BBC Narnia, Professor Digory on Logic

Scene from the original BBC episode of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. In this scene, Peter and Susan inquire of Professor Digory Kirke about their sister Lucy and whether she might be mad for suggesting a world exists within the wardrobe.

Digory proceeds to give the children a lesson a logic which seems to be an allegory for C.S. Lewis' famous "trilemma", given in his book Mere Christianity. In the trilemma, Lewis' argues that the claims of Jesus Christ to be the personal embodiment of the one true God give us only three options for response. We must say he is either 1) a lunatic, 2) a liar or 3) lord and God. We must never say, according to Lewis, that Jesus Christ was merely a great moral teacher like Sidhartha Gautama (Buddha), Ghandi or Confucious, for no one can be a great moral teacher and yet constantly make false claims of being the supreme deity in authority over all he encounters and surveys.

So we must either say that Jesus was a pathological liar, despite being highly regarded as a moral teacher. Otherwise we must say that this man was in fact quite mad, despite many regarding him among the wisest, wittiest men who ever lived. Or if we reject these, we are forced by reason to affirm that Jesus Christ is God incarnate and holds a personal claim over our very lives.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• narnia
• trilemma
• lion
• witch
• wardrobe
• professor
• logic
• digory
• diggory
• peter
• susan