THE SILVER CHAIR
To Nicholas Hardie
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www.joelheck.com
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C. S. Lewis, Atheist
Came out January 2017 from Concordia Publishing House.
Remember that Lewis thought that the way religion had been
presented to him in childhood had paralyzed him spiritually.
Why did he become an atheist?
Why and how did he return to the Christian faith?
What wrong turns did he make during his return?
Among his insights: “The vast majority of human beings, well
in excess of ninety percent, believe in God, whether the God of
Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, or one of the lesser
known religions. But an atheist, then as well as now, has to
believe that the majority is wrong on this topic.”
The Plot
Jill and Eustace are chased
by some bullies at school
and get into Narnia by a
gate at the edge of the
school’s property.
They arrive in Aslan’s
country, and Eustace falls
off a high cliff.
Aslan blows him safely to
his destination.
Jill gets thirsty, and Aslan
invites her to drink.
The Plot
Aslan tells her about a task he
gives her—to find the lost
prince, Rilian, the son of the
king.
He gives her four signs, which
she is instructed to
remember.
Aslan blows her, and she and
Eustace arrive at Cair Paravel
and muff the first sign.
They go to a Parliament of
Owls, meet Puddleglum
(modeled after Fred Paxford),
and travel North.
The Plot They travel through
Ettinsmoor, where giants live,
to Harfang, the home of the
(not so) Gentle Giants.
From Harfang they see the
City Ruinous and the words
“UNDER ME” and escape.
Coming to Underland, they
are taken to Rilian who is
under a spell, caused by a
silver chair to which he is
bound for one hour a day.
They release Rilian from his
silver chair, and he destroys
the chair with his sword.
Harfang
The Green Lady arrives and
The Plot attempts to enchant all of
them, telling them there is
no Narnia, no sun, no
Aslan.
Thanks to the bravery of
Puddleglum, they escape
the enchantment.
The Green Lady turns into
a snake, which they kill.
They leave for the surface
on two horses.
They reach the surface and
are pulled out of Underland
by Narnian creatures.
The Plot
King Caspian returns
from his voyage
because Aslan tells him
that Rilian is found.
Caspian dies shortly
after arriving home.
Aslan arrives and blows
Narnia away, and they
find themselves in
Aslan’s country again.
They see the dead king
in a stream.
Aslan’s blood revives
the king.
Quoting from the Last Chapter
“But,” said Eustace, looking at Aslan. “Hasn’t he
[Caspian]—er—died?”
“Yes,” said the Lion in a very quiet voice, almost (Jill
thought) as if he were laughing. “He has died. Most
people have, you know. Even I have. There are very
few who haven’t.”
“Oh,” said Caspian. “I see what’s bothering you. You
think I’m a ghost, or some nonsense. But don’t you
see? I would be that if I appeared in Narnia now:
because I don’t belong there any more. But one can’t
be a ghost in one’s own country. I might be a ghost if
I got into your world. I don’t know. But I suppose it
isn’t yours either, now you’re here.”
End of the Plot: The Last Chapter
Jill and Eustace return to Experiment House, and
Aslan lets Caspian to join them and allows himself to
be seen.
They use the flat of their swords against the bullies.
The Head comes, sees, and goes into hysterics.
“And in the inquiry all sorts of things about
Experiment House came out, and about ten people
got expelled. After that, the Head’s friends saw that
the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her
made an Inspector to interfere with other Heads.
And when they found she wasn’t much good even at
that, they got her into Parliament where she lived
happily ever after.”
Background
First title: The Wild Waste Lands
Then Night under Narnia, then Gnomes under
Narnia, News under Narnia, finally The Silver
Chair
Influenced by The Princess and the Goblin
Kathryn Lindskoog: “Some readers find that
The Silver Chair helps them to cope with their
wrong turnings and the accidents that befall
them in life.” Puddleglum said, “There are no
accidents. Our guide is Aslan.”
Biblical Theme I: Foot in the Fire
Rom. 12:2
James 4:7, “Submit
yourselves, then, to
God. Resist the devil,
and he will flee from
you.”
But be careful; it might
hurt. It surely hurt
Puddleglum!
Biblical Theme II: Bungled But Blessed
Jill caused Eustace to fall
from the cliff.
They bungled the signs.
They bungled Harfang.
They bungled the
enchantment, except for
Puddleglum.
But Aslan said, “You have
done the work for which I
sent you into Narnia.”
Biblical Theme II: Bungled But Blessed
This is almost the theme of The Silver Chair.
Why? Puddleglum said it, “There are no
accidents. Our guide is Aslan.”
Rom. 8:28, “And we know that in all things God
works for the good of those who love him, who
have been called according to his purpose.”
Acts 23:1
Gal. 1:15 (Paul’s belief)
1 Cor. 4:5, grace
Geography
Where in Narnia is Jill when the story begins?
Lewis and Sexism
“Scrubb was quite
right in saying that
Jill (I don’t know
about girls in
general) didn’t think
much about points
of the compass.”
Humor (Chapter V. Puddleglum)
“How beastly one feels after sleeping in
one’s clothes,” said Jill, sitting up.
“I was just thinking how nice it was not to
have to dress,” said Eustace.
Factual Quiz Just for Fun
1. Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole got to Aslan’s
country through (a) a picture of a ship, (b) a
door in a school wall, (c) a railroad station.
2. The first sign Aslan gave Jill was (a) Eustace
must greet his old friend as soon as he arrives in
Narnia, (b) Jill must drink from a stream, (c)
Eustace must save Jill from falling.
3. The children do not soon meet (a) Trumpkin, a
deaf old dwarf, (b) Glimfeather, a large white
owl, (c) Caspian, the old king, whose son is lost.
Factual Quiz Just for Fun
4. The children’s guide and helper was
(a) Respectowiggle the Marshglum,
(b) Puddlesquirm the Swamp-glum,
(c) Puddleglum the Marsh-wiggle.
5. The second sign of Aslan was (a) to travel north
to the ruined city of ancient giants, (b) to travel
north to the giants’ castle, (c) to seek a
beautiful lady.
6. The third sign of Aslan was (a) to obey the
writing on a stone, (b) to obey the writing in a
cookbook, (c) to attend a feast.
Factual Quiz Just for Fun
7. At the House of Harfang , Aslan showed the
travelers the message (a) BEWARE, (b) PLAY
DUMB, (c) UNDER ME.
8. Mullugutherum was (a) an Earthman in
Underland, (b) Queen of the Deep Realm, (c)
Warden of Overworlders.
9. The fourth sign of Aslan was (a) the lost
prince was dressed in black, (b) the lost
prince might be insane, (c) the lost prince
would ask a favor in the name of Aslan.
Factual Quiz Just for Fun
10. Which is false? (a) Jill emerged into a snow
dance, (b) King Caspian was restored to
youth and health, (c) Prince Rilian became
king of Narnia, (d) Jill and Eustace returned
to school alone, as they had left.
Landmarks of England
Trafalgar Square: the lion Jill saw was lying in
place just like the lions of Trafalgar Square
(Chapter II. Jill Is Given a Task)
St. Paul’s Cathedral: the bridge of the giants
soared as high as the dome of St. Paul’s
Cathedral (Chapter VI. The Wild Waste Lands of
the North)
Stonehenge: the stones of the bridge of the
giants were as big as the stones at Stonehenge
(Chapter VI. The Wild Waste Lands of the North)
Planet Narnia
Planet: the Moon (lunar, lunatic, etc.)
There are two lunatics in the story: Prince Rilian and
the headmistress of Jill’s and Eustace’s school.
Association with water because of the moon’s
influence on the earth’s tides: the stream, Jill’s tears,
Jill’s baths, the frequent rain, the Marsh-wiggle who
is a wet blanket and who lives in the marshes, etc.
Two horses appear at the end of the story because in
mythology a black horse and a white horse drew the
moon’s chariot across the heavens.
The Centaur tells Jill and Eustace about “the
influences of the planets.”
Planet Narnia
Metal: silver
The word “silver” appears 18 times in the
book, including the title.
For example, Trumpkin’s silver ear-trumpet,
Rilian’s silver mail, the lamp with a silver
chain, the silver chair itself, the witch has a
silvery laugh
Lady LUNA, in light canoe,
By friths and shallows of fretted cloudland
Cruises monthly; with chrism of dews
And drench of dream, a drizzling glamour,
Enchants us—the cheat! changing sometime
A mind to madness, melancholy pale,
Bleached with gazing on her blank count’nance
Orb’d and ageless.
In earth’s bosom
The shower of her rays, sharp-feathered light
Reaching downward, ripens silver,
Forming and fashioning female brightness,
—Metal maidenlike. Her moist circle
Is nearest earth.
With help from Steven Lovell, “Breaking the Spell
of Skepticism: Puddleglum versus the Green
Witch,” in The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy.
PUDDLEGLUM VS.
THE GREEN WITCH
The Enchantment
Just for the sake of
review…
The Queen returns
Green powder in the
fireplace
Strumming on a
mandolin
Reasoning with the four
Appearances & Reality
Attractive in appearance,
yet bad in reality.
The Lady of the Green
Kirtle
The Autumn Feast
The Silver Chair
Unattractive in
appearance, yet good in
reality.
Puddleglum
The Earthmen
Puddleglum vs. Sigmund Freud
She puts powder on the fire and plays the mandolin.
Are the sun and the lion figments of the imagination?
“I see,” she said, “that we should do no better with your
lion, as you call it, than we did with your sun. You have
seen lamps, and so you imagined a bigger and better
lamp and called it the sun. You’ve seen cats, and now you
want a bigger and better cat, and it’s to be called a lion.
Well, ‘tis a pretty make-believe, though, to say truth, it
would suit you all better if you were younger. And look
how you can put nothing into your make-believe without
copying it from the real world, this world of mine, which
is the only world.”
The Freudian Critique of Belief
Freud: “The derivation of religious needs from
the infant’s helplessness and the longing for the
father aroused by it seems to me
incontrovertible. . . . I cannot think of any need
in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s
protection. . . . The origin of the religious
attitude can be traced back in clear outlines as
far as the feeling of infantile helplessness”
(Civilization and its Discontents, 1930).
The Freudian Critique of Belief
In other words, Freud: “at bottom God is nothing
other than an exalted father” (Sigmund Freud,
Totem and Taboo, 1913).
The Witch, paraphrased: “When you try to think
out clearly what this God must be, you cannot
tell me. You can only tell me He is like a father.
Your God is a dream; and there is nothing in that
dream that was not copied from an earthly
father. Earthly fathers are the real thing; God is
but a tale, a children’s story.”
The Freudian Critique of Belief
What Freud would say:
“You’ve seen fathers,
and now you want a
bigger and better father,
and it’s to be called God.
Well, ‘tis a pretty make-
believe, though, to say
truth, it would suit you
all better if you were
younger.”
The Freudian Critique of Belief
Freud: “When you try to
think out clearly what this
God must be, you cannot tell
me. You can only tell me He
is like your father. Your God is
a dream; and there is
nothing in that dream that
was not copied from an
earthly father. Earthly fathers
are the real thing; God is but
a tale, a children’s story.”
The Witch’s Argument
It is unsound. Why?
How do we tell a copy from the original?
If two things are similar, apart from hard
evidence there is no legitimate reason why we
would consider one a copy. Similarity is all Freud
has to go on. Can Freud prove that the earthly
father is the original and God the copy?
Is the similarity between God and our earthly
fathers an embarrassing fact?
Steven Lovell: “[The similarity between God and
our earthly fathers] is just the sort of thing one
might expect if God does exist.”
Whose Illusion?
Freud claims that belief in God is the
result of wish-fulfillment.
Is the God of Christianity the type of God
that people would wish for?
A God who sees all things, knows all thoughts,
passes judgment on all deeds.
A God to whom we are accountable and from
whom we can never be independent.
A God to whom we owe worship and
obedience.
Whose Illusion?
Alvin Plantinga: “Many people thoroughly dislike the
idea of an omnipotent, omniscient being monitoring
their every activity, privy to their every thought, and
passing judgment on all they do or think. Others
dislike the lack of autonomy consequent upon their
being a Someone by comparison with whom we are
as dust and ashes, and to whom we owe worship and
obedience” (Warranted Christian Belief, 2000).
If one were to wish for a God at all, it probably
wouldn’t be the God of Christianity!
Could it be that atheists are the ones guilty of wish
fulfillment?
Surprised by Joy
You must picture me alone in that room in
Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever
my mind lifted even for a second from my work,
the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I
so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I
greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the
Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that
God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps,
that night, the most dejected and reluctant
convert in all England.
Surprised by Joy
I did not then see what is now the most
shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility
which will accept a convert even on such
terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home
on his own feet. But who can duly adore that
Love which will open the high gates to a
prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling,
resentful, and darting his eyes in every
direction for a chance of escape?
Susan and Lucy
In TLWW, what did Susan
wish that Aslan might
be?
“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d
thought he was a man. Is
he—quite safe? I shall
feel rather nervous about
meeting a lion” (Chapter
8).
Might not atheism be the
real wish fulfillment?
The Genetic Fallacy
Why is the witch’s argument wrong?
Should we reject a belief simply because of
where it comes from (its genesis)?
If it’s a wish, isn’t it also true that wishes
sometimes come true?
What if the wish reflects an inherent need for
God?
Augustine (354-430 A.D.): “You have made us
for Yourself and our hearts are restless until
they find their rest in You.”
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“Creatures are not born with desires unless
satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels
hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A
duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a
thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well,
there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a
desire which no experience in this world can
satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I
was made for another world.”
A deep desire for God may be evidence for God!
The Failure of Freud and the Witch
1. We don’t know which is the original, sun or
lamp, cat or lion, God or father, just because of
similarity.
2. Atheism is as likely as religious belief to be the
result of wish fulfillment.
3. One cannot prove that God doesn’t exist simply
from the fact that some wish Him to exist.
4. If God does exist and created us with a need to
be in relationship with Him, believing in Him on
the basis of that need would not constitute
wishful thinking.
A Postscript
Blaise Pascal and William
James argued that it is
possible to decide to
believe in God without
conclusive evidence.
If the witch is right, then
nothing is of value.
Pascal’s Wager:
We have nothing to lose
by believing in God (or
Aslan).
If the witch is wrong,
then we have a lot to
lose.
A Postscript (Puddleglum)
Not easily taken in: He doubted whether the
“Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all
knight
thosewith the Greenand
things—trees Lady was
grass andreally a person
sun and moon
inside thatand
and stars armor.
AslanHe doubted
himself. thatwe
Suppose Harfang
have.
wouldThenbeallworth theisvisit,
I can say that, and hecase,
in that wanted to take
the made-
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up things at what turned
a good dealout
moretoimportant
be the Ruined
than
theAnd
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he is the one this
whoblack
sayspit of aneed to
they
kingdom
follow theof yours
fourthis sign
the only
andworld. Well,
release it
Rilian.
strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a
funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re
just babies making up a game, if you’re right.”
A Postscript (Puddleglum)
“But four babies playing a game can make a play
world which licks your real world hollow. That’s
why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on
Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead
it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even
if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly
for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the
young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at
once and setting out in the dark to spend our
lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will
be very long, I should think; but that’s small loss
if the world’s as dull a place as you say.”
Benediction
Lord of the Real sun,
Help me to remember my signs.
Deliver me from the many Houses of Harfang
in this world.
Show me how to tell sanity from insanity.
Give me the courage to break enchantments,
even when it hurts.
And bring me at last to your holy mountain
where life is renewed.
Next: The Horse and His Boy
