Harry Potter and his best friend Hermione Granger arrived in the magical town of Godric\u2019s Hollow on a snowy Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n\n
Carols drifted out of the village church as they searched its graveyard for the resting place of Lily and James Potter, who were murdered by the dark Lord Voldemort. First, they found the headstone honoring the family of Albus Dumbledore, the late headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The inscription said: \u201cWhere your treasure is, there will your heart be also.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Then the Potter headstone proclaimed: \u201cThe last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.\u201d Harry was mystified. Was this about defeating the evil Death Eaters?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters mean it, Harry,\u201d said Hermione, gently. \u201cIt means \u2026 you know \u2026 living beyond death. Living after death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
For millions of religious believers who embrace Harry Potter, this pivotal scene in \u201cHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows\u201d \u2014 book seven in J.K. Rowling\u2019s giant fantasy puzzle \u2014 offers new evidence that the author is, in fact, a Church of Scotland communicant whose faith has helped shape her work.<\/p>\n\n
The first inscription is from St. Matthew\u2019s Gospel and the second \u2014 stating the book\u2019s theme \u2014 is a passage in St. Paul\u2019s first letter to the Corinthians about the meaning of Christ\u2019s resurrection. Is this part of what Dumbledore had called an all-powerful \u201cdeep magic\u201d built on sacrificial love?<\/p>\n\n
Nevertheless, for millions of Rowling critics the presence of scripture in this final book will not cancel a decade\u2019s worth of wizardry, magic and what they believe is vague, New Age spirituality. And besides, Potter clearly didn\u2019t recognize the unattributed Bible verses. Right?<\/p>\n\n
Religious battles commenced soon after Rowling released \u201cHarry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone.\u201d It didn\u2019t help that \u201cPhilosopher\u2019s Stone\u201d \u2014 a term from medieval alchemy \u2014 was replaced with \u201cSorcerer\u2019s Stone\u201d in U.S. editions. After the sale of 325 million-plus books worldwide, there are now at least three camps of Potter critics in these theological debates and three prominent camps of Potter defenders. The critics include:<\/p>\n\n
* Some who insist these books are secular or subtly anti-religious. Writing in Time, Lev Grossman has argued that Rowling shares more in common with atheists like Christopher Hitchens than with J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis, whose books were rooted in Christian faith.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cLook at Rowling\u2019s books,\u201d says Grossman. \u201cWhat\u2019s missing? If you want to know who dies in Harry Potter, the answer is easy: God. Harry Potter lives in a world free of any religion or spirituality of any kind. He lives surrounded by ghosts but has no one to pray to, even if he were so inclined, which he isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
* Conservatives who think Potter-mania can lead to the occult. Some even oppose fantasy novels by Lewis and Tolkien \u2014 which contain references to wizards, magic and demonic powers. The key is a Deuteronomy passage: \u201cThere shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Focus on the Family\u2019s James Dobson responded to \u201cDeathly Hallows\u201d by saying: \u201cMagical characters \u2014 witches, wizards, ghosts, goblins, werewolves, poltergeists and so on \u2014 fill the Harry Potter stories, and given the trend toward witchcraft and New Age ideology \u2026 it\u2019s difficult to ignore the effects such stories (albeit imaginary) might have on young, impressionable minds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
* Believers who see mixed signals. Evangelical activist Chuck Colson, for example, praised the books in 1999, noting that they contrasted good and evil, while the main characters displayed courage, loyalty and self-sacrifice. \u201cNot bad lessons in a self-centered world,\u201d said the founder of Prison Fellowship.<\/p>\n\n
But Colson\u2019s latest statement warned: \u201cPersonally, I don?t recommend the Potter books. I?d rather Christian kids not read them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Soon after that Colson commentary, however, current Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley gently praised Rowling\u2019s books and, above all, the role fantasy novels can play for readers numbed by modern life.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe popularity of these books \u2014 and, yes, even of the Harry Potter series \u2014 reminds us that the yearning for hope, for good to win and evil to be vanquished, is no infantile desire,\u201d he said. \u201cRather, it is one of the deepest and most important parts of our nature, placed in us by the God of all truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
NEXT WEEK: Believers who embrace Harry Potter.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Harry Potter and his best friend Hermione Granger arrived in the magical town of Godric\u2019s Hollow on a snowy Christmas Eve. Carols drifted out of the village church as they searched its graveyard for the resting place of Lily and James Potter, who were murdered by the dark Lord Voldemort. First, they found the headstone […]<\/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":[1531,149,209,1534,416,467,477,1545],"class_list":["post-1449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books","tag-cs-lewis","tag-chuck-colson","tag-evangelicals","tag-harry-potter","tag-jrr-tolkien","tag-jk-rowling","tag-popular-culture"],"yoast_head":"\n