Theory of Liberation (was: John the Baptist again)

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 124798


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Hans Andréa 
<ibotsjfvxfst at y...> wrote:

I'm asserting that Harry Potter and the New Testament have been 
inspired in the same way by the same archetypal Path. It doesn't 
matter HOW Jo is getting the story, the point is it's the same 
universal, timeless message as the New Testament, the story of the 
Buddha, Lao Tzu, Zoroaster, the Alchemical Wedding, and dozens of 
others. The whole point of my posts is to show you how similar Harry 
Potter is to that universal timeless message, which in my words I 
call Liberation. I like to add the word "alchemical" because that is 
a new concept added in by the Rosicrucians a few centuries ago and 
obviously being used by Jo herself.
(snip)
"I'm not saying Harry Potter is based on the Bible. I'm saying Harry 
Potter and the Bible are both based on the Path of Alchemical 
Liberation. Let me emphasise that I'm not asking anyone to believe 
the Path of Alchemical Liberation is true."
(Snip) 
it isn't relevant to this discussion whether any of you
believe it is true or not. Obviously the majority (I would guess) 
would NOT accept it, as it's totally against the prevailing beliefs 
of 99.999.. of the world's people.

What the members of this group ARE capable of believing, is that 
Harry Potter and my presentation of the Path of Liberation are 
extremely similar, leading to the conclusion that Jo is basing Harry 
Potter on that Path 
---

Tonks here:

Sorry Hans, but I must disagree. 

Point 1: You would not find one Biblical scholar in the world that 
would agree with the statement that the Bible points to the same 
path as your theory of liberation. It points to a path of 
liberation, yes. But the path is not the same as you have suggested. 
The New Testament is the Good News that the path is open to all who 
follow Jesus. Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life" 
(John 14:6.) He did not say that we can do it on our own without 
him. So I don't think that you can use the New Testament as proof 
for a process that does not involve Jesus, since He is what the New 
Testament is about.

Point 2: JKR uses the concept of the Alchemist because it fits with 
magic and wizards. And it has the added benefit of having a secret 
message or clue buried in it to the nature of the books. As you 
know, the Alchemist of the middle ages sought not only to turn 
mental into gold in a literal sense but to turn the base nature of 
their human soul into the gold of perfection. That perfection is of 
the human soul in total union with God. 

Now this is not the same as *becoming God* which is what I think 
your theory is about. The concept that we do not need a savior but 
can become a soul of the highest order by ourselves is seen by the 
Christian Church as a heresy. The Rosicrucian Religion is a heresy 
to the Christian Church. The teaching of the Church is that we do 
need a savior to show us the path and to assist us on the path. And 
the *path* is not a path to becoming God ourselves. There is only 
one God, the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions all share this 
belief. Human beings can not by their own effort or even with God's 
help  become another God. What the Christian believes is that, as 
the Orthodox say, the highest state of the human being is to become 
*as* God. That is a major difference. We become *as* God by and 
through God in the person (real and historical. The same yesterday, 
today and tomorrow) of Jesus who was the Christ.

Point 3: 
You say that 99.9% of the people of the world would not agree with 
your theory of liberation. I would have to guess that JKR is part of 
that percentage. She is a Christian. Yes she mentions Alchemy, but 
not because she holds to the Rosicrucian believes. She even said in 
an interview that she was a Christian and if people knew what she 
believed they could figure out what the books were about. 

So in conclusion, both The New Testament and Harry Potter are based 
on the same thing and that is the salvation of the world in, by and 
through the Christ.  Harry has the Christ within him.  Harry is not 
going to save the WW or the MW just because he is some superhuman 
being who drinks a potion. He will save the world because of the 
indwelling of the spirit of God in the presence of Jesus.

Tonks_op