Of Sorting and Snape

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 175566


> Sydney wrote:
> This is a series that answers the question "What would Jesus do?" not
> with, love thy enemy, judge not, turn the other cheek, heal the sick,
>  (and render unto Ceasar, one of the wisest ones IMO), but
with 'allow
> your enemies to kill you so you can come back to life and confer some
> bizarre magical protection on your exclusive club of followers.'
It's
> so weird. IT'S SO WEIRD.
>
> -- Sydney, who swore she wouldn't get drawn back in, but who had to
> support Lizzyben on this point


I guess it depends on your view of Christianity, to an extent.  Many
people, both inside and outside of Christian churches, do have a view
of Jesus as primarily an Ethical figure, and equate Christianity
largely with a certain moral code.  That is all very well, and it's
certainly true that Jesus propagated a certain morality (although it
is by know means always clear how it should be applied in specific
circumstances, of course).

However, many people, indeed entire groups of Christians, have a
different emphasis on Jesus, seeing him as primarily a Metaphysical
figure, i.e. as a figure who's life, death, and resurrection create a
profound change in the very nature of reality by altering forever the
relationship between God and the Created World.  For instance my own
church, the Greek Orthodox, strongly supports such a view.  In that
view, what is truly important and unique is not the moral message of
Christianity (which after all has echoes in a lot of other places,
including the Pharisee movement from which modern Rabbinic Judaism is
ultimately descended).  Rather what is important is precisely the
events mirrored in the last part of DH, namely the voluntary death and
resurrection, which leads to a different mode of reality both for the
Resurrected One and the rest of Creation, albeit a mode most fully
realized by those who are conscious followers of the Resurrected
Savior.

Of particular import to the ethics of the Potterverse is that many
groups across the Christian spectrum see in this Metaphysical Christ
an expression of the Absolute Sovereignty of God.  That is, humanity
cannot hope to ascend to the Godhead, but for its salvation must
depend on the free and sovereign act of God in lifting humanity up to
a level that humans can never attain through their own worth, effort,
or choices.  The effect of this process, i.e. the signs of the touch
of God, are manifested in the outward character and behavior of the
one so favored (this being the majority theological view, although
certain extreme brands of Calvinism would dispute it).  Thus, good
people are good people in that they in some way, consciously or not,
participate in the saving action of God which is manifested temporally
in the Resurrected Savior.  Bad people are bad people, and ACT like
bad people, in that they do not.  Thus good people go to heaven and
bad people go to hell, not as a reward for behavior and following the
rules, but because good people are touched by salvation and display
this in their character and behavior, whereas bad people are not and
display THIS in their character and behavior.

Or, to put it in terms of the Potterverse, Gryffindors, along with
many Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, are good because they participate in
the essence of goodness which is temporally embodied by Harry, the Boy
Who Lived and Who Was Resurrected.  They display this participation in
the essence of goodness in their character and behavior.  Slytherins
do not participate in this essence.  They are essentially empty (evil
having no essence or reality of its own to impart).  They display
their emptiness through their character and behavior.

It all works out very well, given a certain understanding of what
Jesus was all about.


Lupinlore