Baptism/Christianity in HP: was Looking for God in Harry Potter

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 153611


> Leslie41:
> Your description of what Christ's sacrifice was about.  I would 
say 
> it is short sighted because it's not comprehensive enough. 

Magpie:
It seems like you're just saying Christ made a sacrifice so any 
sacrifice is Christlike, which is so general I'm not sure what it's 
saying about the text.   

> Leslie41:
> Again, too limiting.  Because of the mystery of the trinity and 
> Christ's triune nature, Christ is all-in-one.  Parent and child 
and 
> the holy spirit as well.  And many more things of which our 
limited 
> imaginations cannot even conceive.

Magpie:
The fact that Christ and God are the same make Lily's protection of 
Harry less like Christ's sacrifice, not more.  One's a mortal mother 
throwing herself in front of her child and dying herself so that he 
will live.  The other is a god incarnating himself into human form 
and sacrificing himself to death while still being immortal and 
thereby repaying a debt of sin to himself that frees mankind from 
sin.  However beyond the imagination that sacrifice is, Lily's 
standing in front of her baby is not. 

> Leslie41:
> 
> I don't think it's ever immodest to compare acts of love where we 
> sacrifice ourselves for others to Christ's sacrifice. As 
Christians 
> that is precisely the type of love to which we are to aspire.  
When 
> people ask "what would Jesus do?" that's essentially what they're 
> attempting--to be Christlike.  
> 
> Lily's sacrifice was more feral, of course, because of her 
mothering 
> instinct.  But again, a Christian would interpret that instinct as 
a 
> gift from God, and God's love would be interwound with a mother's 
> love for her child.

Magpie:
Yes, and that brings meaning to someone who's Christian and 
therefore connects any good act with being Christ-like, but I don't 
see how it brings meaning to what happened in the story.  Lily's 
sacrifice, in that way, would be Christlike whether Harry had been 
baptised or not.  

-m