{"id":2664866,"date":"2026-09-19T08:56:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T12:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/heres-what-c-s-lewis-would-say-about-a-woman-playing-his-depiction-of-christ-in-netflixs-narnia\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T09:01:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T13:01:46","slug":"heres-what-c-s-lewis-would-say-about-a-woman-playing-his-depiction-of-christ-in-netflixs-narnia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/heres-what-c-s-lewis-would-say-about-a-woman-playing-his-depiction-of-christ-in-netflixs-narnia\/","title":{"rendered":"Here&#8217;s What C.S. Lewis Would Say About a Woman Playing His Depiction of Christ in Netflix&#8217;s &#8216;Narnia&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fheres-what-c-s-lewis-would-say-about-a-woman-playing-his-depiction-of-christ-in-netflixs-narnia%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2664866&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the upcoming Netflix adaptation of C.S. Lewis&#8217;s Narnia series, specifically focusing on the casting choice of Meryl Streep as the voice of Aslan, the lion and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/two-arrogant-pricks-walk-into-the-white-house\/\" title=\"Two Arrogant Pricks Walk Into the White House...\">messianic figure<\/a> representing Jesus Christ.This decision has sparked controversy, notably among Christian audiences, due to the depiction of Aslan as a female voice actor, which challenges customary gender roles associated with the character. Director Greta Gerwig explained her reasoning for choosing Streep, emphasizing her depth, gravitas, and ability to embody both wisdom and wonder.However, critics and Lewis himself expressed concern over casting choices that alter the traditional gender identity of Aslan, emphasizing Lewis&#8217;s views on the importance of sexed language and gender roles in Christian theology. lewis argued that representing God with male imagery is rooted in religious tradition and that manipulating gendered language can imply a superficial view of sex and spirituality. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dems-find-judge-to-block-more-of-trumps-election-law-order\/\" title=\"Dems Find Judge To Block More Of Trump&#039;s Election Law Order\">article highlights ongoing debates<\/a> about gender portrayal in religious and cultural narratives, referencing Lewis\u2019s writings on the significance of masculinity and femininity in understanding divine and spiritual realities.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>The new \u201cNarnia\u201d movie from Netflix, based on the series of books written by Christian apologist C.S. Lewis, is slated to have actress Meryl Streep serve as the voice of Aslan, the messianic figure of Lewis\u2019s story.<\/p>\n<p>Within the world of Narnia, Aslan is not merely an allegory for Jesus. He is, in fact, Jesus Christ himself, who chooses to enter \u2014 and redeem \u2014 the fictional world of talking animals in the form of a lion. When one character asks if Aslan is in the real world, the lion replies \u201cI am\u2026 But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Netflix\u2019s upcoming adaption of the first chronological book of the series, \u201cNarnia: The Magician\u2019s Nephew\u201d, instantly drew backlash for the casting choice, with many Christians especially noting the issue with casting a woman to play a fictional character who is meant to be the Son of God.<\/p>\n<p>Director Greta Gerwig said that she \u201cwanted someone who was profound but not pretentious, who had gravitas but not morose self-seriousness,\u201d per an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/news\/narnia-magicians-nephew-aslan-meryl-streep-cover-exclusive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview<\/a> with Empire.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeone who could communicate depth and pathos as well as joy and delight,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted someone who was older than 70, so there was a wisdom of experience, but who also had the capacity of fresh wonder, like a child. And also to be one of the greatest actors to ever do it. That list is not a long one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The only requirement Gerwig seemed to not include in this list is that the male lion Christ\u00a0\u2014 who was clearly depicted with a mane in \u201cThe Chronicles of Narnia\u201d movies that started their releases in 2005 \u2014 be played by a male.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond disagreement from thousands of \u201cNarnia\u201d fans online, Lewis would himself have taken issue with the subversive casting choice.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MichaelCarlino\/status\/2100642730154336329?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">noted<\/a> by Michael Carlona, a deacon at Kenwood Baptist Church and the operations director for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Lewis staunchly affirmed the importance of recognizing the role which the sexes play in the Christian faith.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis wrote in a 1948 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalnet.org\/TRACTS\/priestesses.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">essay<\/a> called \u201cPriestesses in the Church?\u201d that toying with the sexed language regarding God actually results in \u201ca different religion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy should a woman not in this sense represent God? Certainly not because she is necessarily, or even probably, less holy or less charitable or stupider than a man. In that sense she may be as \u2018God-like\u2019 as a man; and a given women much more so than a given man. The sense in which she cannot represent God will perhaps be plainer if we look at the thing the other way round,\u201d he described.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoddesses have, of course, been worshipped: many religions have had priestesses. But they are religions quite different in character from Christianity. Common sense, disregarding the discomfort, or even the horror, which the idea of turning all our theological language into the feminine gender arouses in most Christians, will ask \u2018Why not? Since God is in fact not a biological being and has no sex, what can it matter whether we say He or She, Father or Mother, Son or Daughter?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewis wrote that while God indeed does not have biological sex, God Himself has also \u201ctaught us how to speak of Him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo say that it does not matter is to say either that all the masculine imagery is not inspired, is merely human in origin, or else that, though inspired, it is quite arbitrary and unessential. And this is surely intolerable: or, if tolerable, it is an argument not in favour of Christian priestesses but against Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In summary, Lewis noted that innovators with respect to sexed norms in the church are \u201creally implying that sex is something superficial, irrelevant to the spiritual life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo say that men and women are equally eligible for a certain profession is to say that for the purposes of that profession their sex is irrelevant. We are, within that context, treating both as neuters,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the Church, we are farther in: for there we are dealing with male and female not merely as facts of nature but as the live and awful shadows of realities utterly beyond our control and largely beyond our direct knowledge. Or rather, we are not dealing with them but (as we shall soon learn if we meddle) they are dealing with us.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #171717; display: flex;font-size: 16px;font-weight: 600;line-height: 1.5;margin: 24px 0;padding: 18px 20px 18px 30px;text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"align-self: stretch;border-left: 3px solid #171717;flex-shrink: 0;padding-left: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<p><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/\">Choose The Western Journal as your preferred source on Google and never miss reporting that defends truth, protects freedom, and advances Western civilization<\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey == typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts = { \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs = [ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]] = document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display = 'block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display = 'none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src = firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display = 'inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id'] = firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting = jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display = 'none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display = 'block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Netflix&#8217;s new &#8220;Narnia&#8221; film features Meryl Streep as Aslan, the messianic lion who embodies Jesus Christ in Lewis\u2019s story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2664867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Ben-Working-Feature-Image-2026-09-18T212405.531.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[59279,42941,85924,85925,71122],"class_list":["post-2664866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-book-adaptation","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-christ-portrayal","tag-netflix-narnia","tag-women-in-film"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Ben-Working-Feature-Image-2026-09-18T212405.531.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2664866"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2664870,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664866\/revisions\/2664870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2664867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2664866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2664866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2664866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}