Review: Harry Potter more "Christian" than other current children's best-sellers

Review: Harry Potter more "Christian" than other current children's best-sellers

By Peter T. Chattaway

YOU EXPECT many things when you read a new Harry Potter novel: magic, humour, a set of mysteries, a looming battle between good and evil, even some clunky exposition. But you don't necessarily expect to see quotes from Christian scripture.

And yet, there they are, on pages 266 and 268 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- the seventh and final instalment of J.K. Rowling's phenomenally popular series about a boy who goes to a school for people born with magical powers.

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's parents, James and Lily Potter.

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

And that takes us to the quote on the Potter grave, which states: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Harry is puzzled, indeed horrified, by this quote at first. Hasn't Dumbledore told him that the well-organized mind has nothing to fear from death? Isn't 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?

Hermione sets Harry right and tells him this quote must refer to something different. "It means . . . you know . . . living beyond death," she says. "Living after death."

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.

Over the years, the Harry Potter books have been attacked from various angles. To some, the books promote forms of sorcery that are clearly forbidden in the Bible -- though I don't think either the biblical authors or modern-day practitioners of Wicca have time travel and broomstick rides in mind when they discuss "witchcraft".

To others, the books are too secular. Unlike the fantasies of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, the writings of J.K. Rowling make no direct reference to God figures; no one seems to be "in charge", 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.

Yet, as even conservative Christians like John Granger have noted, the books have always had at least an implicit or residual Christian sensibility. Rowling's 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.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows does not completely resolve the confusion over what is literal and what is allegorical in Rowling's 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 -- or at least a hope -- in the reality of the life to come.

Without giving too much away, suffice to say that the most crucial moment in this book -- and thus the entire series -- involves a character obediently going to his death, surrounded by a "cloud of witnesses" (my term, not Rowling's) from beyond the grave who seem "more real" (Rowling's term, not mine) than the living.

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.

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

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

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

Related stories:

This is how it will go down
Here's 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 "because if I talk too freely about that, I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what's coming." Hmm. Guided by this comment, I think Harry could invert the Christian myth, and sacrifice his "godly" wizard identity -- death of a sort -- and be "reborn" a humble Muggle. I'm 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, July 18

Churches co-opt Potter's magic
Poor Harry Potter. As if battling Voldemort, Death Eaters and Dementors wasn't enough, the boy wizard has also endured the wrath of religious conservatives in the decade since J.K. Rowling's 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 "the devil." 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's tales as powerful religious fables for our time.
Globe and Mail, July 19

Harry Potter, Good or Evil?
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 -- and adults -- in Harry Potter's fictional world?
Globe and Mail, July 19

August 16/2007

Comments

As a Christian, I prefer books like Harry Potter to others with ficticious religions, and enjoy a good fantasy. Kudos to Rowling for an excellent book with a lot of good honest Christian values among the protagonists, even if god wasn't specifically mentioned, and the ending was wonderful. It did not leave me disappointed as some of and especially the last Narnia book had.
#1 Capri - 08/16/2007 - 15:37

Peter Chattaway is quite right. "Harry Potter" is deeply Christian. What people fail to see is that the Chritianity in the Septology is deliberately hidden!
Deeply hidden under all the excitement, mystery and suspense in Harry Potter is an intensely spiritual symbolism that has escaped the notice of fans and the mass media, but nevertheless is being picked up by the subconscious minds of millions of children all over the world. It
#2 Hans Andr - 08/16/2007 - 21:22

Gee Hans, it's also the story of Osirus, Dionysis, Odin, and a host of other mythological characters that pre-date the Christian mythos by thousands of years. Christians do not own the Heroes Journey; concepts of a virgin birth, the noble but tortured life, the death and triumph over death story. They don't own these things any more than they own the rights to claim all that is moral or good as their own. I am so sick of Christians constantly trying to push things into their mold and claim them as their own original ideas. It's nothing more than theivery, of which the Christianity has been guilty of since its inception. It's a salve for their insecure need to prove that there's value and validity or literalism to their particular set of fairy tales. Adolescent at best and incredibly tiresomne.
#3 Up Set - 08/17/2007 - 05:06

No offense to Up Set, but most of the readers know and accept all your facts about the pre-Christian myths, it's your interpretation that we reject. Of course there would be seeds planted preparing people for the Christmas story! The idea that the story of Christ's birth, life, and death would have to be completely foreign to all listeners in order for it to be true is a concept that's never made much sense to me. Even more baffling is the accusation levelled against Christians that we believe that only we have a sense of right and wrong. It's fundamental Christian dogma that everyone knows right from wrong, that all people are given a conscience. You would be better off attacking that side of Christianity as being incompatible with modern relativism than showing us a universality of human values that most Christians have never denied, and that Christianity in fact depends on. What's incredibly tiresome is hearing the same arguments that having been made against the Church for two thousand years, and what's adolescent is that most people making the arguments think that they've come up with something new.
#4 Ryan - 08/18/2007 - 13:57

I find it difficult to believe that we, the christian community, can be so duped by a few strokes of a pen that give some form of homage to our Lord and Savior even though it is cloaked in witchcraft. Harry Potter is nothing more than soft selling acceptance of witchcraft. To say because they make it "witchcraft light" by having it done while riding broomsticks, and that makes it all okay and just another light weight fable is to believe a lie from the pit. This has been going on for ages. In recent culture they have done it with everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the movie, which is now a series, Charmed where they also have witches fighting evil demons. In Charmed the series these witches have become cult heroes because they take on the forces of evil. The thinking seems to be that, If as scripture says "a house divided will fall" and this house is still standing against evil then it must be a good house. Many will come in my name, the scriptures say, and they will mislead. This is what is going on here and I am saddened that this has been given any space here in this publication. I have in the past and still do, work with youth alot, and have seen the havoc perpetrated by the spell of wicca in the youth community, and Harry and his stories have been a huge part of every kid involved in this. I see more and more people coming into my church from new age and spiritualist type healing practises because they are eventually realizing that this form of spirituallity is really with out substance and yet I have also had to do deliverance ministry with some who have had the roots of their problems traced back to that reiki, aura reading type of new age occultish practises that was done when they were young. They had accepted it because it is culturally acceptable, in ignorance, just like the Harry Potter readers, even those in the church. I have had some people with in the church community seriously resist any and all comments against the book and series they "love" so much. This is sad. They even tell others that it is okay because it is culturally acceptable by young and old alike. Ezekial was challenged by God to tell it like it is or the blood of those who die in their ignorance would be on his head, Eze 3:18. Come on church, rise up and find our backbone to say enough. Just because this is a major cultural phenom doesn't mean we have to twist it so we can use it. Lets draw the line at propagating the lie that Harry is a Christian series. There is a huge difference between writing a character that is evil in a book so that it can be defeated by good and writing a character that is evil, by scriptural definition, and having it defeat evil so that it looks good. I look at the strife that is written between brothers or sisters, just in your comments section here alone, and can see the division caused by allowing this to come in. 1Cor6:15&16 "Don't you know that your bodies are the members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!" I know this scripture deals with sexual immorality but if you can't see the parralel then we have deeper problems. Judgement starts in the house of the Lord so lets judge. Come out from them and seperate yourselves church. Be in the world not of it. Lets judge, lets stand and lets pray and lets not give anymore space in our christian publications or our hearts and teachings to this type of candy coated evil.
#5 George - 08/19/2007 - 08:14

George - have you read all the books?

I simply ask this because I hear many people come out against and for Harry Potter. I ask if they've read the books, because if we have not read them, and say they are good or bad, we are basing our opinion on ignorance. If we have read them, and say they are good or bad, then we have an educated opinion.

What if someone came to you and said, "The Bible is worthless. It's full of contradictions." Then you asked them, "Have you read the Bible?" and they replied, "No." How much stock would you place in their prognosis?
#6 WM - 08/20/2007 - 09:58

I know it's pretty late in the game, but I wanted to let you know that I cited your article in my own review. Thanks!

http://reviewingwhatever.blogspot.com/2007/08/harry-potter.html
#7 Laura - 11/21/2007 - 11:53

great article for mt research report thatnx!!
#8 Matt - 01/28/2009 - 17:13

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