There's a moment in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where one of the kids learns that Aslan is a lion, gets nervous and asks if he's safe. And the answer, as Lewis writes it, is of course he isn't safe, but he's good.

Most Christians can quote that line. It's one of the most famous lines in the entire series. We put it on coffee mugs, we hang it on our walls. But here's the question Lewis was actually asking—why does the Jesus most people know look so tame, so manageable, so agreeable? The Jesus we find most often in the American church is safe. He's predictable. He votes a certain way, he blesses certain things and disapproves of others. He shows up where he's invited and doesn't surprise anyone.

That's what we're diving into today on The Christian Skeptic in part two of our series through The Chronicles of Narnia. Let's get to it.

In this episode:

(00:00) Intro
(01:49) Was Lewis arguing for a specific atonement theory?
(04:53) The four atonement theories
(11:35) Would this convince anyone who didn't already believe?
(14:33) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe recap
(20:38) Lucy and faith as perception
(29:04) The deep magic and Edmund as the human representative
(33:02) The Stone Table and the law
(34:48) Has the church tamed Jesus?
(37:11) What does a "not-safe" Jesus look like?

Links

C.S. Lewis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia
J.R.R. Tolkien: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien
Mere Christianity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere_Christianity
Steve Brown: https://www.keylife.org
Three Free Sins: https://www.keylife.org/articles/three-free-sins
The Snow Queen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snow_Queen
Hans Christian Anderson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_Andersen

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Get full show notes and links at https://www.thechristianskeptic.org.

Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thechristianskeptic.