids and I finally got around to finishing Prince Caspian, the forth instalment of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. With exception to The Magician's Nephew(which we only got about half way through before they totally lost interest), Chucky and especially Katy have really enjoyed the tales. (I am sure that all the commercial hype for the movies has nothing to do with it.)

As much as I enjoyed how The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe illustrated the fulfillment of messianic prophecy and the establishment of a kingdom, I loved following along as Prince Caspian high-lighted the themes of apostasy, and restoration of authority, all leading up to a second coming, and the importance that faith plays when waiting for the hour that "no man knoweth". The Magicians Nephew ,which follows the creation, and The Horse and His Boy, about a boy of royal birth raised away from family who eventual saves his people(ie Moses or Joseph of Egypt as types of Christ), have been skipped by the movie franchise.

Kate and I went to see Prince Caspian on Thursday afternoon. As always, it is difficult for any movie adaption to completely do it's original work justice, but even with necessary amendments and sometimes greatly deviating plot changes, film has plenty of it's own virtue. In The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe I was struck by the sacramental imagery of Lucy administering her healing cordial. In Prince Caspian, I was moved by the visual symbolism of a cry for divine assistance in a grove of trees through a medium taught of in ancient text and tradition by a gentile in a sacred land(although I am sure Lewis did not have all of that in mind). So far, the kids are just enjoying a good adventure story where children get to be heroes, but I believe the spirit will testify of these themes in some small way to them and help to nourish their tiny seeds of faith. I know it nourishes mine.