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Now a different battle is unfolding, one focused on Lewis's identity as perhaps the 20th century's preeminent literary apologist for Christianity.

Few noticed in March when HarperCollins announced its exclusive and potentially lucrative worldwide deal with the C. S. Lewis Co. in the United Kingdom (which holds the Lewis copyrights) to publish the works of Lewis in English. HarperCollins also announced plans to repackage Lewis's theological works, and to commission new Narnia picture books for preschoolers.

But several months ago Simon Adley, director of the Lewis Co., leaned on his new publishing partners to void a book deal in conjunction with a Lewis documentary because its script overemphasized Lewis's Christianity, according to documentary producer Carol Hatcher. An international controversy ensued, sparked by a front-page New York Times article headlined "Marketing Narnia Without a Christian Lion."

Much of the debate was ill-informed. Some Lewis fans and public commentators, including sociologist Andrew Greeley, misconstrued statements about HarperCollins's plan to market Lewis in a broad manner as a plan to de-Christianize the existing Narnia books.

"Plans are afoot to purge Christian content from the seven Narnia stories," Greeley wrote in mid-June. "Harper intends to censor out of C. S. Lewis' masterpiece that which is not most essential to it—its Christian imagery."

On the Internet, emotions of Lewis fans have run hot. One writer commented, "The Chronicles of Narnia are a work of art and having new stories written without the Christian theology that C.S. Lewis wove into the series is shameful."

Other criticism focused on the creation of new Narnia books. "It's ridiculous and I'm sure Lewis would have thought so, too," said A. N. Wilson, a biographer of Lewis, in an interview with The Sunday Times of London.

In an early June response to public criticism, HarperCollins said: "The goal of HarperCollins Publishers and the C. S. Lewis Estate is to publish the works of C. S. Lewis to the broadest possible audience, and to leave any interpretation of the works to the reader. The works of C. S. Lewis will continue to be published by HarperCollins and Zondervan as written by the author, with no alteration. Zondervan's editorial standards and Christian mission [have] not changed in any way."

Hatcher, an art director from Atlanta, had been negotiating with Zondervan, the evangelical publishing unit of HarperCollins. Zondervan had promised to support the film with $150,000 and to publish a companion coffee-table book and a video study guide. HarperCollins and the Lewis Co. offered her a contract, which she signed. In February, Hatcher received from Scott Bolinder, a Zondervan vice president, a copy of an in-house e-mail from Steve Hanselman, senior vice president of HarperSanFrancisco.

Hanselman's message said the script was "rather well done," and he supported the documentary. But Hanselman also wrote that the documentary's discussion of Narnia was "a biggie, as far as the estate. … was concerned."

He added, "The pages of the script suggest that Narnia will be treated from the vantage of children in need of hopeful fantasy, with the inspiration coming from memories and pictures in his head. If Stephen King and J. K. Rowling are the commentators on Narnia, as the script suggests, Simon [Adley] should be quite pleased. We'll need to be able to give emphatic assurances that no attempt will be made to correlate the stories to Christian imagery/theology." Hanselman wrote that the script does not characterize what "true Christianity" is, and said it should stay that way.

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August 6 2001, Vol. 45, No. 10