As for Stephanie's review, I enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," Christian allegory or not. It sounds delightful, and I loved reading Ms. Zacharek's take on it- especially with her charming comparison of it to an old loved sweater. Anyway, I think it's ironic how people whine when she doesn't like something, and cry that she never writes a positive review; yet when she does like something, people take her to task as well for not. What silliness.

(Actually, "The Magician's Nephew" only became the first installment when Harper Collins repackaged the Narnia series several years ago. Until then, they were listed in the order that C.S. Lewis had written them.)

"[M]any fans of the Narnia books who've put up with or ignored the novels' Christian subtext..."

Why the hostility toward Christianity? Is it really necessary here? It pervades Ms. Zacharek's review and it is wholly unnecessary.

That Mr. Lewis fully intended this story to be an allegory of Christianity cannot be ignored, any more than the allegory of McCarthyism in "The Crucible" or communism in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".

There is ample opportunity for Ms. Zacharek and Salon.com to rail against "Christians" in other matters, political and social. Ignoring or denigrating the obvious, intended subtext from a work of entertainment just seems mean-spirited and a bit too zealous. After all, there is nothing in the constitution that says that entertainment or literature needs to be separate from religion, is there?

By the way, when Salon.com and it's contributors sneer at "Christians" in their copy, just who are they sneering at? All Christians? Roman Catholics? Evangelicals? Liberal christians like, say, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Clinton, John Kerry? Or is this just a blanket demonization?

Who?

As far as being "defensive" about the Christian content of the Chronicles of Narnia, it's not C. S. Lewis that is causing the problem. Lewis wrote them as allegories (which is one of the reasons Tolkien, who said "I cordially distrust allegory in all its manifesations," disliked them), so there's really nothing much to go on about there. What Zacharek and other "progressives" are "wary" about is the one-dimensional prosletizing with which retrogressive Christianists have surrounded the movie. It is the desire to read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" as ONLY Christian allegory, and thus as prime fodder in the never-ending culture wars necessary to keep born-again and not-so-born-again types motivated, that is off-putting. Of course this produces multiple ironies. Lewis, the staunch Anglican, has about as much in common with the bible-thumping evangelicals who have claimed him as Tokien had with hippies who exclaimed "Frodo Lives!"--which is to say nothing at all. And as a committed academic/intellectual and careful reader of complex texts, he would have been appalled at having even his children's books reduced to propaganda. He would have agreed that eveyone should be "wary" of that.

I've always thought of the "Chronicles of Narnia" as being almost as Pagan as Christian, what with the positive depictions of fauns and centaurs and the somewhat nature-embracing attitude. Frankly, if J.K. Rowling was visibly Christian, then the christofascists would probably have embraced Harry Potter as Christian allegory, too.

I've never noticed any particular hostility towards religion itself in Salon, just as I have no animosity towards religion myself. Rather, it's the behavior in which some people engage in the name of Christianity that "progressives" and "liberals" scorn. And that's why many of us dread the expected cultural takeover of this movie by the Talibaptists. Kindness, compassion and herosism are not exclusively "Christian" values.

Kudos, Ms. Zacahrek, for a fairly restrained mention of the religious dimension of the marketing of this film. Many who love Narnia for its "supposal" of Christian themes also respect that Lewis was a talented writer whose work has appealed to many persons on purely literary or on storytelling terms, and thus the movie might hold appeal for them as well. For my money, you have done quite a good job of approaching it on those terms and writing your review from that perspective; I won't hesitate to recommend your review to people (religious and otherwise) who wish to know more about the movie before seeing it.