Lion-Witch-Wardrobe

This book is interesting on many levels.  I though appreciate the backstory from which it arose.  C.S. Lewis incorporates real world elements into his fantasy tale.  I remember reading in history about the relocation of English children from the city of London to the countryside shortly before World War II erupts.  This is what first captured my interest with the book.  Fantasy for me was always difficult because it was so other-wordly.  Fantasy required me to believe in the make believe, and being a realist makes that extremly challenging.  So the fact that the author uses real world conditions of the 1940 as a springboard for this fantasy book makes it that much more appealing.  I enjoy history and historic fiction is my favorite genre of literature, so naturally when even small historic connections can be made it provides me with a possible reason 'to buy into' the fantasy tale and not discount it because of my personal beliefs and values. 
That being said, the novel is packed with allusions popular in Christiandom.  I won't ascribe all the allusions to Christianity because the book also borrows from Greek Mythology (I have in mine, the witch's ability to turn her enemies into stone; sounds like Medousa, the Gorgon, who could turn a person into stone with a simple glance).  The book also contains elements commonly associated with paganism ( I'm reminded of comsuption and the importance of food in pagan festivals).  For all intended purposes, the Turkish Delight becomes Edmund's god and he betrays his siblings in exchange for it.  In ancient Rome, paganist delighted in sensual pleasures and hedonism.  Edmund succombs to gluttony, which essentially makes him the pagan character of the book. But mostly I asking whether readers would have to already be aware of these earlier writings to recognize the allusions?  I wondering if it is difficult for all adults, as it has been for me, to put aside what we know in favor of having new experiences while reading books designed for children.  I really didn't want to compare Aslan with Jesus Christ, nor did I want to see the White Witch as the representation of evil, namely Satan the Devil in the Christian tradition.  So I decided that the White Witch would for me be more closely associated with Greek Mythology and would then be a sort of demi-god, because while she is not human, she is not all powerful either.  But as I think about it now, that same connection is made in the Bible book of Genesis.  Before the flood of Noah's day, wicked angels who forsook their natural place in Heaven, came down to the earth and took wives for themselves.  The offspring of the fallen angels or demons and the daughters of men were the Nephilim.  These characters were wicked individuals and coincidently, were the giants in the earth.  Similar to the White Witch, the Nephilim used their brute force and took whatever they liked.  Their badness was not allowed to go on indefinetly and neither was that of the White Witch.  See, I'm doing it again.  While attempting to analyze the reading, I am guilty of bringing in  my previous knowledge and understanding.  I cannot ignor all the obvious allusions to earlier writings of a religious or secular nature.  Did C. S. Lewis intend that to be the case? Where children suppose to read the novel in a similar way?  How would this be beneficial?  I'm left with more questions than answers.