This morning Kurt Nordstrom, one of the fellows at Boar’s Head Tavern, wrote the following in an article entitled “The TRs watch ‘Narnia’:” [TR stands for “Truly Reformed” a term that is generally used in a pejorative sense]
Well, I’ve yet to see LW&W, and it’ll probably be a while, due to life (hopefully I can catch it over the holidays), but at least I don’t have to worry about basic storyline spoilers! Maybe I’ll re-read the book in the interim.
Meanwhile, Steve Camp pisses on the movie’s theology, and CS Lewis in general while he’s at it. Judging from that post, if Camp were a betting man, he’d say that Lewis was burning in hell about now. Tim Challies agrees.
This should be interesting. I think a telling sign of the the Twuly Weformed is the inability to appreciate folks like Lewis. There’s no room in that mindset to simply appreciate something that good without stopping to bitch about doctrine. I’ll be looking to see what the other BlogCops say.
Incredibly enough, Kurt cases this comment on two sentences I wrote in which I posted a link to Camp’s article in today’s A La Carte section. I wrote, “Steve Camp outlines some of C.S. Lewis’ troubling theology. He also writes an interesting review of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe where he points out some errant theology.”
Now I certainly did not state or even imply that I believe C.S. Lewis is burning in hell right now. As a TR I know that such things are for God to judge and I don’t feel the need to involve myself in a pointless, senseless argument that will allow no conclusions. Also, I think you would find that the Truly Reformed appreciate Lewis a great deal – far more than even I would expect. Try reading John Piper some time! C.S. Lewis made some great contributions to Christianity, not the least of which was this series of books. But I believe Steve Camp is right in pointing out at least one fundamental flaw in Lewis’ understanding of a pivotal issue (the atonement) and how that influenced The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Now I don’t want to get into some type of sniping with the folks over at BHT. I just find it telling that, in an effort to discredit the TRs of the blogosphere, Kurt blatantly ignored the glowing NotReview I posted and focused in on a link I posted to an outside article. I usually do not bring attention to such criticisms. However, lest I be considered ignorant and judgmental by some of the forty or fifty people who visit whenever someone links to this site from Boar’s Head Tavern, I did want to clarify that Nordstrom fabricated the claim that I believe Lewis was unregenerate.
*Update: Nordstrom edited the article with the following words: “[Edit: Challies has criticisms of Lewis’ theology but does not necessarily believe that the man is in hell. Apologies to Tim for the lack of clarity].”
