After all the fuss from certain parties about J.K. Rowling's books ("Full of magic! Magic means Satan! Inappropriate for children!") this is refreshing: On Religion: Harry Potter's magic recalls medieval Christian symbols.
Harry Potter froze in terror as the hellish Dementors rushed to suck out his godfather's soul.
But he was not powerless, because he had learned the Patronus Charm for use against the evil ones. So the boy wizard focused on a joyful memory and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" Salvation arrived in the form of a dazzling silver animal that defeated the ghouls and then cantered across the surface of a lake to Harry. It was as "bright as a unicorn," but on second glance was not a unicorn. It was a majestic stag that bowed its antlered head in salute and then vanished.
If C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien had written this scene in "The Prisoner of Azkaban," literary critics and Christian apologists would know how to break the code, according to John Granger, author of "The Hidden Key to Harry Potter." They would parse the Latin charm and study author J.K. Rowling's delicate use of medieval symbolism.
"The key is that stag, which is often a Christ symbol. But she is not content to make it a stag. It's a stag that looks like a unicorn," said Granger, who teaches Latin and Greek in Port Hadlock, Wash.
"She's saying to the reader, ‘A stag may be a reach for you. So I'll have it be a stag that looks like a unicorn, since that has been a universally recognized Christ symbol for ages.’ It's almost, ‘Let me make this clear for you.’ " [continue]
Update:
Here is some material from those who hold the opposite point of view: that the Harry Potter books are not approprate for children.