Will Harry die?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 156793

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Hans Andréa <hansandrea1 at ...> wrote:
>
> Will Harry Die? That's the same as asking, "Did Jesus 
die?" or "Did Orpheus die?" or "Horus?*"
> The answer to this question is both "yes" and "no".
> Harry will die but he will come back, just like Jesus, 
Orpheus, Horus and other liberators! The whole purpose 
of Harry Potter is to prove that there is a way to vanquish
death permanently.
> What evidence is there?
> Just look at the basic story:
> A prophecy is made that a baby will be born who will
change the world. The baby is born and a star appears 
to announce his birth. When the king of this world hears
about the birth he tries to have the baby killed, but fails. 
The child grows up in wisdom and in stature, and in 
favour with God and man. He performs miracles at a 
young age. But as he grows older he knows he will have 
to meet his arch-enemy: Satan.
> You all know that story – that's the story of Jesus. But 
it's also the storyof Harry Potter.

Geoff:
This is a reprise of the threads and discussions which we had
up at intervals up to about 15 months ago.

First of all, as an evangelical Christian, I think that other group
members who are also believers will agree with me that you
cannot equate the Harry Potter books with Jesus Christ. Your
statements "he will come back just like Jesus, Orpheus, Horus
and the other liberators" and "that's the story of Jesus. But it's
also the story of Harry Potter" create the suggestion in the mind
of non-Christians that Jesus Christ is just a fictional story character
– which he is most certainly /not/. In Christian belief, he is God
incarnate and lives today calling human beings to let his Spirit
enter their lives. Harry, much as I like his company, is but a
fictional character.

I imagine that any believing Christian would shy away from the
idea of writing a story with the implication that it was giving an
alternative route to eternal life because of the uncertainty and
problems that it would cause and the possible undermining of
the belief of others. I would just, as an aside, say that C.S.Lewis
in writing "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" made it clear
that he was producing an allegorical picture of Christianity
intended to help children come to the real truth about Jesus.

Taking your suggestion that JKR would write the books to mirror
the Alchemical Wedding and the Path of Liberation means that at
some point she will have to take time to explain what this all means
and how it has worked out in the series, otherwise she is implying
that only people who have "special knowledge" will be able to
understand the meaning of the story – which was the line taken by
the Gnostics in the early Christian church. How is this meant to have
any relevance for the thousands upon thousands of young readers
for whom the stories have had so much appeal?

Jo Rowling has stated that she is a Christian. I have written in the
past on more than one occasion that the only requirements for belief
were stated by Jesus himself in John 3:16 "God so loved the world that
he gave his only and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life." and in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." This is
the incredibly simple – and yet incredibly difficult – way to come to
faith. People who wrap this in a cocoon of ritual and tradition do
God a disservice.

I am sure that fellow believers on the group will share with me the
view that this must lie at the back of her thinking in these books and
the comments she has made about them; it is not another Da Vinci
Code approach entwining the truth in a labyrinth of human, unproven
theories.