Judgement Day and Pietism vs. Calvinism (Formerly Re: Dumbledore's plan

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 177485

Carol earlier:
> > <Snip>
> > I think that LV returned to that state when the second AK was
deflected onto him and killed him, and he'll remain there for all
eternity (unless there's a Judgment Day, which JKR might or might not
imagine, but which is not implied in DH).
> > <Snip>
> 
> Gary B.
> 
> Carol, actually I think that the canon has many references to a
judgement day.  The most obvious is -
> 
> as many have pointed out, inscribed on the tomb of Harry's parents
> is "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (DH, ch 16,
> AmEd, p. 328)which is from 1 Corinthians 15:26.   This is not a
> common quotation within the context of the famous description of
> Paul of the resurrection and the second coming.  The entire passage
> ends with the more familiar "Death, where is thy sting?" from Paul.
> Resurrection promised eternal life after the end-time -- therefore,
> no one should fear death.  This is a message that clearly Tom Riddle
> missed given his life and his overwhelming fear of death even to the
> extent of splitting his soul to 'cheat' death.  Obviously not well
> understood by the brothers in the tale inside of DH.
> 
> As had been pointed out several times, Harry actually misunderstands
> the inscription upon reading it and gets very upset at what he sees
> as a Death Eater statement.
<snip>

Carol responds:

I think you may have misunderstood my position. I'm not among the
readers who views DH as a Calvinist tract though I certainly see the
same *Christian* implications that you do, not only in the
inscriptions on the graves but the cross on the "grave" of Mad-Eye
Moody's magical eye and the carols on Christmas eve (ironic that the
confrontation with Bathilda!Nagini occurs in the early hours of
Christmas morning--I'm not sure how to read that) and the chapter
title "King's Cross," which for me suggests that Harry is sacrificing
himself for the wizarding world as Christ sacrificed himself for
sinners. (Please note that a Christ figure in literature is not the
same as an allegorical representation of Christ; it's only a character
who shares traits in common with Christ and yet remains a mortal and
fallible human being. I have no doubt whatever that Harry is a Christ
figure (the Chosen One), but he is assuredly not the Son of God or a
model of perfection or even a saint.)

We've had hints, starting with the existence of the soul in PoA and
including the Veil in OoP and Luna's calm assurance that she'll see
her mother again, that some sort of afterlife exists in the
Potterverse. Clearly, Voldemort is wrong to fear death (and more so to
try to insure his own earthly immortality through unnatural means) and
Dumbledore is right to see death as "the next great adventure." (Just
what that adventure involves, we don't find out because Harry chooses
to return to the living world rather than "going on.")

So I disagree that we have many references to a Judgment Day (dies
irae), a day when God decides who will be saved and who will be
eternally damned. What we have is many references to an afterlife.
With regard to Voldemort's mangled soul, as represented by the maimed
child left under a bench, it *appears* that he is already damned, not
by God but by his own actions and choices (though Harry offers him the
opportunity for remorse, his one chance to escape the fate that Harry
has foreseen or envisioned in "King's Cross"). What I meant was that
it's unclear whether on some future Judgment Day Voldemort might be
judged to have suffered enough in what amounts to his own personal
hell or purgatory and released. Since the conventional depictions of
the Judgment Day don't work that way (the dead sleep until the End
Time, when the saved are delivered and the damned cast into eternal
flames), I don't think that's going to happen. Voldemort has already
been judged and found wanting even though no God appers in the picture.

So, yes, there's an afterlife in the Potterverse. It appears that
Dumbledore, James, Lily, Sirius, and Lupin (all flawed, even Lily) are
redeemed. DD's hand is healed; Lupin and Sirius look younger than
Harry has ever seen them, the one healed of lycanthropy and the other
of the taint of Azkaban. Extending that comforting vision to Snape,
who has clearly redeemed himself, I think his afterlife will be much
happier than his short, miserable time on earth.

At any rate, JKR is a Christian, and the Christian concepts of
forgiveness and redemption and the eternal life of the soul, not to
mention Harry's willing self-sacrifice and his choice of love over
revenge, come to the fore in DH, as the concept of mercy does at the
end of HBP. But I don't think she's a Calvinist. Judgment Day (and the
vengeful God of the Apocalypse) seem to have no role in her books.
Christ is there by implication, in certain symbols and actions, but
Harry is not Christ; the afterlife (whatever the dead "go on" to) is
not heaven as it is usually envisioned (King's Cross is only the way
station where dead wizards choose whether to go on or become ghosts,
or, in Harry's unique case, whether to go on or return to life, with
all its joy and suffering. Dumbledore, fallible and manipulative as he
is, is certainly not God.

IOW, the story has Christian implications but is not a Christian
allegory. It is not in any way that I can see, given the emphasis on
choice, mercy, forgiveness, redemption, and a peaceful afterlife for
the eternal soul (except when that soul has been wilfully and
irreparably mutilated), a Calvinist (or antinomian) story or allegory.

Carol, who does not consider "afterlife" and "Judgment Day" to be
synonymous and doesn't think that JKR does, either