Narnia, Meryl and Juliana of Norwich?

 

With the Church through the ages,

we speak of God as one and triune:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We also speak of God as
    Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer
    God, Christ, and Spirit
    Mother, Friend, and Comforter
    Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love,
    and in other ways that speak faithfully of
the One on whom our hearts rely,
the fully shared life at the heart of the universe.

from A Song of Faith, United Church of Canada

The buzz is building for the Narnia movie now filming in London, Great Britain with a release sometime next year. There have been several adaptations of the Chronicles of Narnia children's series written by Christian author C.S. Lewis in the 1950s, with varying degrees of success. I'm not sure that it's possible to have a visual portrayal of any portion of this saga that could match what happens when the imagination of the reader or listener encounters the printed page.

The film-maker endeavouring to do so this time is the impressive Greta Gerwig of Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie fame. Apparently Narnia: The Magician's Nephew is taking some creative liberties with the story in both time period and aspects of the setting. What has emerged as the most controversial tweak is the voice for one of the characters, the wise and noble lion, Aslan, who is a Christ figure. Gerwig has chosen to cast Meryl Streep in this role -- who can't she play? -- and this has caused a leonine uproar in the conservative Christian sphere. How dare a fictional character who is a lion but may be Jesus be besmirched with a woman's voice? 

Of course, Jesus, the Christ, was a man and the traditional trinitarian formula describes God as "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Yet in a desire to comprehend "God with Us"  Christians through the ages have explored the feminine aspects of the Triune Deity, although often with strong push-back and censure. The Medieval mystic, Juliana of Norwich was one of them:

It is a characteristic of God to overcome evil with good.

Jesus Christ therefore, who himself overcame evil with good, is our true Mother. We received our ‘Being’ from Him ­ and this is where His Maternity starts ­ And with it comes the gentle Protection and Guard of Love which will never ceases to surround us. 

Just as God is our Father, so God is also our Mother. 

Jesus, as our true Mother? Heretical, some would claim. This makes the words from the United Church Song of Faith seem rather tame, don't you think? Perhaps we turn to the holy words of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for guidance:

“But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn’t know what to do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly.”

So, it may be that Gerwig's "terrible" choice for Aslan is inspired, if not providentially consistent with Lewis' seemingly contradictory vision. Someone has asked whether Christians don't have more important things to do than worry about the voice of Aslan. I hope the film lives up to the hype.