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by CodeMage 2960 days ago
Exactly. That's exactly what disappointed me about Narnia: I felt like Lewis is ramming his Christianity down my throat, whereas I never felt that way with Tolkien's work. Whenever I compare Narnia and Middle Earth and people tell me "but Tolkien's work is also allegorical", my reply is "If the word allegory can be applied to both, then we need to split it up into two different words, to distinguish two things that are obviously different."
2 comments

Maybe the word you are looking for is "subtle". Lewis is downright preachy a times and sometimes even goes beyond allegory and just lets Aslan be a mouthpiece for his own theology and morals. Tolkien is never preachy, so he could even become a cult hit among counterculture hippies which probably didn't share many of his values. (Probably to his own dismay I suspect)
1. CS Lewis is my all-time, favorite author. 2. I am a Christian who believes in Christ. 3. I love the Narnia series.

But I really dislike how Lewis uses allegory in his Narnian series. The Space Trilogy is much better in that respect and I highly recommend it.