The Harry Potter books are an extraordinary success story in the publishing world. Over the past few years they have aroused much interest and excitement not only in the original English language editions, but also around the world as they have been translated into many other languages. Their translation into Chinese was reported to be the biggest publishing even in China's history. The Harry Potter books strike a chord with both children and adults, and the Harry Potter movie has recently been released to packed theaters. The fourth book in the series had an initial print run in the U.S.

The following essay is now dated in certain ways. Ayn Rand died March 6, 1982. There are numerous works about her that have appeared since I wrote this in 1979, including James T. Baker's Ayn Rand (1987); and Barbara Branden's, The Passion of Ayn Rand (1986). The substance is still relevant since it deals with abiding philosophical and theological reality.

In this essay my goals are to introduce Ayn Rand, to describe briefly her impact as a novelist and philosopher and to assess her ethical theory from a Christian perspective. Cogent Christian responses to Ayn Rand are few. Positive assessments are almost non-existent. I aim for this treatment to be both Christian and primarily positive, even though Ayn Rand is an atheist and outspokenly anti-Christian. I trust I will be forgiven the presumption of stepping outside my own specialty: my field is neither literary criticism nor philosophy, but biblical studies. I write this because I take pleasure in extending to others the delight I have had in learning from Ayn Rand.