Review

Culture

26 December 2024

4 min read

Most popular 2024: Graham Tomlin

From princes to politicians, Graham's top takes of the year.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

A young man wearing a dark suit talks to a minister wearing regalia.

Prince William talks with the Dean of Westminster Abbey, 2019.

LPhot Belinda Alker, OGL 3, via Wikimedia Commons.

We’re wrapping up the year reviewing what articles were most popular with Seen & Unseen readers. Our first analysis is of Bishop Graham Tomlin’s takes on the year’s events. What did our editor-in-chief write about?

2024 was billed as the year of elections, so it’s no surprise to see two takes on the US presidential election. And back in the United Kingdom, Graham also commented on the age old tension between politicians and clerics. Public scandals also caught his eye, from the injustice meted out by the Post Office, to the pure evil of abuse.

Away from the politics of the public realm, Graham explored the perennial themes of the sacred and secular views of the world. However, this year, he also wrote on paganism. If your first image that comes to mind is of ancient cultures, think again. And in the very personal realm of belief, Graham’s take on Prince William’s doubts

Finally, could a 2024 review not mention podcasts? As a scholar of theologian Martin Luther, Graham, of course had views on The Rest is History’s episode about Luther – The Rest is Luther...

In reverse order...

10 - Did God tell Joe Biden to stand down?

His story teaches us to listen a little more intently to what comes our way.

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Ageing, Politics, Providence.

Did God tell Joe Biden to stand down?

9 - The Church and the State need to disagree on asylum seekers

Politicians don’t always get how church and state relate, but both have a vital and different role to play when it comes to immigration.

The Church and the State need to disagree on asylum seekers | Seen & Unseen

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Church and state, Politics.

The Church and the State need to disagree on asylum seekers

8 - Are we Secular, Christian or Pagan?

After the Paris Olympics, Graham Tomlin wonders whether a full-on secularism could veer back towards a modern paganism.

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Belief, Paganis m.

Are we Secular, Christian or Pagan?

7 - After the fall: the Post Office scandal and the search for justice

Falls from grace, like that of the Post Office’s CEO, prompt Graham Tomlin to dissect the problems of justice and mercy.

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Creed, Ethics, Justice.

After the fall: the Post Office scandal and the search for justice

6 - John Smyth: how evil masks itself as goodness

Be alert to the cloaked and warped wherever it occurs.

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Creed.

John Smyth: how evil masks itself as goodness

5 - Did God save Donald Trump?

In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, Graham Tomlin asks whether or not we can see the hand of God in it.

Did God save Donald Trump? | Seen & Unseen

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Belief, Death & Life, Politics, Providence.

Did God save Donald Trump?

4 - The difference between Richard Dawkins and Ayaan Hirsi Ali

How we decide what is true rests on where we start from.

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Atheism, Belief, Epistemology.

The difference between Richard Dawkins and Ayaan Hirsi Ali

3 - God in the garbage: Egypt's unlikely megachurch

Cairo's Church of the Zabballeen is the largest Church, and one of the most unusual in the Middle East. Graham Tomlin tells its story and that of the remarkable priest who inspired it.

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Coptic Church, Identity, Middle East.

God in the garbage: Egypt's unlikely megachurch

2 - The Rest is Luther

Did 'The Rest is History' get Luther right? Graham Tomlin gives his verdict

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Creed, Faith, Justification.

The Rest is Luther

1 - Prince William's doubt is normal - it's impossible to be certain whether there is a God

Our limited human understanding means we will never fully understand God in this life, writes Graham Tomlin.

Prince William's doubt is normal - it's impossible to be certain whether there is a God | Seen & Unseen

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Belief, Doubt, Faith, Royalty.

Prince William's doubt is normal

0 - A history of Israel and Palestine – 4,000 years of history in 2,500 words

First published in late 2023, this analysis remains the most popular Seen & Unseen article to date.

The land at the heart of the Middle Eastern crisis is at the centre of world attention again. For those whose grasp on the history behind the situation is hazy, Graham Tomlin offers a brief survey.

Explore more articles on themes in this article: Gaza, Israel, Middle East, Old Testament, War & Peace.

A history of Israel and Palestine

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Review

Awe and wonder

Culture

Theatre

22 April 2025

5 min read

This Narnia play left me yearning to cheer on good

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is still relevant at 75.

Steve Dew-Jones

Steve is news director of Article 18, a human rights organisation documenting Christian persecution in Iran.

A play set shows a witch and lion on stage.

EMG Entertainment.

This article contains spoilers.

It’s been 75 years since C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was first published, and the story is still captivating audiences and even sparking fresh controversy.

If you hadn’t heard the news, the role of the lion, Aslan, is rumoured to have been offered to Meryl Streep, a woman, for Greta Gerwig’s upcoming film, set to be released in time for Thanksgiving next year.

I recently saw another adaption of the famous book - Adam Peck’s play - in a theatre in Torquay, as part of a 75th anniversary tour of the UK.

And having previously read the book and watched two different film versions, I still found myself considering elements of the story I hadn’t previously, hidden depths I hadn’t noticed - even if these didn’t include Aslan’s gender.

For those not familiar with the tale, it follows the journey of four children through the doors of a magic wardrobe, which transports them into a fantastical kingdom in which a lion reigns but a witch has held dominion for 100 years.

Under the White Witch’s spell, there has been only winter for a century - “always winter and never Christmas”, as one famous line from the story goes.

But now, thrust into this story in the fulfilment of a prophecy long foretold, four “sons of Adam and daughters of Eve” - boys and girls, to you and me - come as the lion king returns, and a new day dawns.

The winter begins to thaw, Spring is in the air, and Father Christmas even shows up to shower the children with gifts.

But the return of Aslan - and even Santa Claus - doesn’t signal the end of the story. There is still a battle to be fought; the witch still has power and even ensnares one of the children, Edmund, with the promise of all the Turkish delight he could wish for, and the title of a prince.

It is at this moment - still early in the tale - that the battle between good and evil is clearly laid out, and the forces of light and darkness clash thenceforth.

In the play, those enslaved by the witch are clad in black to emphasise the distinction, while much is made of the meaning of the name of the youngest child, Lucy: “bringer of light”.

The imagery is abundantly clear, as it has ever been in Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, of which the The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is the first and most famous of seven books.

And the author, renowned for being an atheist who later became a Christian, leans heavily upon his newfound faith throughout the Narnian tales, and not least in the character of Aslan.

Yet while you and I may frustratingly regularly let ourselves down, there is also something within us - is there not? - that ever yearns to cheer on the forces of good.

At Easter, it is especially hard not to see in Aslan’s death and resurrection a striking similarity with the figure at the centre of the Christian faith.

Indeed, it was this moment of greatest sacrifice - for the “traitor”, Edmund - that most struck me this time around, even though I already knew the story so well.

At church the following day, as I took Communion, I was still reflecting on Aslan’s sacrifice and wondering whether Edmund more closely resembles the average Christian - myself included - than the older, nobler brother, Peter, in whom most of us would prefer to see our likeness.

My mind returned to a moment in the theatre that had humbled me, when the lady sitting in front of us handed me £20 to treat my children for being “so good”, having at the interval made me bristle by asking them to sit quietly and stop kicking her chair.

“Fair enough?” I hear you suggest. Well, perhaps, but I didn’t think it until that humbling moment after the curtain had closed.

My son later told me he hadn’t thought the lady had been unkind, which again got me thinking about my own imperfections and need to be more childlike.

Yet while you and I may frustratingly regularly let ourselves down, there is also something within us - is there not? - that ever yearns to cheer on the forces of good.

I doubt many audience members were rooting for the witch, while I suspect most can also understand the need to “beware the witch”, as one song from the play puts it

Another biblical parallel is the fulfilment of a prophecy long foretold, while both the Bible and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe highlight the special significance of someone innocent dying to save the guilty.

There is even a clear reference at the very start of the book and play to one of Lewis’ most famous pieces of theology, when the professor in whose wardrobe the children later get lost asks them a question as they consider whether or not to believe Lucy about the magical kingdom that she first glimpsed.

She’s either lying, mad or telling the truth, the professor says, in much the same way that Lewis says of Jesus Christ’s own central claim: he’s either “mad, bad or God”.

As for the success of the play, as someone who no longer lives in London, I was certainly impressed by this West End product.

The scene changes are creative, aided by music, dance and possibly even a trapdoor - my children and I had different opinions on how the magical disappearances of certain characters were achieved. Maybe it truly was magic.

There’s also the nice touch of the play starting even before it officially begins, through the twinkling of a soldier’s fingers upon the keys of a piano while the audience take their seats - perhaps to help us turn our minds from a sunny day in the English Riviera to dreary London at the time of the Blitz.

So, do go and see the play if you get the opportunity - it’ll do you good and make you think, whether or not you choose to consider if the lion is male or female.