The Role of Religion in the Potterverse

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186232

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "kempermentor" <iam.kemper at ...> wrote:
>
> > Geoff wrote:
> > <snip> This is where perhaps the confusion over Christ-figure has arisen, it may be a question of semantics and our use of the word. ...
>  
> > Carol responds:
> > I understand and respect your feelings, but can you suggest another term in place of the conventional term "Christ figure" for a (fully human) character who resembles Christ in certain characteristics (such as love, humility, and self-sacrifice) without being Christ himself? ("Everyman" won't do; it's a different concept altogether.) 

Kemper responded:
> What about 'messiah'?
> 
> I do not see Harry as Christ though I can see how his 'death' delivered his (Harry's) believers from Voldemort's wand hand.
> 
> Kemper
>
Carol responds:
"Messiah *figure*," maybe? I do see the connection since the Messiah is the Chosen One, the expected deliverer of his people, and the early Jewish Christians saw Jesus in that role. But "Messiah" is a specifically Jewish concept, and Jewish readers certainly won't read Harry as the Messiah any more than Christian readers (those who actually read the books, not the extremists who refuse to read books about witchcraft) view him as Christ. I'm talking about a human character with Christlike attributes whom at least some figures will specifically associate with Christ because of motifs like willing self-sacrifice to save others and "resurrection" of some sort. And neither self-sacrifice nor resurrection is associated with the concept of the Messiah, whom the Jews thought would deliver them from Roman oppression, not die and rise from the dead to save their souls.

At any rate, any reader who associates Harry with a messianic figure will, I think, specifically associate him with Christ, which takes us back to "Christ figure."

Carol, who still thinks that "Christ figure" is the best term for this particular concept, which is quite distinct from Christ himself