The Role of Religion in the Potterverse

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 186221

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, No Limberger <no.limberger at ...> wrote:

> 
> As to the notion that some see Harry Potter as a
> "Christ figure", the definition of a "Christ figure" can be
> so broad that anyone who performs a heroic act is
> automatically a Christ figure. 


Pippin:
That's an "excluded middle" -- any definition of a "Christ figure" which isn't as narrow as yours does not have to be so broad as to be useless. The purpose of a "Christ figure" need not be to promote Christian beliefs any more than the purpose of an "Oedipus figure" must be to promote the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, or of Sigmund Freud for that matter. But a modern author would expect an educated audience to bring their knowledge of those beliefs to her work and to read it in the light of what they already know.

One might wish to persuade people who already hold such beliefs that they should act on them. That is the purpose I see in associating Harry, and specifically his courage and compassion, with Christianity rather than with a generic idea of virtue. The Christian doesn't have to be convinced that he should have an emotional association with Christianity, and JKR does not try to build one for people who don't have it already. But he could be shown that the association could offer him more than a way to celebrate  the change of seasons and life-cycle events. 

The books are not meant to persuade people to be inspired by the Christian story, IMO, but rather to show us what people inspired by such a  story might do. To this end, IMO, JKR has made Harry both a  an Everyman-figure and a Christ-figure, depending on how you look at him. He's  tempted by mischief and eventually by sin, threatened with destruction, preserved by faith and eventually redeemed by grace -- well, except that he's a wizard, and he saved the world, and there's supposedly something special about his courage and his ability to love. 

The Christ-figure in literature does not have to have all the attributes of Christ, just like the Oedipus-figure does not have to have all the attributes of Oedipus. All that's needed is enough to be recognizable. 

There is, Dumbledore tells us, something about Harry's ability to love. Not that Harry has some Betazoid sense of empathy or that his heart is always open. But when his heart does open, it opens all the way. There's nothing he won't do, or nothing he would do out of compassion for a friend that he wouldn't do out of compassion for a stranger, or even an enemy, once he perceives the need.

Harry just can't be like Petunia, and care enough to take in a child but not enough to treat him decently. He can't understand Petunia at all.

 It's a measure of Rowling's power  to put us inside Harry's head that she makes it hard for us to understand Petunia also.  And yet it's Petunia and not Harry who mirrors the way the WW (and the real world) treat the unwanted. It's human, not monstrous, to put boundaries on our compassion. And yet, canon asks, what might we be able to accomplish if we did not?

Harry doesn't have the choice of shutting down compassion, but he still has to find the courage to act on it. The resurrection stone allows him to draw on the example of his parents and his martyred friends. Most of us, fortunately, don't have parents and friends who died for us. But Sirius and Lupin had James and Lily as an example, and DH makes it explicit that James and Lily had Christ.

The books do not attempt to convince us that we must become Christian to develop compassion or courage. I think they do attempt to show how Christianity could help someone to develop them. Understanding this message about compassion, which I didn't see until I tried to read through the lens of an (in my case) imaginary Christian faith, allows me to understand what she was saying about tolerance.

Canon does not ask us to show tolerance for someone like Voldemort once it is clear that  he cares as little for his followers as he does for his enemies, and that he won't or can't learn from his mistakes.  But Harry learns not to assume that those who show no compassion for him are monsters who can't show compassion for anyone. 


Pippin