Introduction

When I say C.S. Lewis, many of you would think of the Chronicles of Narnia, and I could blame you because it will soon feel like we’re the ones with 100 years of winter! But Lewis wrote more than these famous children’s books. He also wrote a science fiction space trilogy, and the first book is entitled Out of the Silent Planet.

Like Narnia, these books have allusions to Christianity. The main character, Ransom, travels to the planet Mars where one of the pieces of information that he learns as he’s wandering around is that Earth is called the Silent Planet. This is because Earth had turned evil and rebelled against the ruler of the Universe. Communication with it had become non-existent.

When man fell and cursed Earth, the Earth became bent. Another way to put this is that the Earth went dark, no longer in harmony with its Creator, and without the Creator’s intervention it would be doomed to destruction. With this background, John enters the scene to tell us about that Light that shined out of the darkness.