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World Magazine has offered not one, but two reviews of Harry Potter—one very positive, one less so—and later made Potter-related news. In its May 29 issue, World critic Roy Maynard praised Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as "a delight—with a surprising bit of depth." He dismissed the most controversial subjects in less than a paragraph: "Rowling ... keeps it safe, inoffensive, and non-occult. This is the realm of Gandalf and the Wizard of Id, not witchcraft. There is a fairy-tale order to it all in which, as Chesterton and Tolkien pointed out, magic must have rules, and good does not—cannot—mix with bad."

Five months later, World was less positive in a three-page cover story about the Harry Potter phenomenon. Still, the magazine notes that Rowling's witchcraft bears little resemblance to modern wicca. "A reader drawn in would find that the real world of witchcraft is not Harry Potter's world. Neither attractive nor harmless, it is powerful and evil." Still, writers Anne McCain and Susan Olasky warn that the books contain "dark elements," and that "unlike biblical stories, in Potter's world bad things seem to happen for no reason." Like Colson—and just about every other reviewer of the books—World encourages its readers to choose C.S. Lewis's Narnia series and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as "better worlds for a child's imagination," but says there's plenty of fodder for discussion and enjoyment in these fantasy books as well.

That was the October 30 issue of World. The following issue, November 6, included an announcement that God's World Book Club, a division of the organization that owns World, was withdrawing the Harry Potter books from its catalog. "We reviewed and recommended the Harry Potter books as wholesome, good-versus-evil fantasy in the spirit of J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis," the full-page announcement said. "However, the fact that the books are not Christ-centered and further evidence that they are not written from a perspective compatible with Christianity have led us to retract the books. ... We sincerely apologize for offense given and thank our customers for contributing to the discussion that led to this decision."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, in J.K. Rowling's native country, Christianity magazine has nothing but praise for the book. Mark Greene, Director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, writes that he balked at buying Harry Potter for his god-daughter when he heard it was set in a school for witches and wizards. He bought Narnia instead. Now, interestingly, he regrets his decision: "I wish I'd been the one to introduce her to Harry—fine lad you know, courageous, resourceful, humble, fun, good mind. Comes from good stock, you know. She could do worse, far worse. And, as far as literary companions go, frankly, not much better." (Neither the article nor the magazine appears online, as far as I can tell.)

It shouldn't surprise our readers that The Christian Century has no quarrels with Harry Potter, either. Still, its December 1 lead editorial, "Wizards and Muggles," makes some excellent—and surprising—points about Christians and fantasy. "Rowling is not the first fantasy writer to be attacked by conservative Christians. Even the explicitly Christian writer Madeleine L'Engle has taken heat for the 'magic' elements in A Wrinkle in Time. Such critics are right in thinking that fantasy writing is powerful and needs to be taken seriously. But we strongly doubt that it fosters an attachment to evil powers. Harry's world, in any case, is a moral one." The unsigned editorial also notes that "one of the salutary effects of fantasy writing is to remove us from the everyday world and prompt us to look at the ordinary in fresh ways. ... G.K. Chesterton claimed that his own journey to Christian faith began with his childhood absorption in fairy tales. From fairly [fairy?] tales he learned that the world is precious but puzzling, coherent but mysterious, full of unseen connections and decisive truths." Though the Century doesn't mention it, C.S. Lewis made a similar claim.

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December 6 1999, Vol. 43, No. 14