1. 引自《返璞歸真》的內容 在第五章里,孩子們把露茜的事全都給教授講。路易斯大概把教授當成自己了吧?初次描述納尼亞的那段對話,全都引自他本人的護教著作,基督教界的暢銷書《純粹的基督教》。我不得不感慨自己的閱讀順序正確,當時我已經讀這本護教書好幾遍了。 請參考我寫的答案 有哪些基督教信仰方面的書,對你幫助很大? - Matthew Um 的回答 請看書中那段對白。
在大二時必須選擇一門神學課程,我當時想取巧,看見那些艱澀難懂的課名就頭疼,便選了個看起來簡單的C.S.Lewis: Sin, Sanctification Saint,沒想到成了我那學期最喜歡的課。看到此題,勾起諸多回憶,不過知識構架散漫,答前未免要道一聲「獻醜」。
已經有很好的與聖經原文相聯繫的答案了,此篇頗有離題之嫌,大家姑且看看圖個樂呵。
首先,路易斯本人希望讀者如何解讀納尼亞傳奇?
當路易斯被問到他寫納尼亞的目的是否是刻意向兒童灌輸基督教時,他是這樣答的:
「Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument; then collected information about child-psychology and decided what age group I"d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out "allegories" to embody them. This is all pure moonshine.」
Dear Fifth Graders, I am so glad you liked the Narnian books and it was very kind of you to write and tell me... You are mistaken when you think that everything in the books "represent" something in this world. Things do that in The Pilgrim"s Progress, but I"m not writing in that way. I did not say to myself "let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in Narnia": I said "Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as He became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen." If you think about it, you will see that it is a quite different thing...
這是路易斯給他的一個小讀者的回信。大意是說,他認為用「象徵」一詞形容納尼亞系列並不準確。路易斯與其好機油托爾金老先生一樣,喜歡不停地在小說中創造獨立的「新世界」,其作品The Great Divorce與Perelandra都是此類「新天地」極具代表性的例子(當然這兩個例子還是有所不同,暫且不表),而納尼亞無疑是路易斯所創造出的最著名的「世界」。與其說納尼亞中的每一件事物都對應了我們現實生活中的一種東西,不如就假設納尼亞是個獨立存在於我們世界的平行宇宙,而上帝則是所有這些大大小小林林總總的宇宙唯一的主宰。以此角度來看,神子是唯一的,但人類耶穌是神子在我們世界的化身,而獅子阿斯蘭則是神子在納尼亞世界的化身。因此,認為「阿斯蘭代表我們這個世界的耶穌」是不妥當的(姑且將其理解為兩個平行宇宙自行發展,分別在兩個不同宇宙的人所做出的決定互不干涉)。這是路易斯所說的supposal literature(假設文學)。
「The more he ate the more he wanted to eat...」 "Edmund was already feeling uncomfortable from having eaten too many sweets... but he still wanted to taste that Turkish Delight again more than he wanted anything else."
路易斯認為,人之所以不停地產生慾望,想索取、獲得、佔有,絞盡腦汁地得到先前所期望的事物時,卻仍不能填補內心的空虛,理由很簡單:他們沒有得到能夠真正滿足他們的東西。而當人類窮盡世間萬物卻仍不能得到滿足時,就只能轉向一個答案:他們慾望真正的目標並不存在於這個世界上。("What does not satisfy when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring." Pilgrim"s Regress, C.S.Lewis)
"These things – the beauty, the memory of our own past – are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers.
For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."
Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years. (Weight of Glory)
「Dear Carol, It is a pleasure to answer your question. I found the name in the notes to Lane』s Arabian Nights: it is the Turkish for Lion. I pronounce it Ass-lan myself. And of course I meant the Lion of Judah.」
路易斯在《一千零一夜》的注釋里發現了這個名字:土耳其語里阿斯蘭是「獅子」的意思。他解釋說他意欲這個名字代表「猶大之獅」。「猶大之獅」是猶太十二部落中猶大支部的象徵,在啟示錄5.5中曾被用來暗指耶穌。具體情況維基知道的比我多:Lion of Judah
"Safe? Said Mr. Beaver; "don』t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? "Course he isn"t safe. But he"s good. He"s the King, I tell you.」
"In general, take my advice, when you meet anything that"s going to be human and isn"t yet, or used to be human once and isn"t now, or ought to be human and isn"t,
you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet."
所有即將變成人但尚未變成的,或曾經是人而現在不是的,或應該是人但不是的,都要謹慎對待。這裡隱含的神學概念是上帝的形象(image of God, imago dei),創世紀中,上帝依照著自身形象造人,上帝的形象從而成為區分人與其他造物的主要因素。
但我還是想說幾句關於納尼亞童話世界的創建者C. S. Lewis的話。Lewis的名字港台翻譯成「魯益師」,我很喜歡這個翻譯。我也因此把Lewis稱為「魯爺」。我到處跟人講我是魯爺的粉絲。
魯益師是極其有意思的人。因為他不但是寫童話的高手和研究北歐神話的學霸,而且被認為是二十世紀最優秀的針對知識分子的基督教「護教家」和佈道家。最近甚至還有人發現他曾經為MI6(英國軍情局)工作過(當然不是真的像007那樣當間諜,而是為英國政府在二戰期間對冰島公關提供協助——魯爺被選中是因為他對北歐神話的精通和他自帶的交流技能,參 C.S. Lewis Was a Secret Government Agent )。
之後Aslan開始創造動物,並且將一些動物分別開,每種動物中的一公一母,讓他們可以開口說話,並說:「I give you yourselves, I give you forever this land of Narnia. I give you the woods, the fruits, the rivers. I give you the stars and I give you myself.」 代表神給人掌管世間萬物的權柄,給予了人自由,並將自己(將來耶穌的受死與復活)都奉獻給了人。同時也呼應了諾亞方舟中神讓諾亞揀選陸地上動物的一公一母帶入方舟。
故事開篇,Peter,Susan,Edward和Lucy因為戰爭的緣故來到一個教授的老宅子里,並且陰差陽錯發現了柜子後面的納尼亞世界。而納尼亞的預言中"When Adam"s flesh and Adam"s bone, Sits at Cair Paravel in throne, The evil time will be over and done",Adam"s flesh指男性,Adam"s bone指女性,這或許就是為了對應《聖經》中對於耶穌身份,祂是亞當的後裔,由瑪利亞所生,並創世紀中對於耶穌身份的描述「女人的後裔」。