The Role of Religion in the Potterverse

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 186167

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mmizstorge" <lszydlowski at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "k12listmomma" <k12listmomma@> wrote:
> >
> > 
> > Shelley:
> No other religion, save Christianity, has some Savior dying and 
> > then raising from the dead. 

k12listmomma: 
> Actually, in world mythology there are many deities who die and are resurrected. The myth of Christ is but a fairly recent example. I can name off the top of my head: Osiris, Inanna, Odin, Tammuz and Dionysos.  

Geoff:
As a Christian, I would disagree profoundly with your comment "the 
myth of Christ:". I believe that Christ was God coming in human form 
to save humanity lost in its own inhumanity and materialism and sin.

I also believe that earlier stories are merely foreshadowings of the real 
events and were insights from God into the historical coming of Jesus.

k12listmomma: 
> I thought JKR's attempt to frame Harry as a Christ-like figure was unsuccessful, largely because of Harry's un-Christlike inclination to fling Unforgiveable Curses. Harry did not 'save' anyone nor did he exactly die and the references in the text to his 'saving people thing' was to me, as a character said in 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe', needlessly messianic. 

Geoff:
I would agree with that analysis because I have often argued in the past 
on this group that Harry is not a Christ figure. No human can be. There is 
a difference in Lewis' books which are an allegorical representation of 
Christianity where Aslan, within the Narnian universe, is God. Harry can 
be equated to Christ-like figures in the real world who have indeed 
shown love and self-sacrifice to the extent of giving up their lives to save 
others physically. By way of example,there are cases in the Second World 
War where folk changed places with others in concentration camps or 
returned to situations to try to help to encourage oppressed believers or 
alleviate the problems; a good example is Dietrich Bonhoeffer who left 
Canada in 1939 on amost the last ship to return to Germany. He was 
not a Saviour. He could not save anyone's soul. but he could be a 
figurehead,  an example of altruism and self-sacrifice.

But, as you say, in the same way as Harry, none of these people are 
Saviours because of their un-Christlike inclinations, if not flinging 
Unforgiveable curses, then being selfish or, to simplify it to the pattern 
given by Jesus, not loving God with all their hearts or loving their 
neighbours as themselves.

Not easy.

Also, I agree that Harry did not die. Dumbledore pointed this out in the
"Kings Cross" chapter.

JKR has made it clear that she was writing from her own Christian point 
of view but that she was not attempting to convert or proselytise. However, 
that does not mean that she was not using the ideas and concepts of the 
Christian faith to underpin her story. Tolkien used  the same approach. I 
do not think that a Christian writing  so much from the depths of their 
experience, faith and heart would not display a Christian-angled sub-
creation, even if only subconsciously. I would personally find it difficult 
to write a story like HP in which I had invested a huge amount of my time 
and inventiveness without basing it on my own attitude to life. It's not like, 
say,  a detective novel where the story is matter-of-fact not involving 
morals or attitudes where the conscience of your characters or their 
world view are divorced from the action.

I think that I as a Christian should not necessarily expect folk with other 
views to agree with me, Conversely, they should not project their views 
onto JKR's world knowing how she has constructed the Potterverse 
and what she has said about it in the real world.