Wow

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 182140

---  "lesley" <hutchingslesley at ...> wrote:
>
> ---  "Carol" <justcarol67@> wrote:
> >
> > Lesley,
> >> I think if I had read a lot of these post's before 
> >> reading the book's I would never have picked them up 
> >> after the amount of religious comment's and references 
> >> that have been made about them. I didn't see any religious 
> >> messages ...

> 
> justcarol
> 
> > If we refuse to read a book by a Christian author, we'll 
> > be depriving ourselves of a large segment of Western 
> > literature. ...
> >

> Lesley
> I'm sorry, I think you misunderstood me, probably my fault, 
> ... I agree that as JKR is a Christian herself may have used
> her beliefs in her book's and that has determined how the 
> story's have played out, I just didn't see it. When I read 
> a book about wizards and giants etc I don't expect to be 
> smothered by lot's of religious views ... they are the ones
> that would have put me off reading the books as I would have 
> expected the books to be full of Blah after reading them.
>
> Lesley, with hopes of not going to hell.
>

bboyminn:

No truly good author would ever stoop to 'smothering (her 
readers) with lot's of religious views'. A wise author and
the authors of countless fairytales and myth across an
enormous span of time, have made their point by applying
'Universal Themes'. 

JKR draws on universal themes that are consistent through
all cultures and across all religions. Just as Christians
here, who I assume are in the majority, were able to see
these universal themes paralleled in their own religion, I
also suspect a Buddhist could find the same parallels in 
their religion.  

So, it is not so much that we are finding Christianity in
the HP books, as it is we are finding Christian symbolism in
the books. Since that symbolism comes from universal themes 
of good and right, I suspect if we had enough of them here, 
Buddhist and Muslim and Shinto etc... could have seen, and 
would have discussed, those themes and symbols as well. 

To some extent, it only matters that JKR is a Christian because
so many Christian fundamentalists accused her of being a godless
pagan and a corrupting influence on society and our children. 
Which, as a side note, I find to be very unChristian like. 

In the next sense, to other Christians, knowing JKR is a
Christian, allows us to see these underlying themes in a
context we understand. However, as I've already pointed out,
I don't see that context limited to Christianity. It is just
that Christians see it from a Christian context, and discuss
it from that context, and are also, likely, in the majority here.
We are all, each in his own belief system, looking for a way to
understand these books in a framework that is familiar to us. 

So, I don't see these discussion paralleling HP to Christianity
as absolute, that simply represents a familiar context for 
people who grew up in that context. 

steve/bboyminn