God in the WW?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 132218

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "rachaelmcadams" 
<rachaelmcadams at y...> wrote:
> Rachael:

> 
> Rachael:
> However, her feelings of faith are not really what are expressed in 
> the novels, but rather, her morals and ethics.  Many Christians 
often 
> argue (and I am not saying any here has, just a pre-emptive reply 
in 
> case someone does) that when an author expresses views that are in 
> line with Christianity (for example, treating others the way you 
wish 
> to be treated), they believe that it is a Christian novel.  
However, 
> those themes are often present in most other religions, as well as 
in 
> most people's morality.  The point of this is, unless JKR 
> specifically says she is trying to teach Christian morality, it is 
a 
> very hard thing to prove.


Geoff:

I wrote in post 131103:

"I have commented on more than one occasion about JK Rowling, JRR 
Tolkien and CS Lewis in the context of their Christian beliefs.

It is a well documented fact that Lewis /intended/ the Narnia books 
to be allegorical. His first book "The Lion, the Witch and the 
Wardrobe" is a retelling of the Christian gospel for children, 
pitched in a magical, fantasy world. The later books diverge from 
this in that the direct allegorical references are much fewer 
although, in "The Last Battle", there is some fascinating writing in 
his description of heaven.

Tolkien certainly eschewed allegory - as I believe Jo Rowling has - 
but his Christian beliefs are well-known. He was one of the people 
instrumental in bringing CS Lewis to faith although, curiously, he
was a Catholic while Lewis became an evangelical Protestant.

I believe that writers who create books which are labours of love are 
bound to incorporate their views, hopes and beliefs into their work 
and it is there to be recognised even in a covert form by those who 
search. I do not believe that writers such as these would produce 
results in their stories which went against the grain of their own 
world view, be that Christian or otherwise.

I think that characters such as Frodo or Harry Potter are the result 
of these labours of love; they are characters who are well fleshed 
out with whom we can relate. As any Christian worth his or her salt
will tell you, our lives are like that. We have good days and bad 
days, do great things and crass things, things which we prefer, in 
hindsight, to forget about and I, for one, like to be able to see
myself in a similar situation and maybe reacting in the same way."

JKR is a member of the Church of Scotland and so I (and many others 
on the group) see her approaching HP in a Christian fashion.

> Rachael:
> The name has great importance to those that are Christian, BUT 
> because of the history of Christianity being imposed on the people  
> of wherever the British decided to colonize, the names do not 
> necessarily mean that everyone that celebrates the holidays has to  
> be Christian.  Christmas and Easter have become so ingrained in (at 
> least) Western society and so commercialized that there doesn't  
> need to be any religion involved to celebrate them.

Geoff:
Why is this being laid on our doorstep as being due to British 
colonisation? With respect, we are not the only nation who took 
Christianity to other countries.

There is a deeply ingrained streak in the British which sees our 
Christian historical traditions surface to remind ourselves of the 
true meaning of Christmas despite the veneer of commercialism. Why is 
it that so many people turn out to watch school Nativity plays or 
watch the TV programmes of carols from the big cathedrals? OK, so its 
maybe something they've done since childhood but it still allows the 
message of the love of Christ to be heard through the jingle of the 
cash tills.