{"product_id":"planet-narnia-the-seven-heavens-in-the-imagination-of-c-s-lewis-9780195313871","title":"Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis","description":"For over half a century, scholars have laboured to show that C. S. Lewis's famed but apparently disorganised \u003cem\u003eChronicles of Narnia\u003c\/em\u003e have an underlying symbolic coherence, pointing to such possible unifying themes as the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser's \u003cem\u003eFaerie Queene.\u003c\/em\u003e None of these explanations has won general acceptance and the structure of Narnia's symbolism has remained a mystery. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Michael Ward has finally solved the enigma. In \u003cem\u003ePlanet Narnia\u003c\/em\u003e he demonstrates that medieval cosmology, a subject which fascinated Lewis throughout his life, provides the imaginative key to the seven novels. Drawing on the whole range of Lewis's writings (including previously unpublished drafts of the \u003cem\u003eChronicles), \u003c\/em\u003e Ward reveals how the Narnia stories were designed to express the characteristics of the seven medieval planets - - Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn - - planets which Lewis described as \"spiritual symbols of permanent value\" and \"especially worthwhile in our own generation\". Using these seven symbols, Lewis secretly constructed the \u003cem\u003eChronicles\u003c\/em\u003e so that in each book the plot-line, the ornamental details, and, most important, the portrayal of the Christ-figure of Aslan, all serve to communicate the governing planetary personality. The cosmological theme of each Chronicle is what Lewis called 'the kappa element in romance', the atmospheric essence of a story, everywhere present but nowhere explicit. The reader inhabits this atmosphere and thus imaginatively gains \u003cem\u003econnaître\u003c\/em\u003e knowledge of the spiritual character which the tale was created to embody. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cem\u003ePlanet Narnia\u003c\/em\u003e is a ground-breaking study that will provoke a major revaluation not only of the \u003cem\u003eChronicles, \u003c\/em\u003e but of Lewis's whole literary and theological outlook. Ward uncovers a much subtler writer and thinker than has previously been recognized, whose central interests were hiddenness, immanence, and knowledge by acquaintance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMichael Ward, \u003c\/strong\u003eFellow of Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50318300479762,"sku":"9780195313871","price":84.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_da8de14e-80ac-4887-ba5f-a6cc70aa47b0.jpg?v=1727552759","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/planet-narnia-the-seven-heavens-in-the-imagination-of-c-s-lewis-9780195313871","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}