Christians in HP - in a purely historical way(was:Re: Christianity in HP)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 128510

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, hells456 <hells456 at y...> wrote:
 
Hells:
 
> I know "God rest ye merry gentleman" as it is very well known over 
here. It is not a lesser known carol, you would be hard pushed to 
find a single person over 5 who wasn't familiar with it. You do not 
need to be religious to know christmas carols. Most people have heard 
them on television, learned to play instruments with them, sang them 
in school choirs and plays, heard them in every shop at christmas 
time etc.


Geoff:
I think you misread what I wrote. I didn't say that Sirius' 
choice, "God rest ye merry, gentlemen", was a lesser known carol over 
here in the UK, I said it was lesser /used/. Having been a Christian 
for over 40 years, I would expect from experience that, if you asked 
an average person to name - or better sing - a Christmas carol, one 
of the batch I named would be likely to predominate.
 
Hells:
> I can understand many of the arguments seeking Christianity in 
Harry Potter, but I'm afraid this is the weakest one I've heard. I 
think JKR was illustrating Sirius' good mood and used a carol that 
she could easily change the words to which would be recognised by all 
the readers.

Geoff:
I think this does underline the point that, sadly, the majority of 
British folk are nominally Christian but, interestingly, if you 
challenge many people, they will become very cross if you suggest 
that they are /not/ Christian.

Gerry made the point:
"I think a writer has to make a conscious effort to take out all
christian references, because a lot of them are cultural. JKR uses a
lot of symbols and ideas. She obviously reads a lot, and is very
familiar with occult ideas. That does not make her a believer in the
occult. And that an author is a Christian does not mean her purpose in
writing is to bring some kind of holy message to people. "

Geoff:
I think the whole point of them being cultural impinges on things 
like writing. I doubt whether she would attempt to remove Christian 
references; it would leave something of a void in her spproach. I am 
not unfamiliar with occult ideas - I read up quite a bit in my teens -
 but I find that my belief has an underlying effect on the way I view 
events and I think this is true of Jo Rowling's approach to the 
books. There are ideas which come from other sources but there are 
often conclusions drawn - sometimes by Dumbledore fo Harry's benefit -
 which probably come from her Chrsitian background both personally 
and culturally.