Think. Speak.

After sharing with his creations the ideal of love, Aslan directs them in the tools they will need to bring this about, namely thought and speech. While certainly action will also be necessary to attain a love of God and the love of their fellows, it is thought and speech that separate the sentient beings from the Dumb Beasts. This is true for only by thought and (in general) appropriate counsel can an action be so prescribed as to attain a desired result.

Though the biblical account does not explicitly call out speech or thought in the story of creation it was inserted into the story by the earliest of the Jewish commentaries. In doing so, the creation of man is imbued with an aura of imitatio dei lacking from Lewis’ retelling. Let me explain.

In translating the original Hebrew text of the verse, “and man became a living creature,” the Targum states, “and man became a spirit of speech/thought.” The classic commentators discuss whether the Targum refers primarily to speech or to thought. R’ Bahya invokes the Targum’s translation when speaking of the power of speech as that of life or death. In contrast the commentary Akeidat Yitzchak clearly states that the Targum is first and foremost referencing thought (inner speech), but that speech per se is its partner in that it is the mode of revealing one’s thoughts.

In the biblical account of creation God creates the world via speech. This is noted by the Psalmist (33:6), “By the word of God the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth, all of their host.” When God blows into man the soul of life and transforms him into a “spirit of speech” He bequeaths to man the power to create. God created via speech and man, using God’s gift, may also create.

In Lewis’ account of creation, Alsan creates via song. And while the stars sing creating the music of the spheres, the creatures (be they beast, man, or dwarf) do not. They are thus lacking this connection to Aslan.

In fact, there is precious little singing in the Chronicles of Narnia. There are birds singing at various points. The revelers set to join the Old Narnian army to fight Miraz sing, as do the dwarfs in defiance of Rishda Tarkaan. The mer-people sing to honor the coronation of the Pevensies. But the only other singing of praise, akin to the music of the spheres, is the song of Ramandu (the star) and his daughter in praise of Aslan. Of course, there is also very little prayer in the Chronicles of Narnia. Maybe we can address that in a later post.