J.K. Rowling!Existentialist

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 179517

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "thetrojanvabbit" <gatesreaver at ...> wrote:
>
> Geoff Bannister:
> >I wondered why you wrote your last sentence "I wonder if that's why
> >some Christians hate Harry Potter so much!";it seems to be something
> >of a red herring. <snip>
> 
> TheTrojanVabbit replies:
> 
> It's not a red herring. My point us that people expecting an
> overriding Christian theme in the books would have been expecting book
> 7 to define Dark Magic in moral absolutist terms, simple and
> clear-cut. Instead, the lines between Light and Dark became more
> blurred. To moral absolutists (and the Christianity is a dogmatic
> religion), used to doing as told or else, moral relativism is a scary
> and unsettling thing.

Geoff:
Yes but you didn't make this clear in that sentence which gave the
impression that it was a line thown in just to round of the post....

As I said, I am a Christian. I believe that there are certain moral 
absolutes which you find in most cultures which I believe came from 
God and, without which, life would become an "I'm all right Jack" 
scramble to be on top of the heap.

There are things which may depend on specfic culture and history 
which are moral relatives and which maybe do not carry the same 
impact.
 
> Geoff (earlier):
> 
> >JKR says that she was raised in the Church of England and held
> >Christian belief until she questioned it at University but has now
> >returned to believing
> <snip>
> 
> 
> Vabbit:
> 
> Have you ever heard of Christian Existentialism? Kierkegaard, Karl
> Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel, and many others. Perhaps she
> used writings such as these to help her through her crisis of faith.

Geoff:
My second point, which I raised, was the fact that you were presenting 
DH as an existentialist text and were doing so as definitive. Now, JKR 
has intimated - in her MTV interview in October - that she had a 
Christian foundation for the books although this was not indicated 
very openly. As you say, there are those who promote Christian 
existentialism, but I have yet to see anything from Jo Rowling to 
confirm that was in her mind also.

I have indeed heard of Søren Kirkegaard. I read some of his work 
many years ago but I must say that it didn't grab me.