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High King Peter and Peter the Rock

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High King Peter and Peter the Rock

Postby AslansGirl » October 14th, 2004, 11:55 pm

It seems that nothing in Narnia is a coincidence. All of the allegory is meant to be there, right? So did Lewis mean to make Peters place in Narnia so much like the Pope? I know he was not Catholic (though I am not sure what his reason for not being one was) but he has this character (named Peter of all things) who is, by the grace of Aslan and under Aslan, High King over all kings in Narnia. To my little high schoolers unread Catholic mind the similarity is obvious and I have never known Lewis to do something like that with out knowing it. So educate me. What was Lewis' opinion of the Papacy and why did he give Peter this place in Narnia?

Sorry if this has been brought up before but I have always wondered.
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Re: High King Peter and Peter the Rock

Postby Leslie » October 15th, 2004, 2:14 am

Lewis would say that Narnia was not meant to be an allegory (although it certainly looks like one). I doubt very much that he meant Peter the High King to represent the Pope, since Lewis was quite decidedly and deliberately a Protestant. His choice of name in this case may well be a coincidence.
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Re: High King Peter and Peter the Rock

Postby carol » October 15th, 2004, 9:05 am

If you want to know about Lewis' attitude to the Catholic church and its doctrines, take a look at the resources on this site. A good biography such as "Jack" by Sayer, will help to some extent, and then there are plenty of books and papers written ABOUT him, as well as by him (eg Mere Christianity).
But he did say, quite definitely, that he was NOT High Anglican, (nor especially Low), and although JRR Tolkien, through whom he discovered Christian faith, was a sincere Catholic, he didn't adopt all his friend's views or doctrines.

Someone asked about Peter and St Peter some months ago, and we could only conclude that although Lewis wasn't writing a Catholic piece, it didn't hurt others if a Catholic believer was reminded of things that a Protestant believer is not. But Peter the boy is NOT a lot like Peter the Fisherman. And it was a popular name of the 40s./50s.
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Re: High King Peter and Peter the Rock

Postby Guest » October 18th, 2004, 4:33 pm

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