Michael Ward: Silent Witness - The Horse and His Boy Sixty Years On [Torrey Honors Lecture]

[@charatowers]

My very favorite book of the Narnia Series. I would cry and cry and cry when Shasta meets Aslan and just bows down and adores Him.

[@andrewcrowder4958]

As a little boy I found the personality of Aravis fascinating. And only later, I found the Hermit calling the battle as if it was a horse race or a football game to be very funny. This book feels as if it were a beautiful gift to Joy and her sons.

[@michaelkelleypoetry]

When I was a kid, I didn't like HHB very much. I re-read it in college though, and it's been my favorite Narnia book ever since.

[@yukily07]

Wonderful lecture, both for readers and writers.

[@christinejones9620]

I love this lecture and the beauty and wonder of the deep wisdom shared. Students of Michael Ward are very lucky.

[@barbararey-constantin5679]

A brilliant lecture and I could have listened for another hour I learned so much. Thank you for posting this.

[@giorgiamarysousarocha1554]

Has been my favorite since I read it. It's about God sovereignty and it's so majestically beautiful.

[@melindalemmon2149]

He was not a reformed believer, so soveignty was hardly his focus.

[@amylynnhunt55]

Are you talking about Lewis?

[@aclark903]

@@amylynnhunt55 Lewis was Anglican, a Church us Anglicans regard as both Catholic & Reformed.

[@lyonhawaii]

This story was my favorite of the books! And I am not alone!!!!!!

[@ShoshiPlatypus]

I have always loved this book with all its colour and adventuring through different environments from darkness to gradually emerging light. I can see parallels with my own walk in life, from darkness to dawning light and truth as I sensed God, the Hound of Heaven, chasing me down, and how I initially ran from Him, to the day the light fully dawned, 39 years ago, when I was born again. There is a definite flavour to darkness and light which goes far beyond physical light or its absence, and as a Christian believer steeped in God's Word, I can sense this in my spirit. I love the Middle-Eastern Arabian-Nights flavour of the dark and sinister Calormenes, and Pauline Baynes depicted them so well in her superb illustrations. The Hermit - Hermes? Hidden? A hermit is one who hides himself from the world in solitude. Hmmm. I saw the original TV programme about Planet Narnia when it was first broadcast, and it blew my mind. I also felt somewhat concussed, with Narnia having been such an important aspect of my whole life, and I, also, wondered how I could have missed it! Funnily enough, many years earlier, I had already made the connection between The Silver Chair and the Moon, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader with the Sun, but never took this any further. My hubby gave me the book for Christmas that year. It opened my eyes and I absolutely love this hidden secret revealed. I began reading Narnia aged 9 and never stopped - I am now 70. With each stage of life, deeper meaning and significance has emerged for me and when I became a Christian this took a giant leap. Another giant leap with Dr. Michael Ward's revelation! I so enjoyed this lecture! I am so grateful to Dr. Ward for sharing what he has learnt, and to C.S. Lewis for using his God-given gifts to bless us all so richly. No wonder there are so many scholars studying C.S. Lewis and his works! What a truly remarkable man.

[@rebanelson607]

How did we miss this for so long? It seems so obvious now that it has been explained. Thanks for posting this excellent lecture!

[@majigaining]

Well it just so happen that ‘the Horse and his boy’ is my favourite of the Naraina books, especially the moment he boy fist met Aslan

[@clayhugo1806]

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[@reignray1222]

@Clay Hugo Instablaster =)

[@clayhugo1806]

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[@clayhugo1806]

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[@reignray1222]

@Clay Hugo Glad I could help =)

[@dolly7639]

WHAT a gem!!!

[@ThesepretzelsRmakingmethirsty]

So fascinating. The horse and His Boy has always been my favorite. I just don't like how he Pronounces Calormen.

[@kirstymca]

I'm curious - how would you pronounce it?

[@patriagirl7674]

@@kirstymca I would pronounce it Kah-LOR-men.

[@amylynnhunt55]

Hopefully you can set that aside.

[@isaiahclark1487]

Is we going to Narnia on

[@patrickholt2270]

I have a bit of a problem with this idea of using the classical pagan cosmology, the characterisations and symbolism of the 7 planetary gods as ways to talk about God. The first is that it presents God, and his earthly purposes and word, as static, as the planetary spheres were static in the old cosmology. They were set in their place and roles and unchanging, part of an unchangeable cosmos and divine order. So it seems to me to tend toward a conservative Christian cosmology which would present the existing earthly order as divinely ordained and unchangeable, whereas Christ's purpose, and indeed the purpose of the whole of scripture, is revolutionary, in that the existing human order is warped and poisoned by sin and needs transforming. It is better to understand the universe as changing and God as the great change-agent, rather than as someone who has set us in place and requires us to keep living in the hierarchies and inequality and avoidable suffering to which we subject one another. The other thing is that it seems to me to skirt very close to a tacit henotheism, by duplicating within Christian thought and preaching the characterisations of false gods. Something very similar exists in Zoroastrianism, where not only are the other gods still worshipped alongside the ultimate creator and teacher of wisdom, but he is said to instruct us spiritually through the 7 Amesha Spentas, the benificent immortals, or divine spirits or archangels, who are both the ideals to which you should strive to conform inwardly, and the mediating spirits whom enable you to do so.

[@amylynnhunt55]

I was with you until it just became a run-on sentence. It just became hard to follow, and I'm no idiot when it comes to reading comprehension. It seems like a lot of thoughts, can you streamline maybe?

[@patrickholt2270]

@@amylynnhunt55 Not really. There are six sentences seperated by full stops, and the right amount of commas, I believe. I even use double spacing after full stops to further draw attention to sentence breaks, as my uni required for essays. It's 267 words, which is a fairly slim paragraph. I suppose I could have left out the last sentence about Zoroastrianism, but it seemed necessary to illustrate what I meant about henotheism.

[@janellemckinley172]

Depends how you imagine "God".

[@michaelkelleypoetry]

You're misunderstanding the medieval cosmology. I suggest you read Lewis' Ransom Trilogy. The earth is the way it is because it is "The Silent Planet," it's lord in rebellion against God and therefore, does not participate in the music of the spheres. The earth is the sump pump in the basement because of sin, but because of what happened at Bethlehem - God becoming Man - it will not always be so. We can look up into the heavens and know how small we are because of sin, and be thankful that God is bringing us back, God doing what absolutely could not be changed by ourselves.

[@aclark903]

@@michaelkelleypoetry "Misunderstood, once led /the world astray when they bestowed on planets /such names as Jove & Mercury & Mars." Dante、Paradise Canto IV 61-63 (translated by Mark Musa)

[@manuelodabashian]

Interesting but if it is religious why create Narnia? Or rather make it separate from Earth? Is there something similar with the Harry potter stories?

[@amylynnhunt55]

They are fantasy stories that are also analogies. Written waaaaay before Harry Potter. :) Before the author of those books was born. CS Lewis was an absolute genius, his works on Christian faith are incredible. The series of Narnia books are great, I was reading "A Horse and His Boy" when a beautiful black cat adopted me :) We were a cat and his girl so I named him after the main character in this book - well, without spoiling anything, a character whose name is very like the main. Can't just name a cat Cor. :) Corin.

[@amylynnhunt55]

Also, being a Christian is not the same as being religious. And again, the books are in the fantasy genre.

[@brianpendell6085]

Narnia and Harry Potter are both books written by Christians, with a Christian imagination and background, but they are imagination, not teaching. Their purpose is myth; to tell a story and touch the heart, not instruction as in a catechism. The point of a fairy story is to teach by example, to inspire hope, and to point people to the truth. It bypasses the cerebral functions of the brain to touch a different part of the mind -- the imagination. It points people to good teaching but is not teaching itself. Solid teaching hardly ever makes for a readable story, and vice versa. But good teaching can help you to appreciate or write a good story, and a good story gives you greater insight into teaching. Both have value, but they are not the same thing.

[@EricBlauer]

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