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

[festuco]

No: HPFGUIDX 128513

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.

Why? It is one of my favourite Christmas carols, because of the
beautiful melody. No way Jingle Bells or any of the others you name
comes even close. I think the most likely explanation is that JKR 
just put a song in she herself likes.

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.

Yes of course. That was not the point I'm making. You will find the
same if you read Dickens for example. My point is that she is not
writing a specifically christian tale. And that lots of themes people
in this culture think are christian, are in fact universal themes,
dealt with in all religions (right versus wrong, crime, punishment 
and regret, redemption, morality versus rules etc.)

Gerry