A New Christian Everyman
The Hidden Key to Harry Potter
by John Granger
Zossima Press, 2002
(384 pages; $18.95, paper)
reviewed by Robert Trexler
Until now there have been two Christian evaluations of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. Some see the books as an introduction to selfish, if not satanic, practices, and others see them as having a moral, if not Christian influence. The Hidden Key to Harry Potter presents a third: Harry Potter is neither dangerous nor only potentially edifying but the Christian “everyman,” the author writing explicitly Christian fiction after the fashion of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R Tolkien. John Granger makes the astonishing claim that Potter’s popularity “results from the vicarious joy we experience with Harry as he seeks his symbolic perfection in Christ.”
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Robert Trexler is the editor of CSL: The Bulletin of the New York C. S. Lewis Society.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
22.5—June 2009
C. S. Lewis on Civilization & the Natural Order by Timothy L. Hall
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
