Is Harry Potter the Son of God?

[Miles]

No: HPFGUIDX 171151

Geoff Bannister wrote:
> As I said in message 171060, there seems to be a very
> different meaning attached to "evangelical" in the UK
> judging by the points bamf has made.
>
> To repeat myself, I am an evangelical Christian and also
> a member of a mainstream Free Church (the Baptist
> Church) and would view the dictionary definition of
> the word which I quoted in that message as being a
> fair description of the meaning certainly accepted by
> individual UK Christians. Most Protestant churches
> and a fair number of Anglican churches would
> subscribe to this view as congregations.

Miles
I agree with Geoff that obviously people speak of different things here. In
German, there is the distinction between the words "evangelisch" (which
means "based on the Gospels"), including all Lutheran/protestant churches in
distinction to the Catholic church, and "evangelikal" in the meaning of
fanatic/fundamentalist Protestants. "Evangelisch" seems to be what Geoff
talks about, "evangelikal" seems to be the understanding of bamf and of the
essay in question.

Based on this different understanding of a word - another one for the UK vs
US discussion? - the reaction to "Christian allegory" may be different.
Since Christian fundamentalists are not strong here, I have no problem with
Christian influences in a work of fiction. If I would live in the US, I
might object stronger, knowing the everyday propaganda broadcasted and
printed all over the country.

> bamf:
>> But, to say that HP is a Christian allegory, does
>> cheapen the books.  To me, they have many Heathen
>> aspects to them.  To others, it maybe Pagan.

> Geoff:
> Coming back to the books and JKR's approach, which is what
> we should really be considering, you may get sick of the fact that
> people bring up the argument that the HP books are Christian but
> we have to take on board that we need to consider what the *author*
> may have said or done in the writing - not what we *want* them to
> do or say. JKR has referred to her faith. (snip)
> Of course, readers of different faiths and persuasions will read
> things differently but to throw JKR's Christian views out of the
> window and rubbish them because she does not apparently
> agree with you seems. to me at least,  to constitute something
> of an insult to her as the creator of Harry Potter and his world.

Miles
I think you both would agree with me, that JKR didn't write an piece of
Christian propaganda, and that her intention is not to evangelise people
without any or with a different faith than her's?
Obviously the books are about general problems of right and wrong. That
means JKR will put in her moral virtues, which are based in her own faith
which she claimed as being Christian. So, I agree with Geoff, that there is
no point in denying the Christian underlying of the book, but certainly not
in the very crude way the essay's title that started the discussion here
assumes.

Let me quote an older post of myself to make my own position clear (Message
#143684):

"As far as I remember, there is not a single piece of any specific religion
mentioned (apart from more or less folkloristic items) concerning the entire
Harry Potter series. We can assume, that there is a more or less Christian
background within the British wizard community. But we learn about wizards
in Uganda, Africa in general and all over the world, so we can assume other
religious backgrounds for wizards e.g. in India, Arabia, or Australia.
Rowling does not mention the role of religion in wizards' world, but she
deals with basic ethical questions, which matter in any religion as well as
for atheists, agnostics a.s.o. (...)
I do not know whether this undetermined position towards religious aspects
is taken intentionally by Rowling. We could discuss this, there are some
hints in interviews. But the outcome of this position is a big part of the
"mystery" about the world wide success of Harry Potter. You do not need much
religious background to understand the questions which are important in the
story. It is about good and bad, about love and hatred, about to be true or
untruthful, about friendship and care. To understand this, you have to be a
human being - not more. (...)
When reading about Christian fundamentalists condemn Harry Potter as unholy,
and I bet Islamic or Hindu fundamentalists would join their choir, I just
think: well done, Joanne K. Rowling."