Ok, I am one of the ignorant masses that Silas is disappointed in for having not actually read the Harry Potter books. So unfortunately my comment can only extend definitively to the movies, which I have watched. However, it is my assumption that what is true of the movies is only more so and better in the books, for that is the nature of books.
Harry Potter is a phenomenon that has occurred as I have grown up and I have witnessed the back lash and debates regarding witchcraft and wizardry and the appropriate response of a Christian parent to these black magic books, which have bewitched the world... With that being said, I never shared that perspective. A child reading Harry Potter and becoming involved in the occult is as much Harry Potter's fault as someone reading the Bible and becoming a nudist, or attacking animals with a jawbone, trying to walk on water at Niagra Falls, or killing someone because of sexual orientation, or bombing an abortion clinic... damn those last two hit kinda close to home don't they? Maybe we should boycott the Bible? NO! This is the whole point: books and what you read are not responsible for what you do - that's your responsibility. Do they have influence? Yes, but you are in control of that influence as I believe my Bible example highlights. Two people can read the same book and have wildly different reactions and wildly different lives... So what can we conclude? That clearly the book is in no way definitively responsible for a person's actions. Furthermore, of all of the dangers of influence in Harry Potter, my father has concluded that far and away the worst one is that Harry and Ron never really do any homework and don't take school seriously. That's right my dad has read Harry Potter and I haven't.
The reason that I have not read Harry Potter is because I am skeptical of cultural phenomena and don't like getting swept away in hype. The TV series "Lost" is another example of this occurring where I regret not becoming and avid and devoted fan. I was just a touch too old for Harry Potter; it was the book that the kids I was babysitting were reading and dressing up as for Halloween and I wrote it off as a kids book and never really got over that. I knew that people loved the books, including my wife Amy, for whom I bought the sixth or seventh book the day it came out at a 7-11 the summer we started dating. But now having seen the last movie, I get it. Harry Potter is Jesus. The whole series is possibly more Christian than Lord of the Rings. Not only does Harry die a sacrificial death but it is an anticipated and planned sacrificial death. "Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter" Snape says this to Dumbledore in the final film. All one needs to do is change the word pig to lamb and it could be straight out of the Bible. The themes of reconciliation, redemption, self saacrifice and good triumphing over evil are primary themes in the final movie and series as a whole. What we have is not merely a story, and not merely good vs evil but a full blown atonement theory - Christus Victor with a twist...
What do you think? Does Harry Potter offer an alternative perspective on atonement that is compatible with Christianity? What are the key nuances?
Just in case you weren't convinced... Harry Potter - "The boy who lives"... yeah he dies in the last film but he comes back to life too.
Read Harry Potter is Jesus Pt. 2
Read Harry Potter is Jesus Pt. 2
I think it is certainly Christian, much like the Matrix. I think for Harry Potter the clinching Christian element is the echoes of the Gospel of John, the willingness not to die for some abstract sin or cosmological realm, but the focus on death for the sake of friends. It is Harry's weakness, and voldermort plays up on it telling Harry about all his friends that have dies. And then also voldermort's weakness is his not understanding of love and loyalty. His death eaters are constantly divided against themselves, while loyalty is the bond that proves to be the demise of evil.
ReplyDeleteI think it is clear that Jesus conceived of his death as dying for friends but I am uncertain exactly what this meant for him. I think you should write a Pt. 3 on discipleship maybe...
ReplyDelete