Aslan's Country

Where Is Aslan's Country?

-an excerpt from Narnia and Philosophy exclusive chapter: Time in the Chronicles of Narnia, by Michael Peterson and Adam Peterson
-photo credited to Melaney, a dear sister in the Lord

This is Aslan's country. But how is it related to Narnia and the children's England? The children don't have a geography-or a chronology-to grasp it. Following Aslan westward into the high mountains, Peter, Lucy, and the others discuss whether it's wrong to mourn for Narnia (Last Battle (LB), Ch. 14, p. 753). When they begin to recognize features of Narnia along the way, they are puzzled over how they previously could have witnessed its destruction. In temporal life, once things are destroyed, they do not return. Peter wonders aloud why Aslan told them they would never return to Narnia, because they obviously had returned. How should they think about this new place, Aslan's country?

Digory explains that Aslan meant they could not return to the Narnia of their finite, temporalized understanding: "[T]hat was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end." He continues, saying that the Narnia and England they knew were just faint copies or shadows of the real Narnia and the real England (LB, Ch. 15, p. 759). Both time and what the children loved in time are contrasted to fuller, richer existence in Aslan's country. "All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures," have not perished but are more real than ever (LB, Ch. 15, p. 759). Even the flowers have "more color," and every rock and blade of grass looks as if it "meant more" (LB, Ch. 15, pp. 759-61). Using similar images, The Great Divorce pictures both persons and things as more solid in Heaven.

Jewel the Unicorn cries out, "I have come home at last! This is my real country. I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this" (LB, Ch. 15, p. 760). Jewel here articulates the theological principle of the inherent value of temporal creaturely life, damaged but not destroyed by sin. So, it is entirely appropriate, as we spend the time of our lives, to love the truly good things and wish they would not end. Indeed, we find ourselves wishing with Jill that Narnia "might go on for ever" and not be subject to the inevitable destruction of time (LB, Ch. 14, p. 753). As it dawns on Jewel that he is in exactly that place which he had always desired, he squeals to everyone with the sheer delight of total self-abandonment: "Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, further in!"

Aslan's timeless country is thus the context in which persons find their ultimate fulfillment. "Great joy" characterizes those who love Aslan and pass through the Door. After the Door is shut, the children feel deep satisfaction and their "hearts leapt" as a "wild hope" arises within them that they might stay with Aslan forever (LB, Ch. 16, pp. 766-67). Their joy is increased when they find that their friends Roonwit the Centaur, Farsight the Eagle, and many others who had died are among "the happy creatures" filling Aslan's timeless kingdom. When we are related to God, Lewis says, we become "more truly ourselves."