May 22 2008
Prince Caspian, Part 2: the Prophet-Leader
It’s fair to blame the failures in Prince Caspian on Kingly-Leadership working independently from Prophetic-Leadership. We covered these failures in the first Caspian review, and they typify the “Natural Man” Paul describes:
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 1 Corinthians 2:14
The efforts of King Peter, Queen Susan, King Edmund and Prince Caspian were brilliant. Their “hidden hole,” the ambush of the castle, their call to attack and not defend were all sound, practical solutions, but also doomed to fail.
Why was failure inevitable? Yes, their youthful characters were flawed, and they cracked under pressure. But as the story unfolds, it becomes evident they must fail, even without the flaws: quite simply, Narnians were too weak and too few against the power of the dark lord and his swarming armies.
In the ferocity of spiritual warfare, the Kingly-Leader’s brilliance and power is worn down into a dull and pathetic leadership. I’ve been there. I sympathize with those brave Narnian leaders when their escape routes were severed, their strength and strategies all exhausted. Meanwhile, fresh hordes of the enemy advance with trebuchets pounding mercilessly away.
“We’ve waited for Aslan long enough,” Peter told Lucy earlier. Oh what fatal words those were.
