Father Jonathan Tobias knows exactly what he will do when J.K. Rowling releases the final volume of the Harry Potter series.<\/p>\n\n
The family tradition is that he reads the entire book out loud to his wife and two daughters. Then, when the final page has been turned, they start debating what will happen next.<\/p>\n\n
Things will be different this time. However, the Eastern Orthodox priest knows how he hopes the last act plays out. Unlike many other ministers, Tobias doesn\u2019t want Potter to renounce magic or to lose his adolescent flaws. It would be awkward, he said, for the young wizard to \u201cfall to his knees and make the sign of the cross.\u201d His suggestion is simpler than that.<\/p>\n\n
Rowling should let Potter die, because that is what tragic heroes do.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThere is little decent tragedy around\u201d in modern culture, said Tobias, at his \u201cSecond Terrace\u201d weblog. \u201cThere is a lot of irony, where a non-heroic central character is pitched into the abyss of ambiguity. There is a lot of farce, where burlesque mummers traipse around in varying degrees of moral undress.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cBut tragedy? No. \u2026 We do not see the sense of the pollution of evil, and its uncleanness. We have no immediate feeling of the necessity to fix or to cleanse. And we haven\u2019t seen much of a fable where the story demanded, clearly, the surmounting and cleansing of evil \u2014 even at the cost of real, hard sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Tobias is one voice in a global digital chorus debating this issue at myriad websites with names like SwordOfGryffindor.com and The-Leaky-Cauldron.org. Potter fans have, after all, purchased more than 300 million copies of the six novels.<\/p>\n\n
The faithful have been sweating ever since Jim Dale, the voice behind the U.S. audio-book editions, claimed that the author had told him Harry would die. Then Rowling stunned British television viewers by revealing that she had tweaked the finale (the last word is \u201cscar\u201d) so that \u201cone character got a reprieve, but two die that I didn\u2019t intend to die.\u201d And Harry Potter? She answered, \u201cI can completely understand the mentality of an author who thinks, \u2018I\u2019m going to kill him off because after I\u2019m dead and gone they won\u2019t be able to bring back the character.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
Podcasting guru Emerson Spartz of MuggleNet.com spoke for millions when he said he couldn\u2019t believe that Rowling would build her series around a \u201ckid whose life sucks and then he dies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Nevertheless, Tobias is convinced that Potter combines many characteristics seen in heroes through the ages. He was born to greatness, but suffered the tragic loss of loved ones. He has special gifts, glaring weaknesses and carries the burden of a haunting prophecy that hints at tragedy, triumph or both. Supernatural trials? Potter has seen it all.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cA hero is not perfect. In fact, his flaws are part of what make him great,\u201d said Tobias, pastor of St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church outside Pittsburgh. \u201cBy the end of a story like this one, the hero has simply become too big to remain in this world. This kind of hero is born for a purpose and he dies for a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Thus, it\u2019s significant that Rowling \u2014 in an early interview with a Canadian newspaper \u2014 noted that she is, in fact, a Christian. \u201cEvery time I\u2019ve been asked if I believe in God, I\u2019ve said, \u2018yes,\u2019 because I do. But no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that and, I have to say that does suit me. \u2026 If I talk too freely about that, I think the intelligent reader \u2014 whether 10 or 60 \u2014 will be able to guess what is coming in the books.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Also, Rowling has acknowledged the influence of beloved Christian works like the seven-volume \u201cThe Chronicles of Narnia\u201d by C.S. Lewis and \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d cycle by J.R.R. Tolkien. Both of these fantasy classics, noted Tobias, feature endings that combine death and rebirth, along with the bittersweet passing of a magical age.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cPart of being a hero is to have a great love and to be willing to make a great sacrifice for that love,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seems to me that Harry Potter has been walking down that same road. \u2026 It\u2019s just hard to see him going home and settling down. He\u2019s been through too much.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Father Jonathan Tobias knows exactly what he will do when J.K. Rowling releases the final volume of the Harry Potter series. The family tradition is that he reads the entire book out loud to his wife and two daughters. Then, when the final page has been turned, they start debating what will happen next. Things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1531,192,350,416,666],"class_list":["post-1403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books","tag-christian-fiction","tag-fantasy","tag-harry-potter","tag-pop-culture"],"yoast_head":"\n