I don’t know… I certainly do agree that some awards are in order, but referring to the Harry Potter series as “Christian Literature” seems to me a different question entirely, and I’m not really sure that I would agree with that description. I just don’t see it as on quite the same level of “Christian Literature” as Tolkein or Lewis. It seemed to me that Christian parallels throughout the series, though they do exist, are much fewer and often much deeper within the text than their Middle-Earth or Narnia counterparts. I can simply see most people out there missing them entirely, because they’re not nearly as “out there” or “in your face” as the constant symbolism of Frodo or Aslan as Christ figures are: the focus simply seemed to me much more upon creating a good story than it was on creating a Christian allegory from beginning to end.
And then there’s also the fact that so many of the main characters have significant character flaws… they’re much less further from sainthood than many of Lewis’s and Tolkein’s characters (Aslan, Peter, Lucy, Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli) are. Every single major character in the Harry Potter series that I can think of (with the notable exception of Lily Potter), on the other hand, seemed to have several less-than-stellar moments all the way up to the end: Harry, Ron, and Hermione never completely outgrow the lying-under-certain-circumstances habit (however close to being justifiable it might be); foul language (while not often problematic) is still certainly much more present and realistically used than in either Narnia or Lord of the Rings; and Dumbledore, who started out as perhaps one of Harry’s best father figures, drops like a rock (in my opinion) back down to earth from his near-saint-like status on at least two occasions: when he out-and-out lies to save Harry in Book 5, and when we see that he had asked Snape to murder him in Book 7, both of which left a sort of sour taste in my mouth, especially since neither action is particularly denounced as a bad decision in the books.
So overall, it just seemed to me that, although there are certainly many stong points and benefits to the Harry Potter series it still has its (forgivable) imperfections. But it is, for lack of a better word, more
realistic when it comes to the existence of flawed and fallen characters. And because of that fact, it is therefore confined to being less of a pure Christian allegory on the same level as Lewis and Tolkein. I don’t know if that makes sense, or if I’m pretty much alone in feeling that way about the books, but while I can certainly see the similarities and appreciate the positive Christian themes (I beleive intentionally) buried throughout the series, I don’t quite feel that the term “Christian Literature” can apply, at least not on the same level that it does to Narnia and Lord of the Rings. I guess I just see Harry Potter much more as an enjoyable work of fiction (with Christian elements) than I do as spiritual allegory disguised as fiction.
(I used a W instead of a B)