Professor Joe Rigney, Assistant Professor of Theology and Christian Worldview at BCS, recently released his book, Live Like a Narnian: Christian Discipleship in Lewis’s Chronicles during the 2013 Desiring God National Conference.
Careful readers of the Chronicles of Narnia know that there is more to the stories than meets the eye. There are layers of meaning in these fairy tales, spiritual gold beneath these Narnian hills. Those who delight in Lewis’s magical world love to journey further up and further in, returning to Narnia again and again so that the same old stories can awaken our minds afresh to the wonder and glory all around us. But just how are these stories meant to change us? When we tumble back out of the wardrobe, in what ways should we be different?
Drawing upon Lewis’s other writings and the Chronicles themselves, Joe Rigney shows the intricate and sometimes subtle ways that Lewis intended his beloved fairy stories to shape our hearts and minds. In doing so, he commends Lewis’s Chronicles as a fruitful part of Christian discipleship, so that in reading the Narnian stories, breathing Narnian air, and seeking to live like Narnians, we are wonderfully transformed into the image of Jesus Christ—the Great Lion and High King Above All Kings.
Joe’s book is available on amazon, as well as at the Bethlehem College & Seminary bookstore.
Endorsements
“Joe Rigney is a writer who really knows how to love something. I am glad that he loves Narnia.”
—Douglas Wilson, author, What I Learned in Narnia and Father Hunger
“It’s evident that Joe Rigney has deeply breathed the air of Narnia for a long time, and he creatively applies Lewis’s masterpiece to Christian living with wit and wisdom.”
—Andy Naselli, Assistant Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology, Bethlehem College & Seminary; Administrator of Themelios; author, Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology
“The immediate effect of Live Like a Narnian: I want to. Written with a fun, lively, muscular style, it succeeds both as a work of popular literary criticism and as a readable call to follow Aslan all the way to the end. If you want to recover the wisdom and beauty of the original Narnia, that vision that captivated so many of us in our youth and that continues to work its edifying magic, dive into Joe Rigney’s stirring introduction.”
—Owen Strachan, Assistant Professor of Christian Theology, Boyce College; author, Risky Gospel: Abandon Fear and Build Something Awesome