{"id":36424,"date":"2007-08-16T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2007-08-16T15:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=36424"},"modified":"2015-11-03T13:40:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T21:40:38","slug":"review-harry-potter-more-christian-than-other-current-childrens-best-sellers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/08\/review-harry-potter-more-christian-than-other-current-childrens-best-sellers.html","title":{"rendered":"Review: Harry Potter more “Christian” than other current children’s best-sellers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"harrypotter7-a\"<\/a>YOU EXPECT many things when you read a new Harry Potter<\/a> novel: magic, humour, a set of mysteries, a looming battle between good and evil, even some clunky exposition. But you don\u2019t necessarily expect to see quotes from Christian scripture.<\/p>\n

And yet, there they are, on pages 266 and 268 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows<\/a><\/i> \u2014 the seventh and final installment of J.K. Rowling\u2019s phenomenally popular series about a boy who goes to a school for people born with magical powers.<\/p>\n

The book, which runs to 607 pages, is not quite half finished when Harry and his friend Hermione Granger visit a cemetery and see a pair of tombstones. One marks the grave of two relatives of Albus Dumbledore, the wise Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry headmaster who died at the end of the previous book. The other marks the final resting place of Harry\u2019s parents, James and Lily Potter.<\/p>\n

The quote over the Dumbledore grave says, simply: \u201cWhere your treasure is, there will your heart be also.\u201d Treasure is a recurring theme in this book \u2014 at one point, Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione have to break into a bank run by goblins \u2014 but those who recognize this passage<\/a> will also remember that Jesus speaks this line after telling his followers to store up treasure in Heaven rather than on Earth.<\/p>\n

And that takes us to the quote on the Potter grave, which states: \u201cThe last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.\u201d Harry is puzzled, indeed horrified, by this quote<\/a> at first. Hasn\u2019t Dumbledore told him that the well-organized mind has nothing to fear from death? Isn\u2019t the evil of the Dark Lord Voldemort rooted partly in his own fear of death, and in the obsessive way he and his followers cling to this life at all costs?<\/p>\n

Hermione sets Harry right and tells him this quote must refer to something different. \u201cIt means . . . you know . . . living beyond death,\u201d she says. \u201cLiving after death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incidentally, Harry and Hermione happen to be having this conversation on Christmas Eve. Behind a church. Which, until a page or two before, was filled with people singing Christmas carols.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the Harry Potter books have been attacked from various angles<\/a>. To some, the books promote forms of sorcery that are clearly forbidden in the Bible \u2014 though I don\u2019t think either the biblical authors or modern-day practitioners of Wicca have time travel and broomstick rides in mind when they discuss \u201cwitchcraft\u201d.<\/p>\n

To others, the books are too secular. Unlike the fantasies of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien<\/a>, the writings of J.K. Rowling make no direct reference to God figures; no one seems to be \u201cin charge\u201d, as it were. And while the wizards speak of holidays and godfathers and so on, they do not seem to have any religion of their own.<\/p>\n

Yet, as even conservative Christians like John Granger<\/a> have noted, the books have always had at least an implicit or residual Christian sensibility<\/a>. Rowling\u2019s imagination has always been deeply informed by medieval symbolism, and to the extent that those symbols carry images of Christ within them, so too do her books.<\/p>\n

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows<\/i> does not completely resolve the confusion over what is literal and what is allegorical in Rowling\u2019s world, and it suffers from other flaws too, but it does suggest more powerfully than any of the previous books that Rowling has a belief \u2014 or at least a hope \u2014 in the reality of the life to come.<\/p>\n

Without giving too much away, suffice it to say that the most crucial moment in this book \u2014 and thus the entire series \u2014 involves a character obediently going to his death, surrounded by a \u201ccloud of witnesses<\/a>\u201d (my term, not Rowling\u2019s) from beyond the grave who seem \u201cmore real\u201d (Rowling\u2019s term, not mine) than the living.<\/p>\n

It is a powerful, powerful portrayal of what is, in essence, an act of martyrdom. And it is quotes from scripture that help to prepare the reader for this moment.<\/p>\n

This stands in stark contrast to the sorts of things we see in other best-selling books for children these days. Lemony Snicket\u2019s A Series of Unfortunate Events<\/a><\/i>, for example, takes occasional jabs at religion \u2014 the \u201cCathedral of the Alleged Virgin\u201d, anyone? \u2014 and a climactic moment in the final novel<\/a> involves a friendly snake emerging from a tree to give some people an apple that will heal them.<\/p>\n

And then, of course, there is Philip Pullman\u2019s His Dark Materials<\/a><\/i> trilogy, in which God dies the most pathetic death imaginable while an ex-nun explains to a couple of children that Christianity is just \u201ca very powerful and convincing mistake\u201d. A major subplot also celebrates the annihilation of the soul. (The first part of the trilogy, The Golden Compass<\/a><\/i>, makes the jump to the big screen in just a few months.)<\/p>\n

In a market where popular and well-written children\u2019s books turn scripture on its head, it is, if anything, refreshing to see scripture invoked in support of<\/i> the key themes in the Harry Potter books. For this, we should celebrate the books, not condemn them \u2014 even as we encourage our children and each other to be more discerning readers.<\/p>\n

Related stories:<\/b><\/p>\n

This is how it will go down<\/a><\/b>
Here\u2019s how it should go down: Harry both dies and lives. It can be done. Rowling once said that she keeps her belief in God private \u201cbecause if I talk too freely about that, I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what\u2019s coming.\u201d Hmm. Guided by this comment, I think Harry could invert the Christian myth, and sacrifice his \u201cgodly\u201d wizard identity \u2014 death of a sort \u2014 and be \u201creborn\u201d a humble Muggle. I\u2019m not sure of the mechanics of it all, but in the end he would accept this (prophecy-fulfilling) martyrdom as the price for vanquishing Voldemort in some apocalyptic confrontation.
Barbara Kay, National Post<\/i>, July 18<\/p>\n

Churches co-opt Potter\u2019s magic<\/a><\/b>
Poor Harry Potter. As if battling Voldemort, Death Eaters and Dementors wasn\u2019t enough, the boy wizard has also endured the wrath of religious conservatives in the decade since J.K. Rowling\u2019s books first found their way into the hearts of young Muggles the world over. There have been book burnings, book bans and even a declaration by one Catholic Church official last year that Harry Potter is \u201cthe devil.\u201d But with Potter fans already lining up ahead of the final book release this Saturday, some Christian denominations are now eschewing condemnation for praise, embracing Ms. Rowling\u2019s tales as powerful religious fables for our time.
Globe and Mail<\/i>, July 19<\/p>\n

Harry Potter, Good or Evil?<\/a><\/b>
globeandmail.com has invited an inter-faith panel to debate these issues online and to take questions about Harry Potter and religion from our readers. The first two mini-essays are printed below. We asked the panelists to answer two questions: What does your religion\/faith\/creed say about magic, witchcraft and wizardry? How does your faith deal with the phenomenal interest among children \u2014 and adults \u2014 in Harry Potter\u2019s fictional world?
Globe and Mail<\/i>, July 19<\/p>\n

\u2014 A version of this article was first published in <\/i>BC Christian News.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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