Further Up & Further In Understanding C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Bruce Edwards Broadman & Holman Publishers Nashville, Tennessee Copyright © 2005 Click to purchase this book.

Small Group Bible Study Suggestions

Excerpts from "Finding What You Are Not Looking For"

We do not know what awaits us around any corner. The most familiar place may in fact be a portal to a new dimension; the most mundane object may be the instrument by which we enter a new world. Is there a faded map to stumble upon in an old, badly lit attic or cellar, pointing us to a secret destination heretofore unexplored? Might we be destined to become heroes or heroines in some mysterious other world yet still get home in time for supper?

That's the kind of breathless hope and stupendous wonder that the Pevensie children entertain upon being whisked out of wartime London to the safety of the countryside and a large old house over which a wise but not wizened, kindly old professor presides with a few of his house staff.

It would be difficult for anyone familiar with Mere Christianity to read this and not be reminded of Lewis's famous "liar, lunatic, or Lord" trichotomy. Here is the relevant passage from that book: "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse" (Mere 56).

The circumstances which lead them there are not pleasant. Who wants to be driven from mommy and daddy, from our own beds and toys and storybooks and breakfasts, air-raids abounding, bombs falling overhead from a ruthless enemy? No, we would not choose to visit even the most inviting holiday spot under these conditions. We're worried about our parents! Why couldn't they come with us?

But we must make the best of it. We must show our parents that we can be mature and poised and brave. Or maybe just that we can get along for as long as it takes. And who knows? Maybe there will be adventure even yet; there are so many rooms and so few rules! The only possible downside, besides terribly missing mom and dad, is, well, we are stuck here with our brothers and sisters, and we all know what that will be like! Peter will lord it over us because he's the oldest; and Susan will "Tsk! Tsk!" us to death because, like Mother, she knows it all; and Edmund, oh that Edmund, he will make sarcastic remarks all the time to ridicule and spoil our fun; and Lucy, poor old Lu, will be the brunt of Edmund's caustic monologues and come crying to us every minute of the day.

Just more of the same old same old, only worse, since we don't have school and our neighbors and the rugby field and the morning papers to distract us from the everydayness of their burgeoning character flaws. To be stuck in this house with all of them. And the only thing worse would be if it rains, too! What's that? It is raining? Rats! We will just have to look around inside our expansive playhouse!

We don't know what we are looking for, but we shall surely find it!

Sample Study Question

1. What are the circumstances that cause the Pevensie children to end up in Professor Kirke's household? What is their initial reaction to being so far from home and their parents?