C. S. Lewis fans will want to know about the New York C. S. Lewis Society . The group meets the second Friday of every month in the parish house of an Episcopal church on West 11th Street in Manhattan, and publish a bi-monthly bulletin , which usually features a substantial essay on Lewis.
I went last night to hear my old friend Kevin Offner speak on “Lewis’s ‘Theology of Salvation’ in the Narnia Chronicles .” He gave a very interesting talk, both drawing out Lewis’s understanding of salvation from the stories and showing how he illustrated it in the stories.
He pointed out, for example, how Lewis emphasized the importance of human action by making their actions crucial and urgent, and having the result depend upon their arriving in time, or (sometimes) not. Even Aslan has to hurry the characters along, in one scene (in which book I can’t remember, though Kevin said) pawing the ground impatiently because the children won’t get moving. I’d always assumed this was just part of writing an exciting story for children.
I’ll be speaking to them, but not until April 2013. (They plan ahead.)
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