Christianity in DH: "The Lord's Prayer"

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186178

It seems to me that our discussion of Christianity and Christian motifs in the HP books, especially DH, has shifted away from canon into discussions of various religions and mythologies (and, in the case of my own posts, to European and British history).

I'd like to bring it back to canon by showing some parallels between the much-maligned camping-in-the-wilderness segment of DH and the Lord's prayer. Please understand that I am not saying that JKR deliberately intended any such parallels, only that they're there for those who look for them.

I'll start by quoting the traditional version of the Lord's prayer for the benefit of anyone unfamiliar with it:

"Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

"Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

"For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory. Forever and ever. Amen."

I'm going to (for the most part) ignore the first and last paragraphs (my paragraphing) because they are more explicitly Judeo-Christian (Jesus was a Jew) than DH is, for all its overtly Christian elements discussed elsewhere. (Sidenote: We've talked about self-sacrifice, but is any other religion based on love, another important motif in the HP books?)

I'll start by saying that, in a way, Harry (like Christ) is doing the will of a father figure, knowing that it could well lead to his death, Dumbledore. I will not, however, directly equate Dumbledore with God, even with the sometimes inscrutable and seemingly capricious God of the Old Testament. But it's possible that Harry, like any good person trying to do the right thing (and/or to save others from evil) is willy nilly doing God's will. That possibility aside, the first paragraph isn't all that applicable to the story.

Supposing, however, that instead of regarding God as the father of us all (much less as the dead Dumbledore or Portrait!DD), we think of God as Providence, the term used for God by the Quakers (?) for God's divine guidance and sustaining power. (the idea is based on Genesis 22:14, "The Lord will provide.") Here we have three teenagers alone for several months in the wilderness with nothing but a (magical) tent and Hermione's knowledge of magic to protect them. (Muggle teenagers in the same circumstances most likely would not have survived.)

To get back to the Lord's Prayer. Granted, the kids aren't praying or thinking about God at all most of the time (the Godric's Hollow experience partially excepted), but somehow most of the middle section of the Lord's Prayer still applies to their situation. Alone as they are, and helpless as they are (as we when the Snatchers capture them), the are somehow provided for.

"Give us this day our daily bread." Magic can't conjure food. That's one of its chief limitations (along with not being able to restore the dead to life. Yet, somehow, even in the depths of winter, they find food.

"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." This idea is central to the whole book. Harry ends up forgiving the trespasses against him by a number of people, most crucially Snape and Dumbledore, who tried despite their serious human flaws and failings to help him, and Voldemort, who had nothing but evil intentions regarding him and his parents. (He offers Voldemort a chance for redemption based on repentance.) In the camping segment, first Harry and then Hermione forgive Ron for his trespass against them in angrily deserting them. (He also apparently forgives Draco with less cause on two occasions later in the book and also, futilely, forgives Wormtail.) Forgiveness of sins not by God but by the person or persons sinned against is a very important (and very Christian) motif in DH, replacing the desire for revenge that predominates in the earlier books (and appears one last time in the Crucioing of Amycus Carrow before Harry's trip into the Pensieve and his self-sacrifice in the forest).

"Lead us not into temptation." This line is a tough one to fit into the camping section or DH in general since Harry *is* led into temptation, not by God/Providence but by Dumbledore in the form of the Hallows (which he later rightly rejects in favor of the Horcruxes). He also yields to the temptation to follow "Bathilda" (really Nagini, who can perhaps be equated to the snake in Eden if we choose to look at her that way). Speaking the name of Voldemort despite being warned against it could perhaps also be regarded as yielding to temptation. In both cases, the consequences are extremely unpleasant, bringing Harry into great danger.

"But deliver us from evil." Harry is delivered at the last second from Nagini and Voldemort and does not die (thanks to the "providential" love magic of his mother's self-sacrifice) from Nagini's venom. Harry is also saved from the (literal) clutches of the Horcrux by the returning Ron, who is following Snape's Patronus, a kind of angelic messenger representing the dead Lily. (Snape himself would, I think, have saved Harry had Ron not "providentially" arrived, but he was not, of course, sent by DD for that purpose.) Later (technically not in the wilderness section), Harry and his friends are saved by an "angel" in House-Elf form, Dobby (who also sacrifices himself to save his friends, but not quite in the same way as Harry, who consciously chooses to face death unarmed knowing the consequences for the WW but not for himself).

The last paragraph, "For thine is the kingdom," etc., is less relevant though it does relate indirectly to the motifs of the immortal soul and the afterlife.

Again, I am not saying that JKR intended any such parallels (though she did include explitly Christian elements). I just thought that the things that Christians ask God (not Jesus) to do through the Lord's Prayer (which is Jesus' own prayer to God the Father) relate to the needs and experiences of HRH, specifically in the camping section but also throughout DH.

Comments, anyone? I'm not trying to anger, upset, or antagonize anyone, nor do I consider what I've said here as a definitive interpretation. I'm just presenting parallels that I find interesting for the sake of discussion.

Carol, trying to get back to canon