Christianity in HP / Snape-like teachers

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 128423

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "AyanEva" <ayaneva at a...> wrote:

AyanEva: 
> I'm answering to these two statements because they tie in to
> my argument. Tonks' statement first. But see, that's the point. It's
> not strictly a Christian story. That would assume that the basic
> tenants of the Christian faith are peculiar to Christianity; they're
> not. So, the HP stories can be read in a distinctly non-Christian
> fashion. You'll have to split that butterbeer with everyone else! ;-
)
> And now Geoff's. But the point that I think some of us are trying to
> make (correct me if I'm wrong "some of us") is that we exclude the
> worship bit and concentrate on love, service to others, hope for a 
new
> beginning and rebirth, and hope for humanity. That's neccessarily,
> pagan in origin since the first religions had pantheons of gods, but
> it's not exclusive to paganism. Nor is it exclusive to Christianity.
> There's nothing requiring us to read it that way in HP, although 
we're
> free to do so.

Geoff:
What I have been trying to underline is that I disagree with the 
train of thought which says that Christmas (and Easter) are pagan 
because the Church simply re-labelled the package for its own uses.

As I pointed out in a recent post, the fact that, certainly, 
Christmas is contemporaneous with a pagan festival was because many 
early Christians in the Roman Empire were not free to do as they 
chose - ie slaves, maybe merchants etc. So they had perforce to hold 
their special celebrations at the same time as the public holidays.

You can not call Christmas a pagan festival because its very name 
reveals what it is, worship held to celebrate the birth of Christ in 
human form; -mas is an old suffix used to indicate this, often 
related to a birth; another example is Michaelmas.

Regarding the way in which we celebrate Christmas, the UK is a group 
of countries whose culture and history is based on Christian 
foundations. Although the number of real Christians is a relatively 
small percentage of the total population, the great majority of 
residents will say that they are Christian if asked, although this is 
very nominal. It is a standing joke in the country that if you are 
admitted to hospital and asked by hospital staff for your religion 
and you offer no specific answer, you are automatically listed as "C 
of E". 

So you will find that many British folk will listen to carols, send 
religious cards, hear the Christmas story read on TV - and even go to 
church for perhaps their one occasion of the year. And surprisingly, 
many of these good folk will become quite cross when there is an 
attempt by authorities to convert Christmas into a Winter Festival, 
send cards with "Season's greetings" and stop schools holding 
Nativity plays. It may well smack of nostalgia but don't 
underestimate the ability of the British to dig their heels in.

I note AyanEva's comment that Harry Potter is not strictly a 
Christian story. It has been pointed out on a number of occasions in 
the past that JK Rowling, like Tolkien, is writing from a personal 
Christian background and the tenets of Christianity can be seen 
covertly in many places. Yes, HP and LOTR can be read in a non-
Chriatian fashion by non-Christians but I believe that the authors 
have used their own belief as a springboard for their created worlds 
of fiction.