That Whole Christian Thing (plus assorted others)

[jmgarciaiii]

No: HPFGUIDX 173539

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ricky & LeAnn" <rkelley at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Joe wrote:
> >> "I'm of the opinion that JKR included some parallels/allusions 
to Christianty. This is different than saying these books are 
allegories for the Crucifixion of Christ, etc.
> 
> And yet!
> 
> She also included some elements that are clearly non-Christian." <<
> 
> 
> Anders:
> 
> I am one who strongly sees the Christ allegory in the last book 
since I'm a devout Christian. (Harry went to King's Cross to speak 
to DD, Pettigrew/Judas sold Harry out for silver and died by his own 
hand, Harry's "baptism" in the lake by Ron/John, in book five we had 
Seamus/Doubting Thomas, - I could go on and on about episodes in the 
books which seemed to me to parallel Christian examples.) However, 
the question is whether or not Jo did a C.S. Lewis and intentionally 
wrote the series with that purpose, or whether her own Christian 
background merely came through in the writing on occasion, or 
whether I'm reading something into them which doesn't exist at
> all. I believe the first, but I understand the opinions of others 
who
> believe one of the latter two.

Me, once more:

Let me try this a different way.

I agree with the Christian elements you pointed out (I clearly 
remember the graveyard scene and saying to myself "Hey! That's St. 
Paul she's quoting!"). However, what I meant is that while there are 
these elements present they are not the only elements present. The 
King's Cross -- and to an attentive Christian that name clearly 
resonates -- scene is interpretable both from the Christian 
perspective (Harry dies and resurrects, just like Christ) or from a 
Greco-Roman one (Harry goes to the dead and speaks with his mentor 
to get that last bit of wisdom needed to complete the task, just 
like Odysseus).

What is obvious is that if there are other plausible interpretations 
with strong evidence to support them, then JKR must have wanted some 
level of ambiguity. Or, said another way, it's correct to intepret 
this from a Christian standpoint because there is strong evidence 
pointing thereto, just as it's equally correct to do so from the 
Classical Mythology angle, etc., etc.

My own take is "all of the above." As a Christian the Christian 
elements resonated, but as someone who put in a LOT of time with 
Latin and Greco-Roman mythology, those references popped out as 
well. If I could ever be bothered to read LOTR -- sorry, just not my 
thing -- I'm sure I'd pick up on even more.

By all this I mean that I doubt JKR meant this *exclusively* as a 
Christian work. (I really dislike the word "allegory" as being too 
simplistic.)

Hope I made more sense of my opinion this time...

-Joe