Rumor has it that Greta Gerwig is in talks with Meryl Streep to play the part of Aslan in her Narnia series. I’m a huge C.S. Lewis and Narnia fan and, like many of you, I like the story the way it is. Heck, I have a whole Narnia tattoo sleeve and wrote an 80-minute Narnia album. But despite that, I’m about to defend Gerwig because of the bitter, hateful Christians shouting “woke this” and “Lewis that.”
God in the Fantasy World
Lewis liked to wonder how God might interact with other worlds. In his science fiction works, God is called Maleldil, and he once became a human to dwell on earth as Jesus. In Narnia, God is called Aslan, and he tells Lucy that he goes by a different name on earth, clearly alluding to Jesus.
Lewis speculated different spiritual dynamics for different realms. He imagined a race on Venus that passed the test of their own Garden of Eden and immediately went on to be resurrected. He imagined several races on Mars that also lived in peace with God and angels. He imagined a race of demonic/Nephilim figures living in the mythical world of Charn. And he imagined the animal world of Narnia, which was saved by God in animal form. Borrowing from Lewis’ various thoughts on spiritual world-building, I once started writing a fantasy novel where God was born as a woman, because that was his chosen course of action in that particular realm.
Narnia is an allegory. As such, it’s trying to tell a story representative of our own story to help us process the various characteristics of our lives, the world, and spirituality. Yes, in his allegory, Lewis chose to make Aslan male. Yes, it is jarring to consider that changing in Gerwig’s adaptation. But we can argue that it wasn’t Aslan’s maleness that saved Narnia, just as we can argue that it wasn’t Jesus’ maleness that saved the Earth. In fact, we could argue that by changing the gender of Aslan, Gerwig is practicing the art of allegory herself.
God in the Biblical World
There is nothing wrong with being female. Both women and men are made in the image of God, and therefore, the image of God looks just as much female as it looks male. While we often call God “Father” since Jesus referred to his actual Dad that way, God the Father is not a male—not to mention that the Bible also uses maternal imagery for him. And while Jesus actually is biologically male, he comes fully from a female and the New Testament writers recognize him as the Woman Wisdom character in Proverbs. As for the Holy Spirit, spirit is a feminine word in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and is neutered in the Greek of the New Testament.
This being said, there is plenty of allegorical space for Gerwig to have a woman play Aslan. Indeed, that’s what allegory does. For those with trauma built around men or a bad father, the change might even be healing.
Conclusion
When Aslan enters the scene in the books or the movies, I cry. It feels like I’m encountering the Holy Spirit in a surreal way in those moments. While I’ve never considered what it would be like to gender-swap Aslan, I assume there’s a good chance I will still cry if Gerwig did so. Honestly, I think that all depends on if the actor gets God’s character right—not his gender.
Have you ever listened to Focus on the Family’s radio theater version of Narnia? They nail every single part of the books except for Aslan. The voice actor who plays him presents the lion’s most beautiful words with a tone that is neither safe nor good. He makes Aslan sound ready to kill you if you do anything wrong instead of the Aslan that loves and saves.
Do I prefer this possible change to the story? No. But do I think it’s allegorically, theologically, and artistically permissible? Yes. Do I think Lewis would have been about it? Probably not. But do I think Lewis’ own world-building techniques create space for it? Yes.
Jamin Bradley 
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