A key tenet of orthodox Christianity is that it isn’t just a way to live, it’s the way. Question that and you are ruffling some serious theological feathers. Last year the American author Rob Bell published Love Wins which implied that all religious roads may lead to God. The response was volcanic, labelling him everything from “shameful heretic” to “the anti-Christ”.

It would seem a writer like C. S. Lewis would be a ‘safe’ theological choice when it comes to the subject. After all, he is hailed as a Christian hero, his books are a staple for most Church-goers and he is quoted in sermons more than almost any other thinker.


However, in Lewis’ work The Last Battle, he suggests that all religions may in fact lead to God. At the end of the book, Lewis describes a Calormene soldier named Emeth and his face to face encounter with Aslan the lion. Emeth comes from a culture where the god Tash is worshipped and this is the religion he has followed all of his life.

As a result, he is terrified when he realises Aslan is right infront of him. The text documents Emeth’s experience: ”I fell at his feet and thought surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him”. However, Emeth experienced quite the opposite from what he had expected; Aslan said “Son thou art welcome. But I said, alas Lord I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child all the service thou hast done to Tash I account as service done to me.”

This already seems a far cry from what most Christians would consider to be orthodox. Lewis then describes Emeth’s conversation: “I questioned the Glorious One: Lord, is it then true that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him”. Aslan continues: “For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him.Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted”.

Emeth questions once more: “Lord, I have been seeking Tash all my days”. Aslan replies: “Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou shouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek”.

Fascinating. C. S Lewis never claimed his Chronicles were intended theologically – in fact he stated over and over that they were not. It would be unfair then to assume Aslan as a theological figure, or the story as a true telling of Lewis’ beliefs. However it is an important question to consider as we live in a multi-faith world.

Many of the people we know and love do not share our belief system. How do we approach questions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’? Perhaps Lewis is encouraging us all to leave the door open to the possibility that God is mysterious and beyond our understanding, and that it is his prerogative and not ours to say who might be ‘in’ or ‘out’? It certainly seems so.

Akbee: This is arrant nonsence.

Kay 17: The connection btw the Bible and God isn't clear, neither are the writings in the Bible. Lewis realizes that Christianity would be another cultural contraption if it closes its door on strangers and their worldviews.

Kay 17: The connection btw the Bible and God isn't clear, neither are the writings in the Bible. Lewis realizes that Christianity would be another cultural contraption if it closes its door on strangers and their worldviews.

Akbee: This is arrant nonsence.