Something new and exciting!
Dcn. Harrison Garlick takes one of the most popular articles here at The Ascent, The Hidden Meaning of Narnia’s Endless Winter, and discusses its themes in great detail—but in a way that is approachable for those new to these ideas!
What is evil?
What is the origin of evil?
What if something was pure evil?
C.S Lewis and Dante show you the answer in a simple but profound way.
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Show Notes:
In this thought-provoking episode of Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Deacon Harrison Garlick explores one of the most popular topics on The Ascen—the hidden meaning behind one of C.S. Lewis’s most striking images in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: the endless winter that grips Narnia.
Why is it “always winter but never Christmas”?
Far from a simple seasonal backdrop, Lewis uses the perpetual cold as a profound allegory for evil itself—an absence of warmth, life, and motion.
Drawing connections to Dante’s frozen pit at the bottom of Hell in the Inferno, Deacon unpacks the classic Christian understanding of evil as a privation of the good, not an equal opposite to God. He explains how true freedom is the ability to choose among goods (not between good and evil), why goodness and being are convertible, and how Aslan’s warm, life-giving breath beautifully images Christ restoring souls frozen by sin.
Whether you’re a longtime Narnia fan, studying Dante, or simply wrestling with the problem of evil, this episode offers fresh spiritual insight and shows why reading Narnia to children is such a powerful gift.
Watch now for a warm, insightful conversation that will deepen your appreciation for Lewis, Dante, and the way great stories reveal eternal truths about reality, Scripture, and the human soul.
Dcn. Harrison Garlick is a deacon, husband, father, Chancellor, and attorney. He lives in rural Oklahoma with his wife and five children. He is also the host of Ascend: The Great Books Podcast. Follow him on X at Dcn. Garlick or Ascend.
