Wow

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 182139

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jim Ferer" <jferer at ...> wrote:
>
> Lesley wrote:   "I think if I had read a lot of these posts before
> reading the  books I would never have picked them up after the amount
> of  religious comments and references that have been made about them.
>  I didn't see any religious messages in any of the books and am 
> amazed at the amount of comments that say there were. I also read  the
> books because I liked them and have no interest in what  JKR's
> religion is." 
> 
> Geoff: "I think that you have to make some allowance for the beliefs
> of the authors in a series of books such as HP, LOTR or Narnia."
	
Jim: 
> Maybe the word "religion" is the hangup here. If by "religion" Lesley
> means the specific theology, rituals or ceremonies of Christianity or
> another religion, those are mostly absent. (Harry does scratch a cross
> where he buries Moody's magical eye.)

<snip>

Geoff:
That is the point I was trying to bring out in my post when I tried to 
make a very clear distinction between faith and religion. My definition 
of religion is similar to yours which is why is someone says to me 
"You're religious", my stock answer is "I'm not religious; I'm a Christian." 
My point being, that the trappings of what we have both termed "religion" are ot 
necessary.

I am not a Christian because I read the dustjacket and thought it was 
a nice set of ideas to follow. Real Christianity means making a specific 
commitment to Christ whose Spirit then lives in us and guides us. I 
didn't wake up one day and think "I'll become a Christian today"; I 
went out one morning to college for what I thought would be a 
normal day and came home at the end of the day having given my 
life to Christ; a bit like Paul on the Damascus road.

Jim:
> Perhaps JKR did not make the books explicitly Christian out of respect
> for those of other faiths. Her decision may have served to bring out
> the universals of spirituality.

Geoff:
I think that she works in a similar way to Tolkien who also did not 
introduce overt faith into his books but made it clear that Middle-
Earth is underpinned by the Creator and his spiritual messengers, 
such as Gandalf.

He disliked allegory unlike Lewis whose world of Narnia correlates 
closely to the Christian world by choice.

I think that, in a Dumbledorian sense, JKR leaves it to the reader 
to choose to see the Christian links round which she has entwined 
Harry's story of loss, friendship, victory and love.