The Role of Religion in the Potterverse was Magical Latin

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 186133

No Limburger: 
> I don't believe that JK Rowling intended religion to play a major role in Harry Potter. This automatically makes the books more accessible to more people regardless of personal religious beliefs.
> 

Pippin:
What sort of concept is the soul, if not a religious one? 
As she says, "These are not secular books." Explicit references to religious belief are also rare in The Lord of the Rings, not because Tolkien thought his ideas had nothing to do with religion but because he thought that the moral lessons of Christianity would be more accessible if they were presented outside the context of  Christian rituals and history. 

We don't know if Harry considers himself a nominal Christian or any kind of a Christian at all. But he places a cross above the resting place of Moody's eye. His parents and Dumbledore's family are buried in the graveyard of a Christian church in active use, with Christian inscriptions on their headstones. Hermione puts a wreath of "Christmas roses" on the Potters graves. It seems strange to argue that none of this is supposed to have any Christian connotation.
 
Though there is no character who consistently embodies Christian ideals, I think we are definitely invited to consider that Harry, Dumbledore and Lily were inspired by them, while Voldemort is ruined because he believed only in himself.

It's often commented that liberal Christians may have more in common with liberal branches of other faiths than with conservatives in their own, and I think JKR's Christian critics just illustrate that.


Pippin