Harry and free agency (was : Harry and Christ)

[aamonn2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 78137

Geoff Bannister wrote:
> 
> > Again, to finish, Dumbledore points out to Harry in COS that what 
> > we are is a result of our choices, not our abilities

Del wrote :  
> I liked it so much when the principle of free agency was thus 
> pointed out in CoS. And I hated it so much when the Prophecy came 
> along in OoP, and destroyed everything. According to this Prophecy, 
> Harry is the one who will destroy Voldemort, whether he likes it or 
> not, whether he wants it or not, whether he decides to or not. 
> Where is Harry's free agency in all of this ? What choice does he 
> have ? Basically, he was born "Harry Potter, the one who will 
> destroy LV", and nothing he can do will change that. I hate it, 
> because it completely goes against what DD said. Harry is the 
> Saviour, he is the result of other people's choices and his own 
> abilities (some of which are not even his own, but LV's anyway), 
> not the result of his own choices.

I don't think the prophecy changes the overall message of HP as we 
presently know it, namely that, as Geoff Bannister puts it, "what we 
are is a result of our choices not our abilities". 

In a previous post (n° 78024) Laura Ingalls Huntley quoted a striking 
passage from 1 Corinthians 13:8. Here it is " Love never fails. But 
where there are prophecies, they will cease ; where there are 
tongues, they will be stilled ; where there is knowledge, it will 
pass away". I do really believe that at the bottom of the Potterverse 
we find such words as "love never fails" and "where there are 
prophecy, they will cease".

IMHO, the prophecy is bound to "cease" in order to exhibit the true 
power of love, a power that will probably (I mean, in the book) show 
itself strong enough to contradict every prophecies and every 
determinisms so that in the end, it will become crystal clear that we 
really are the overall result of our choices. 

AAm.