Narnia and the Fields of Arbol: The Environmental Vision of C.S. Lewis (review)

When humans affect nature without considering the consequences—for example, the disastrous 2010 explosion of a BP offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico that caused a marine oil spill polluting the waters and severely affecting the US Southeast economy—activists advocate more than ever the importance of better stewardship and care for our home planet. This point is ubiquitously stressed by the media, from grassroots eco-movements to popular fantasy films such as James Cameron's Avatar (2009). An example of this activism appears in Narnia and the Fields of Arbol: The Environmental Vision of C.S. Lewis, by Matthew Dickerson and Davis O'Hara. The book is a literary and critical analysis of the relationship between ecology and Christian ethics and philosophy as expressed in the writings of Irishborn English writer Clive Staple Lewis (1898-1963). Dickerson and O'Hara focus on C.S. Lewis' two fantasy books series: The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956) and The Space Trilogy (1938-1945). The authors use a multidisciplinary combination of literature, ecology, philosophy, and religion to explain Lewis' ecological views on nature and the effect of human actions on the environment. Obviously Lewis was not a scientist, but a literary writer and professor of Medieval English and Classics, as well as a Christian apologist. However, his love for the outdoors and his criticism of the modern industrial changes affecting the English landscape in the name of progress during the first half of the twentieth century drove him to write in favor of a more agrarian (and perhaps even romantic) Christian view of the environment via his characters' adventures in the fantastic realm of Narnia and the outlandish, futuristic communities on Mars, Venus, and Earth.

The authors, who come from very different fields, apply their expertise in environmental science, philosophy, and literary analysis in their study of the idea of nature in Lewis' popular fantasy novels. Following their multiple interests—Dickerson is a professor of environmental studies and computer sciences at Middlebury College, VT, and O'Hara an assistant professor of philosophy and classics at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD—both authors combine language and literature with religion, philosophy, and science in their interdisciplinary approach to human interaction with the environment as shown in Lewis' work. Dickerson and O'Hara justify their focus on The Narnia Chronicles and The Space Trilogy not merely because of the popularity of both series (particularly the first one), but also because the notion of "escapism" provides an effective strategy for criticizing contemporary issues by using fantasy as a metaphor. As they write, "telling stories is sometimes more important than telling facts because of the way it provokes the imagination" (4). Storytelling provokes critical thinking more effectively on willing listeners than droning abstract arguments on deaf ears because it is apparently non-threatening. Throughout the book the authors argue that storytelling, as a pleasant learning experience, enlightens the audience's imagination and challenges listeners to act and seek creative solutions for a particular cause such as Lewis' environmental vision combined with that of a healthy Christian lifestyle.

Narnia and the Fields of Arbol: The Environmental Vision of C.S. Lewis is a critical interpretation of Lewis' ideas about the environment and Christian ethics as expressed in The Narnia Chronicles and The Space Trilogy. The work analyzes how Lewis, a reconverted Christian apologist, presented in these two literary series an attempt to reconcile two habitually opposed subjects, science and religion. Traditionally, these two fields are at odds: science is considered an objective field that studies facts based on direct observation and analysis, whereas religion is a doctrine based on belief in a divine being and absolute faith in its dogmas. Like Lewis, Dickerson and O'Hara aim to "build bridges" not only between these two usually hostile disciplines. They propose to examine Christian notions of humans...