The Role of Religion in the Potterverse

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 186213

Geoff:
I have been trying to put together thoughts to cover some of the 
topics which have arisen in this and related threads and hope that 
what I write here might help.

There has been a lot of discussion as to what input JKR intended 
for the books in respect of Christianity. We seem to be reaching 
a point where contributors such as No Limberger on the one side 
and Christians or those sympathetic to us are reaching an "agree 
to disagree" situation.

I think that some of the problems stem from the fact that a large 
number of group members are not British and not perhaps fully 
conversant with UK culture and ethics. This creates a secondary 
issue – that of the nominal Christianity claimed by many residents. 
I believe that Miles managed to highlight some of the issues in a 
recent post.

To begin with, JKR is English. She has grown up in an English 
cultural environment. The majority of people in the UK are still 
from a white Christian background. Much of this background, 
which has formed the foundation of our educational, social and 
legal systems, is not openly displayed in an everyday situation. 
However, if you raise the question of religion, a great majority of 
people will claim that they are Christians – or C of E (Church of 
England). They will say that they go to church although their 
attendance may be limited to the high days such as Christmas 
and Easter. Children are often packed off to Sunday School (or 
a group entitled Junior Church or a catchy set of initials which 
mean the same),

JKR has said that her Christian faith influenced her in the writing 
of the stories and, although Harry claims no Christian link he will 
certainly have come into contact with its cultural claims. As we 
know, he went to a state school until he reached 11. Within that 
school, there would have been mandatory Religious Education 
which would deal with Christianity along with other major beliefs, 
although I must say that all I remember of these lessons as a 
teenager was that teachers often gave them rather cavalier 
treatment. Vernon and Petunia are fairly typical of many middle-
class folk. The husband holds a reasonable job while the wife either 
works or stays at home with the children. They have a trim house 
in suburbia, possibly spending much time in the garden and trying 
to keep up with the neighbours without doing anything eccentric or 
odd enough to gain unwanted attention. This might also cover 
religion as well. The children are baptised (if they are C of E) and 
confirmed at about 13.

Do the Dursleys go to church? We don't know. But I maintain that 
Harry will certainly be at least slightly conversant with Christian 
stories and behaviour from school.  At Hogwarts, there is again a 
feel of the traditional British approach of understatement and, as 
Miles has pointed out, a reluctance to discuss matters emotional, 
which would include belief. Thus, Harry and friends are unlikely to 
sit down for deep chats about religion unless something triggers it.

This why I have always drawn a clear distinction between religion 
and faith. I have had it side to me more than once "You are religious, 
aren't you?" to which my reply is "No. But I am a practising Christian". 
In what I have said above, and what I have written elsewhere is my 
interpretation of religion as being a set of rules, rituals and such like 
which a person agrees to. But it does not guarantee that the person 
concerned has experienced the real faith involved. My wife has a
second cousin who has lived outside the UK for 50 or so years and 
has spent much time in the Far East. In that time, he has been at 
various times a Muslim, a Hindu and a Buddhist. But from rare 
conversations with him, it is quite clear that he holds no real faith 
and has only gone with these beliefs to suit his own wishes.

I believed I was a Christian when I was young. Going to church and 
Sunday School and living what I thought was a decent life was all I 
needed. Then, in my last year at college, I experienced a sense of 
meeting with God which changed my outlook entirely. I, like all 
"real" Christians, do not believe that faith is just a matter of following 
what is written in the church service books or to make sure that we 
go through routines sometimes rather perfunctorily. It is believing 
that Christ has come into our lives, that God lives within us in spirit 
and guides us if we are prepared to pay attention.

This is where perhaps the confusion over Christ-figure has arisen, 
it may be a question of semantics and our use of the word. I do not 
accept that any human can die to carry the sins of others and ensure 
the salvation of their soul. A human can die in self-sacrifice to save 
other people physically but that is the limit. Hence, in my book, the 
only Christ figure is Christ himself. We all have within us an urge to 
help others (although this can atrophy if it suppressed enough times) 
and, hopefully try to maintain these feelings even when we keep them 
out of sight while wanting to be bold, brash, streetwise teenagers. We 
do not see Harry and friends  when they are on their own; we do not 
know what happens after DH in the wilderness years before the 
epilogue. But I believe that there were influences – maybe few and 
far between - which affected Harry as a child and shaped his own 
disposition.

Hence I can see no problem in JKR sketching out a Christian 
background to her books. As I have said, they were written to 
present a world which operates in parallel with a real world populated, 
sadly, by rather woolly-minded inhabitants who pay at least lip-service 
to a Christian belief.