3 of 3

When C.S. Lewis started out to write The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he didn't have Christianity in mind. "Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something abut Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tales as an instrument, then collect information about child psychology and decided what age group I'd write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them," Lewis once wrote. "This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write in that way at all."

"Everything began with images," Lewis continued. "A faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sled, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian about them. That element pushed itself in of its own accord."

Something similar seems to have happened to J.K. Rowling. She began writing about wizards and quidditch and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and somewhere along the way, Christ began to whisper into the story.

And the whole world was listening.

Bob Smietana is features editor of the Covenant Companion and the co-author of GP Taylor: Sin, Salvation, and Shadowmancer.

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is available from Amazon.com and other retailers.

For more articles on previous Harry Potter books and movies, see our full coverage area.

first page |  3 of 3

share this page

July (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51