Religion in US, UK, Hogwarts Schools (was I saw (more than) three ships ...

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 128559

 pippin_999

> As for the historical context, King James, who sponsored the most 
> influential translation of the Bible into English, also was a 
fierce 
> persecutor of supposed witches and wizards. It  wouldn't be at all 
> surprising to me to discover that the wizarding world and religion 
> in general came to a parting of the ways and not on friendly terms.
> 
>  I've sometimes wondered if religion hasn't  been forced 
underground
> in the Wizarding World the way magic has in the Muggle world. 
Maybe 
> wizards celebrate Christmas and name godparents the way many 
people 
> celebrate Hallowe'n or choose a May queen, with no idea that it 
ever
> had any spiritual content whatsoever.  And just as there are a few
> Muggles who are aware of the magical world, perhaps there are a few
> wizards to whom religion is still important. Maybe one of the 
reasons 
> Harry's christening was such a  small affair was that his parents 
and
> Sirius were among those few. 

Yes, but neither Halloween, no choosing the May Queen is magic. 
Undoubtedly pagan practices and folk believes influenced medieval 
magic or, rather, popular perception of it, but then, so did 
Christianity. Witchcraft as we know and love now would have been 
impossible outside the context of Christianity.

By the time King James wrote his Daemonologie, the view of 
witchcraft as a kind of heresy had been firmly established. He 
repressed witches on the same grounds with Romans Catholics and 
dissenters. Catholics and witches had been tried by the same courts 
and hung (drawn and quartered) on same Tyburn Hill (or burnt on the 
same stakes, sometimes even simultaneously). The conflict was not 
between magic and religion as you put, but between the King's 
religion and heretics, or on the continent between the Pope's 
religion and heretics. Fat Friar could have died a violent death 
because of his being a Friar just as surely as because his being a 
wizard. 

And whatever was the reason of the great Schism between Muggles and 
wizards I don't think it was because wizards were pagan and wanted 
to practice their rituals and religious festivals in peace. In fact, 
between Christianity and paganism as wizards' spiritual framework I 
think the former is by far safer bet. I can easily picture 
McGonagall attending an occasional christening or wedding (although 
it would have to be in a Muggle church – we haven't seen anything 
churchlike in Hogwarts and Hogsmead as of yet), but imagine her 
performing a fertility ritual! It boggles the mind
 

I think more likely that nowadays most wizards' attitude towards 
both Christianity and paganism is precisely the same than that of 
Muggles – for them it is a matter of tradition, rather than faith. 
There has been enough discussion on-list about Christmas in the WW --
 whether or not it retains its religious meaning. I will be fist to 
agree that it has been secularised, but then so has been Halloween. 
Hogwarts students enjoy them both "with no idea that it ever had any 
spiritual content whatsoever", as you put it. 

a_svirn