As the wait over the eagerly anticipated release of The Chronicles of Narnia is almost over, the debate as to whether the film has a clear Biblical and Christian theme, or whether the morals in the book are just there coincidently has seemingly been concluded. An unpublished letter written by the author of the books himself has provided decisive evidence of the Christian message deeply imbedded in the Narnia books.

|PIC1|A letter sent by CS Lewis to a child fan in 1961 reveals that Lewis was referring to Jesus Christ as he portrayed the mystical land and its saviour – the lion Aslan.

The letter tells the child: “The whole Narnian story is about Christ.”

The clear letter has been made public by Walter Hooper, who is a literary advisor to the Lewis estate.

Over the past few months the hype surrounding the movie release has been building, and this in turn has caused great debate as to whether Lewis’ portrayal of Aslan the Lion is a depiction of Christ.

Christians, since the books initial release have seen clearly the greatly highlighted Gospel themes in the stories, but secularists have chosen to simply state that the themes are general and not specifically aimed at depicting the Christian story.

On Dec. 8th, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe will be released across cinemas throughout the UK, and stars Tilda Swinton and Jim Broadbent. The movie uses some of the most hi-tech digital effects and wizardry ever seen on the big screen, and cost a total of £75 million to make.

|AD|The film is based on just one of the books in the series, and Brian Sibley, the author of Shadowlands said, “This is the most specific explanation of Narnia I have heard,” reports the Sunday Times.

The film shows how a group of four brothers and sisters are sent away to safety from London’s war time blitz, and embark on a mystical adventure after finding a way into the world of Narnia.

Church groups have said that throughout the story, not only do general Christian themes appear, but specific story-lines that correspondent to the Bible’s story and Christ’s path on the cross come out clearly.

These church groups have been backed by the film’s producer Disney, who is also promoting the story’s message as Christians, with Jesus represented by Aslan who saves the fallen world that has been taken over with sin.

Author CS Lewis himself was a Christian, and followers of the faith widely believe he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia series as a Christian allegory.

In his newly publicised letter, Lewis states, “Supposing there really was a world like Narnia . . . and supposing Christ wanted to go into that world and save it (as He did ours) what might have happened?”

Lewis concluded, “The stories are my answer. Since Narnia is a world of talking beasts, I thought he would become a talking beast there as he became a man here. I pictured him becoming a lion there because a) the lion is supposed to be the king of beasts; b) Christ is called ‘the lion of Judah’ in the Bible.”

The movie’s world premiere takes place today, Wednesday Dec. 7th, and will be attended by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, and London's Royal Albert Hall will be made into an ice palace for the event to match CS Lewis's classic tale.

The official text of Lewis’ letter is contained in a volume of the author’s letters to be published next year.