Is Harry Potter the Son of God?

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 178065

> lizzyben:

Was that fair to readers? Did she mislead 
> about the large role religion would end up playing in the series? Or 
> was it a good idea for her to keep the religious themes hidden in 
> order to avoid spoiling the ending? Also, it puts new light on JKR's 
> statements about how the last novel will reveal the secret at the 
> heart of the series - people thought the secret involved some 
> intricate puzzle ending, when in fact it seems like the secret was 
> the revelation of the Christian theme of the series. 

Magpie:
My impression of the article when I read it earlier was that 
by "Christian" she seems to mean life after death, which is a bit more 
universal. If you're not linking everylasting afterlife to God and 
Jesus, I don't see how it's all that explicitly Christian. Her beliefs 
seem to be more about a struggle with believing in life after death 
with the book obviously showing that when you die you go on living, so 
you can appear to Harry in that one scene, for instance. I recognize 
some Christian ideas in the glimpses we get of the afterlife (why does 
Voldemort wind up a squawling, tormented baby because he didn't 
repent? I'm not sure within the reality of the series, but he does).

I did laugh when I read the article, though, because wow, was I off 
the mark in everything I thought was connected to Christianity (even 
if that stuff, too, was pretty universal)! I'm surprised I even got 
the names right! I seem to not share any of her specific anxieties 
about death at all, and while she seems to have been writing to deal 
with exactly that to me the book doesn't say anything much about death 
at all, either in terms of being the one who dies or the one who lives 
on. It was more like when someone died it was a really big deal, Death 
is with them like a presence, seemed like the world would end...and 
then things move on. And sometimes the person popped up again later in 
some form to give advice and support and got somebody named after 
them. 

-m