Baptism/Christianity in HP

[Miles]

No: HPFGUIDX 153793

Geoff Bannister wrote:
> I stand by my comment quoted above that infant baptism per se does not
> make a person a Christian.

Miles:
So this is an interesting question to discuss, but certainly it is quite OT
for this list.
But in some way it is important - the answer to the question whether Harry
Potter is a "active" Christian is NO, the absence of any canonical evidence
for the opposite is striking, as Tonks showed upthread.

In my opinion, Harry's Baptism is mainly a plot device to introduce his
Godfather - it was the most simple way to put Sirius into a parental role.

There are at least two, maybe three layers in the discussion about
Christianity in HP, and I have the impression that both are mixed in an
unhealthy way, this thread becoming somewhat nasty lateley.

The first layer is the faiths of the characters within the HP books. The
Baptism question belongs to this layer. Not a single character made any
remark about his religious beliefs. Just remember the dialogue of Nick and
Harry at the end of OotP - not even in this situation one of them mentioned
religion. If JKR wanted to make any character a religious person (i.e. a
Christian), this would have been one among many other situations to do it.
She didn't - so I think there's not much room to doubt that she simply
doesn't want to do it.
We read quite alot of Christian feasts and traditions, but we only see the
surface of it - like a Coca Cola manager might do ;). There is a Christmas
Tree and presents, but no Jesus in the crib, there are Easter holidays and
eggs, but no resurrected Christ. So there is simply no reason to think that
the Baptism has a deeper meaning than a) Harry getting his name and b)
Sirius becoming his Godfather. It's a tradition to christen a child
especially in critical situations - no doubt - but even people who do this
kind of Baptisms can be "formal Christians" and nothing more.

To deny that in this layer Christianity is of any importance for HP is NOT
an attack on anyone's faith at all. Religion is not "unimportant", just
because it is not important for the character Harry Potter or the character
Albus Dumbledore. And it is not unimportant for JKR as well - she simply
decided not to use any religion within the Potterverse.

The second layer I'd like to identify is the one of Christian symbols in
Harry Potter. I do agree that there are several symbols that can be read as
Christian symbols, but these symbols are not exclusivley Christian symbols,
they are adopted. For example, the concept of death and resurrection is very
important for Christianity, but there were and are much religions who know
it as well. JKR obviously loves to play with these symbols, but I doubt they
are very important. I could write much more about this, but I haven't enough
time right now ;).

The third layer (it is maybe difficult to seperate it from the second) is
the "message" or the "moral" of HP. I do think that JKR has a message which
is connected to her Christian belief. But the result of this seems to be
universal - and I doubt JKR would mind it if she read my opinion on it. Her
message is not "be a Christian", it is "be a good person".
Her definition of a good person is strongly influenced by her own faith, so
for example forgiveness will play an important role (IMO). But I do not know
any religion which would think a good person in a Christian "version" is not
a good person in their own view. The values would differ slightly, other
values would be more important, but the general idea of "good" is the same
within all (or most) religions, and of most agnostic/atheist philosophies as
well.

So as a result, Harry Potter is a universal book, and the work of a
Christian author putting her beliefs in it at the same time.

Really, no reason to fight instead of discussing the topic...

Miles