Aslan as a Lion- Doug Savarie

Aslan was the Lion in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and he clearly embraced the characteristics of Jesus Christ from the New Testament. My question is why C.S. Lewis created Aslan to be a lion instead of any other type of animal. I think that there are a few reasons that Lewis chose this particular animal. First of all, in the Bible, Jesus is referred to as a lion in several places. For example in John’s Revelation, he writes, “Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals” (5:5). While this is true, Jesus is also referenced as the “lamb of God” in the gospel of John (1:29). Why then was Aslan a lion instead of the lamb to which Jesus was also compared. This is my second reason: in Narnia, the savior that was necessary to defeat the White Witch needed to be a powerful and valiant warrior. The comparison of Jesus to a lamb reveals his softer side: the side that would come to earth and die the painful death that we deserve even though he was innocent. The comparison of Jesus to the lion portrays the aspect of God that shows he is not willing to sit back and watch his children damn themselves to Hell: he is willing to fight for their salvation.