Resolving (?) the Riddle

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 125254


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "naamagatus" <naama_gat at h...> 
wrote:
> 
> Replying to Renee and Tonks here.
> 
> 
> Renee:
> If you replace 'dark Christ' by anti-Christ, we would have a
> reference to the Apocalyps - another indication that the HP series
> is meant to be a piece of Christian literature about the ultimate
> battle between Good&Evil and Light&Darkness, and that Harry is a
> Christ figure. (I'm sure his family name, Potter, has come along
> repeatedly as a reference to God.) The old cosmic drama disguised as
> a book about a magical schoolboy.
> 
> Naama:
> The thing is, Harry really isn't a Christ figure. I have thought 
long 
> about this <sounds of everybody thinking "get a life">. Harry, in 
my 
> understanding, is Everyman. The closest thing to a (good) Christ 
> figure that we have is Dumbledore. His name, his being, the 
> connection/identification with the phoenix - he is, if not Christ, 
> the personification of Light and morality. 

Geoff:
Excuse me replying so late to this message. I have been away on 
holiday for a week and have just finished wading through 400 posts.

I have, on several occasions,  made similar comments that Harry is an 
everyman but the family name does give rise to some fascination.

An interesting thought which cross my mind at this point was other 
parallelism between names which has been used.

I know of at least two Christian books about Harry Potter which make 
a wordplay on his position as Seeker - because this word is 
frequently used by Christians to indicate a person who is searching 
after the real truth of Christianity.

Tbe other which came to mind was a line in one of CS Lewis' "Silent 
Planet" science-fiction novels in which (I think) one of the eldila 
says to Ransom something along the lines of "You did not receive your 
name by chance. It indicated the task to which you were ordained."

I haven't got all of my "Silent Planet" trilogy nowadays. Perhaps 
someone could exhume the relevant quote.