Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Aslan’s Song of Stewardship
Aslan’s Song of Stewardship
Jun 14, 2025 1:25 AM

When wethinkabout “stewardship,” our minds tend to revert to the material and the predictable. We think about money or the allocation of resources. We think about growing crops or creating goods or financial investment andgenerosity.

For the Christian, however, stewardship goes much further, weaving closely together the tangible andtranscendent in all areas of life.“Stewardship is far more than the handling of our money,” write Lester DeKoster and Gerard Berghoef. “Stewardship is the handling of life, and time, and destiny.”

In For the Life of the World, pared to a song, with our activity in each sphere of creation harmonizing together even as it plays in its own distinct way and through its own “modes of operation” —whether in family, business, education, or elsewhere. God has given us stewardship as a gift, granting the responsibility to manage his house and the availability to partner with the divine in that remarkable task.

C.S. Lewis points to this reality in The Magician’s Nephew, where he writes at length about the origins of Narnia and the creative call of humankind.

Digory and Polly(the book’s protagonists)first stumble into the world via a London lamppost, panied by Digory’s uncle Andrew, an evil sorceress (long story), and a series of other tag-alongs.Yet the group has less stumbled into a world than they have entered into the creation of a world itself.

When they enter, there is simply nothing: no light, no wind, no stars, no sound. Soon enough, a voice begins singing in the distance, creating a sound that is parison, the most beautiful noise [Digory] had ever heard.” The voice continues to grow and is soon joined by other voices. “they were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices.” Stars are soon strewn across the sky. A brilliant sun appears, as well as land filled with color.

And then, they see its source:

The lion was pacing to and fro about that empty land and singing his new song. It was softer and more lilting than the song by which he had called up the stars and the sun; a gentle rippling music. And as he walked and sang the valley grew green with grass. It spread out from the Lion like a pool. It ran up the sides of the little hills like a wave…

Polly was finding the song more and more interesting because she thought she was beginning to see the connection between the music and the things that were happening. When a line of dark firs sprang up on a ridge about a hundred yards away she felt that they were connected with a series of deep, prolonged notes which the Lion had sung a second before. And when he burst into a rapid series of lighter notes she was not surprised to see primroses suddenly appearing in every direction. Thus, with an unspeakable thrill, she felt quite certain that all the things ing (as she said) “out of the Lion’s head.” When you listened to his song you heard the things he was making up: when you looked round you, you saw them. This was so exciting that she had no time to be afraid.

Everyone was stirred and shaken by the song, yet their exact responses varied.

The sorceress, after attempting to fight the lion, flees the scene in fear. Uncle Andrew, though entranced and inspired by the beauty that now surrounds him, quickly proceeds to ponder how he might plunder it for personal gain. “I have discovered a world where everything is bursting with life and growth,” he says, going on to dream of how he might it exploit it for wealth and power. mercial possibilities of this country are unbounded…The first thing is to get that brute shot.”

The children, by contrast, keep their focus on the Creator, on his beautiful song and its designs and purposes, beholding in fear and wonder at the gifts and mystery he continues to unleash. In response to Andrew’s greed, Polly promptly replies, “You’re just like the Witch. All you think of is killing things.”

Digory, whose mother is gravely ill, does indeed long to ask the lion for healing. But upon approaching him further, he sees Aslan calling together all of his new creations, and he is rather stunned by what follows.

The Lion opened his mouth, but no sound came from it; he was breathing out, a long, warm breath; it seemed to sway all the beasts as the wind sways a line of trees. Far overhead from beyond the veil of blue sky which hid them the stars sang again; a pure, cold, difficult music. Then there came a swift flash like fire (but it burnt nobody) either from the sky or from the Lion itself, and every drop of blood tingled in the children’s bodies, and the deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying:

“Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.”

The beasts and birds, by contrasts, cry out a reply in harmonic unity. “Hail, Aslan. We hear and obey. We are awake. We love. We think. We speak. We know.”

It is here, contrasted with the greed and personal plans of Uncle Andrew, that Aslan shares what the song is all about: gift.

“Creatures, I give you yourselves,” says the strong, happy voice of Aslan. “I give to you forever this land of Narnia. I give you the woods, the fruits, the rivers. I give you the stars and I give you myself.”

This is not, as Uncle Andrew presupposed, about maximizing resources for the sake of railways, vacation spas, or industrial might, though those can and will be fruitful es. This is not, as he seems to believe, a new conquest of a new world that may involve spiritual nods and handshakes where necessary.

This is about a heart transformedgrace, one that conforms to the divine love of God and pours out gifts to our neighbors according to his character and his will. As DeKoster and Berghoef write elsewhere, “basic stewardship is concerned with sweetening human relationshipsin our everyday world.”

Thesong of Aslan, the song of creation, is a call to intimate obedience — an embrace ofthe awesome, all-consuming blessing to serve and participate, to sing and harmonize, to cultivate and co-create alongsidea loving Father in the corresponding song of stewardship.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Review – Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century
^This is a guest post for the Acton PowerBlog. By Gleaves Whitney Some years ago, the bestselling biographer David McCullough outlined the “missing history” of our nation’s capital – the histories that had yet to be written. Among the people he believed merited more in-depth study was Michigan Sen. Arthur Vandenberg. In Hendrik Meijer’s latest biography, Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century, McCullough’s es true – and then some. No less mentator than Cokie Roberts,...
Alejandro Chafuen in Forbes: The Moral Aspects of Money
Acton’s own Alejandro Chafuen appeared in Forbes to discuss monetary theories from the ancient Greeks to today’s crytocurrencies. The following is an excerpt from Chafuen’s essay, titled Moralists and Money: From Gold to Bitcoin. For the full article, readers may click here. Monetary topics are some of the first economic issues to be studied with some rigor. Since the first writings by the Greek philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Hesiod and Xenophon, and until the 16th century, the moral questions,...
Radio Free Acton: Entrepreneurship in Guatemala; Upstream on the future of the arts
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, host Caroline Roberts speaks with Jonathan Porta, co-founder of merce platform UTZ Market in Guatemala, on his experiences in developing his business and on entrepreneurship in Guatemala. Then on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks to David Marcus, New York correspondent for The Federalist on the future of the arts. Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: Check out Utz Market Learn more about sustainable development and effective poverty...
Harry Potter: Venture capitalist
I recently read the first Harry Potter novel to my six-year-old son Brendan, then watched the film with him. It was all the fun I hoped it would be: he is just the right age for it — excitedly asking what is going to happen next and jumping and cheering at the end. As typically happens, I can’t stop at just the first one, so I’ve been watching the rest of the films with my wife Kelly. (I may read...
Where criminal justice reform meets the redemptive power of work
According to a recent study by the Rand Corporation, “more than 2 million adults are incarcerated in U.S. prisons,” with roughly 700,000 leaving federal and state prisons each year. Of those released, “40 percent will be reincarcerated.” It’s a staggering statistic—one that ought to stir us toward greater reflection on how we might better support, empower, and equip prisoners in connecting with social and economic life. How might we reform our criminal justice system to better help and support these...
FAQ: What is the ‘U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement’?
The United States and Mexico renegotiated the terms of their free trade agreement, President Donald Trump announced this week, replacing NAFTA with something he dubbed the “U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement.” Here are the facts you need to know. Why did the U.S. negotiate a new trade agreement with Mexico? President Trump promised to renegotiate NAFTA during the 2016 presidential campaign, seeking more favorable terms for the U.S. auto industry and manufacturing sector. As of this writing, Canada has not agreed to...
How we participate in God’s own work
“This is what I have observed to be good,” the Preacher says, “that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot” (Ecclesiastes 5:18[NIV]). “Toilsome labor” is work that is incessant, extremely hard, or exhausting. That doesn’t sound all that appealing, does it? So why does the Preacher say such labor isgood? Because, he...
What difference does reaching the middle class make?
Too often, advocating for economically sound policies is dismissed as extraneous to the life of a Christian. Faith leaders may see improving the lot of those living in this world as worthwhile but, fundamentally, outside the Christian’s mission. But if they understood the difference these policies make for “the least of these,” they may reconsider. It may be a cliche to say that those in the West take for granted the kind of daily pleasures and amenities denied much of...
How Switzerland honors the Protestant work ethic and Catholic subsidiarity
In the U.S., Labor Day weekend celebrates the work ethic that made this nation the most prosperous in human history, and federalism is enshrined in our constitution. But Switzerland – so often overlooked by the West – may have much to teach us about how to honor and embrace the profound influence of the Protestant work ethic and Catholic subsidiarity. At Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website, political scientist Mark R. Royce discusses how aspects of Switzerland’s little-discussed political system...
From Sunday Stalwarts to the Solidly Secular, the strange mix of American religious groups
In America, we have a problem with religious labels: they no longer fit. As a devout evangelical, I always cringe when I hear the label used—mostly for political purposes—to include a range of heretics, political grifters, and nominal Christians who haven’t been to church in decades. But I also tire of hearing the term “nones” used as a synonym for atheists. The reality is that most people in Western Europe consider themselves to be “Christians,” they are less religious than...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved