by Leslie Baynes

A standing-room only crowd enjoyed Dr. Michael Ward’s talk on his acclaimed book Planet Narnia last week. While people gathered, they heard “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s suite “The Planets” as a sort of non-verbal, sublimal introduction of what was to come. Dr. Ward asked several key questions before addressing the Chronicles of Narnia themselves: What symbolic meaning did the planets of the pre-Copernican system convey? How did Lewis appropriate that meaning? Was he the sort of man who would hide a planetary “code” in his books? It was obvious from the many good questions the audience asked Dr. Ward that they greatly enjoyed what he had to say. And many stayed after his lecture to buy one of his books and to have the author autograph it.