Smart Talk on Harry Potter
Response to Drs Synder and Baehr about Deathly Hallows, in which the sarcasm is plentiful and the responses are right off the top of my head with zero preparation.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I have to comment on one of their points in the article:
“Even though the author of HARRY POTTER professes Christianity, she lives in a truly post-Christian society, the United Kingdom, where pagan syncretism is the norm and where any public mention of Jesus Christ is avoided.”
This is just a ridiculous statement. The implication is that she can not be a Christian because of where she lives. So anyone that claims to be a Christian, but lives in communist China can not possibly be a true Christian? Or in Saudi Arabia? Or any non-Christian nation? How do you explain missionaries?
I’ve said it many times before, Ted Baehr is an idiot and is a horrible spokesperson for Christianity.
Oh my. I can’t believe they are still at it. Thanks for your thoughtful response to their article. I’ll try to get to it later, though I find myself increasingly frustrated with the stance against Harry Potter, and tend to start tuning them out.
*sigh*
I laughed when you did that, but that just about sums it all up, doesn’t it?
Good luck with your move. I’m sure it’ll be wonderful once you’re all moved in and settled. Personally, I hate moving, which is why we’re still in the same house we bought in 1980 when we moved to Washington state. (Hubby kept making noises about wanting to move and I always found some “really” good reason to not.)
Pat
It seems that the good doctors would only be satisfied that Rowling was a Christian was if Hermione used the verses on the headstones to lead Harry to Christ. Then at the end of the book Harry would give evidence of his conversion by closing Hogwarts and ordering Ginny to home-school the kids. And he could not have named his kid Albus or Severus as that would give undue honour to wizards. It seems they prefer the pap served up as ‘Christian’ fiction where everything is paint-by-numbers and the reader isn’t permitted to think for themselves.
It’s ironic that most Harry-haters think that kids will go off and investigate witchcraft, but don’t allow that perhaps they might also investigate those curious but very significant quotations on the headstones.
They say: Even though the author of HARRY POTTER professes Christianity, she lives in a truly post-Christian society, the United Kingdom, where pagan syncretism is the norm and where any public mention of Jesus Christ is avoided.
If this is true then instead of criticising they should praise Rowling for writing the perfect book for her culture, smuggling Christian themes, theology and even Scripture right under the pagan’s noses. Then, as with any good parable, for those with ears to hear, let them hear.
I had a thought.
In Narnia, there is an old magic that underlies the “everyday” magic. The everyday magic consists of talking beavers and wolves, as well as fauns and centaurs and other magical creatures. Also what the White Witch does. Maybe more, for all I know (I never got past the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). The old magic seems to be a curious blend of natural and moral law. Like the law of gravity, except for good and evil. Neat stuff.
This is my thought. In Harry Potter, everyday magic is what the characters use: spells and potions and charms and curses and so on. But there is also an unnamed substrate of religious and specifically Christian references: an eternal soul, life after death, heaven and hell as real states, the idea of redemption and damnation, verses from the Bible, the power of love and self-sacrifice over evil.
I think one way of looking at these religious and strongly Christian themes is like the old magic of Narnia. It’s not talked about, and it’s not something you can use, but it’s powerful: more powerful than the everyday magic of spells and whatnot.
Christianity is Rowling’s version of old magic?
we could look at Christianity like the old magic in Narnia. The names of God and Jesus Christ are not mentioned. The Bible isn’t mentioned. But these things provide the background and context of
Oops. Ignore the last paragraph fragment. Poor editing. Again.
Exactly reyhan. And as someone else put it somewhere on this site (might have even been you, but I don’t remember) JKR is describing magic, not as a religion, but simply as a replacement for technology. Having the “old magic” of love and self-sacrifice triumph over the technology is something that both Lewis and Tolkien would have really appreciated. In fact, that’s a fairly common theme in a lot of fantasy stories. One that comes to mind is the Sword of Shannara, where the powerful magic that destroys the bad guy is simply something that shows you the Truth. About yourself mostly. The sword forced the bad guy to confront the truth about himself, and it completely overcame all his magical power.
Incidentally reyhan, you really ought to read the Narnia books from start to finish. They are wonderful books. But make sure you read them in the original order that CS Lewis intended, not the order that modern publishers put them in with the Magician’s Nephew first. You have to start with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Excellent PubCast this week, Travis. I think you said it best when you said that the authors of this article were terribly inconsistant in their complaints of religous vagueness in the series (i.e., How could Harry have understood the religious significance of the Biblical verses on his parents’ grave) versus the forced over generalization (and vagueness on the authors’ parts) that Harry Potter deals with the “witchcraft, sorcery, divination, and other occult practices”.
I get the feeling that like a certain woman from Georgia (she who must not be named, if you will), these people have not actually read the book(s) from cover to cover and have been given basic plot points (probably from Wikipedia) from which they base their assumptions- I got that feeling mostly from the lack of actual HP content in the article. The only real facts of HP that were cited were about: 1)the headstone at Godric’s Hollow and 2) the fact that there was an epilogue and that Harry took his children back to Hogwarts.
Not a lot to base any credible argument on, in my opinion.
Penny, thanks, and good points!
I’m finally getting to catch up on HPProgs podcasts, and yesterday I listened to your recap of Prophecy. First, thanks for your very, very kind words. Second, it was a joy to sort of “re-live” the conference by listening to your excellent podcast. I’m looking forward to taking in all your analysis of Deathly Hallows in the other podcasts I haven’t listened to yet.
I would like to say “snidely” that I really wish they had not written Harry’s name and all the titles in all caps. It reads like shouting.
Travis, I thoroughly enjoyed the sarcasm. Having had a few debates on the question of paganism in Harry Potter, I loved hearing such a strong presentation from this side of the equation. Well done.
Reyhan, I liked your idea about the correlation between the “old magic” in Narnia and the Christian themes of Harry Potter. Dumbledore’s words about love, especially near the end of Order of the Phoenix and in the conversation with Voldemort over the teaching job, sound very much like Aslan’s comments on the “Deeper magic from before the dawn of time” after the Stone Table is cracked and he rises from the dead.