Narnia at 75: A Call to Reclaim Faith and Family in Children’s Literature

This autumn the world celebrates the 75th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a book first published in 1950 that has refused to fade from the shelves of American homes and church libraries. In an age when so much of our culture tries to erase faith and common sense, Lewis’s clear-eyed storytelling still points children back to courage, truth, and sacrifice.

CBN’s recent piece on the milestone reminds patriotic readers why this story matters: scholars and Christian educators still teach Lewis because he wrapped eternal truths in gripping adventure that families can read aloud together. Dr. Christina Crenshaw and others rightly note that Lewis used imagination to make biblical themes accessible, not to hide them — a model for conservatives who want to pass faith to the next generation.

The novel is rooted in real history — the Pevensie children are evacuated from London during World War II — and that wartime backdrop gives the story grit and gravity, not the sanitized, soft-centered narratives popular in our media today. Lewis’s Narnia rewards bravery, honors authority when it is right, and condemns betrayal, teaching lessons our kids desperately need in a time of moral confusion.

Publishers and theaters are rightly marking the 75th with new editions, anniversary art, and community outreach that will put these books back into bookstores and Little Free Libraries across the country. It’s refreshing to see a major publisher celebrate imaginative, faith-affirming work at a moment when corporate culture so often bows to the loudest political pressures.

Hollywood has tried before to tame or transform Narnia for modern audiences, and the 2005 big-screen adaptation showed both the appetite for telling these stories and the tendency of the entertainment industry to recast them through a secular filter. Conservatives should support faithful adaptations and resist any effort to strip the moral center from stories that teach virtue.

Now is the moment for parents, pastors, and patriotic educators to reclaim this beloved tale — to read it aloud, discuss its lessons, and stand firm against the cultural forces that would hollow out our children’s literature. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is more than nostalgia; it’s a reminder that imagination, faith, and family still win the long fight for the soul of our nation.