{"id":10695,"date":"2012-04-01T19:47:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T02:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=10695"},"modified":"2015-03-19T15:23:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T22:23:09","slug":"he-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2012\/04\/01\/he-man\/","title":{"rendered":"He-Man, Christian Allegory & Transubstantiation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christians have long made use of allegory<\/a> to narrate the story of salvation. We have done this because, by utilizing fiction to retell the story of Jesus, we can present to an unbelieving world\u00a0the archetypal\u00a0themes of Christianity, as well as providing for ourselves a “novel” way \ud83d\ude09\u00a0to meditate upon our tale of grace…<\/p>\n

A Common Example…<\/h2>\n

One popular example of Christian allegory would be “The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe”\u00a0<\/em><\/span> by C.S. Lewis. This is one of the first novels I can recall hearing as a child. However, it wasn’t until I was quite a bit older that I started to realize why the story felt so familiar…<\/p>\n

C.S. Lewis’ goal in writing\u00a0“The Chronicles Of Narnia”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 was to write a good<\/span> story rather than simply a Christian<\/span>\u00a0story. Fortunately for us he does both! In\u00a0“The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 Lewis tells the story of the great lion Aslan who offers his life in place of the disobedient boy Edmund. Even with this brief outline, it is clear to see that this story is an allegory of Jesus’ Crucifixion and the offering of His life for sinners.<\/p>\n

In my mid-twenties I did a lot of babysitting and, because of this, I got to read the book out loud\u00a0for the children I was babysitting\u00a0(complete with voices, of course). Reading the book as an adult, I was stunned to find Christ on every page.<\/p>\n

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A Rather Uncommon Example…<\/h2>\n

However, today I would like to offer a rather\u00a0un<\/span>common example of Christian allegory: “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0As a child I was a huge<\/span>\u00a0He-Man fan: I had seen every episode of the cartoon, I owned a vast array of He-Man toys and was even a member of the official He-Man fan club (I have a secret Eternian name..ssshhhh).<\/p>\n

I recently purchased the DVDs of the show.\u00a0As I watched them with the eyes of an adult, I recognized the clear\u00a0Christian allegory. If you don’t believe me, I would invite you to watch the show’s opening credits:<\/p>\n