The Role of Religion in the Potterverse was Magical Latin

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186176

No.Limberger wrote:
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> To presume that because an author has a particular set of beliefs is automatically going to mean that any produced works will convey those beliefs, and that this applies to all authors, is not supported.

Carol responds:

No wthere's a nice, safe negative assertion worded in the passive voice. It's impossible to prove a negative (although it can be disproved by a single instance of evidence to the contrary). Not supported by whom or what? What's your source for this assertion?

Just as your posts and mine and everyone else's reflect our values, education, and worldview, any author's works will automatically do the same. Our works reflect what we think, what we know or think we know, and who we are. JKR's works reflect an education and religious training and life experience acquired in modern Britain (and elsewhere in Europe). Not having lived in ancient Athens or Shakespeare's England, she could not have written Shakespeare's works or Plato's any more than those two authors could have written each other's works or JKR's. Like every other author who has ever written, JKR is a product of her culture, the particular time and place in which she lives. It cannot be otherwise. (I've already described that culture and the influences that shaped it, in particular Christianity, so I won't repeat that point.)

Even if an author creates an imaginary world, that creation is based on his or her own experience (including what he or she has read) reshaped into new combinations. People may have blue hair (like Marge Simpson), but blue and hair are both parts of the everyday world we live in. An imaginary world may have two moons, but planets with more than one moon can be found in our own solar system. JKR's characters carry wands and mix potions. They believe in the existence of the soul. They take classes like Ancient Runes and Divination. All of these elements and (probably) every other element in the books is taken either from her reading or her own experience. And most (I won't say all) of the motifs, themes, incidents, images, and characters in her books are taken from one of four sources: everyday reality (universals), Judeo-Christianity, classical mythology, or fairytales and folk tales (most of them European but some perhaps from an English translation of the Arabian Nights, which became popular in England during the nineteenth century). An imaginary world cannot consist of elements of which the author has no experience. You can't imagine a color invisible to the human eye or a creature whose form you have not encountered. (Invented creatures consist of familiar elements recombined, whether they're the flying horses of Greek mythology or, say, eyeless, legless purple blobs.) The sources of JKR's WW are easily traceable. She didn't invent Basilisks or the potion ingredients she lists or witches, wizards, and warlocks. Even words like "Muggle" and names like Hogwarts and Hogsmeade are made from common English elements.

An author's beliefs and values are part of the experience that shapes his works. They come across unconsciously in the assumptions he or she makes about the way the world works, even if that world is partly imaginary. And no author will write and publish a book that contradicts his own values and beliefs unless he or she is either mad or masochistic (or joking). JKR has openly stated that her books reflect her Christianity, just as Tolkien's books, though they took place in a wholly imaginary pre-Christian world, reflect his.

As for the common ground shared by Mithraism and Christianity, I don't doubt that elements of other religions helped to shape Christian doctrine and texts (though others on this list may disagree with me). However, I didn't notice *self-sacrifice for the good of mankind* among the attributes of Mithra that you listed, and that's the relevant question here, the one that makes Harry a Christ figure and not a Mithra figure, if such a thing exists in European literature. Nor do I know of any evidence that JKR is familiar with Mithraism. Certainly, as a Christian, she has no reason to promote the agenda of a lost religion that once competed with Christianity.

Carol, wondering if we should take this discussion to OT Chatter since we're not really discussing canon