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

[hells456]

No: HPFGUIDX 128516



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 disagree. I think the difference here is that you are looking at carols from a christian perspective, while I am looking at them from a popular culture perspective.

You are probably correct in your view of carol usage in church services (if I'm getting your meaning right), but I rarely hear, if ever, most of the other carols you mentioned in day to day life around christmas time. <i>"Hark the Herald Angels Sing", "O little Town of Bethlehem" and "Once in Royal Dvaid's City"</i> the last one I don't know at all.


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.


Hells:

This has not been my experience. The vast majority of people I know consider religion to be irrelevant, some have even been offended that they were forced to pick a religion in various forms. Most of these people were christened, but do not consider themselves christian.

 

I see the Harry Potter books as moral books, in the sense that they show good and evil and emphasize love, choosing to be a good person, courage and standing up to do the right thing. At the end of the day many parallels can be made with religious texts, but this is really irrelevant. I'm sure that some of the students at Hogwarts are from a religious background, and that the school caters for them, but this is needless information that doesn't need to be in the books.

 

I took the christian references to be Dumbledore = all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful God, Harry = Christ the saviour who will sacrifice himself or part of himself to save wizardkind (hopefully to be reborn) and possibly Fawkes = the Holy Spirit, although I know nothing about the Holy Spirit except the name. Satan = Voldemort, and I hate to think who will be Judas...

I just think that with references this big, we do not need to search for hidden meaning in Sirius's carol singing.


		
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