In reply to my last post Monica posited that the Harry Potter books are not as thoroughly Christian as the works of C.S. Lewis. In a certain sense this is very much true. The chronicles of Narnia are intended to be a Christian allegory. The symbolism in the Narnia is very direct. However, a story does not need to be a pure allegory in order to be thoroughly Christian. I would not dare to argue which set of books is "more Christian". But I do firmly believe that the Harry Potter books embrace a Christian worldview through the messages they teach.
Before I go further I would like to say that as far as I can tell the people who this Harry Potter is a messiah figure are off their rockers. No offense, but if you know Christ, you know that he is not like Potter. As I have said before I think the Christ figure in this series is Albus Dumbledore. And if he is resurrected, I think I will be vindicated in so claiming. (And I am very much interested in seeing how well Snape actually fits the Judas profile). However, for the rest of this post I will not be talking about symbolism. Instead let me mention a few of the Christian moral values that are brought out in the Harry Potter novels.
1. Love can overcome a multitude of evils (as shown in the protection Lily's sacrifice provides with Harry)
2. It is better to be poor where there is love than wealthy where it is not (the Dursleys, Blacks, and Malfoys are miserably wealthy, but the Weasleys are poor and happy).
3. It is not our abilities that matter, but how we choose to use them (As Dumbledore tells Harry when he wonders about the Hat wanting to put him in Slytherin).
4. It is more important to do what is right than it is to obey the rules (Shown over and over again).
5. The heart of a man matters more than his appearance, position, or abilities (Taught through the whole series, starting with Harry's first encounters with Ron and with Draco).
6. It is better to die (or to suffer) than to betray your friends (As Sirius tells Peter Pettigrew whose betrayal killed Harry's parents).
7. True friendship means coming alongside our friends in their times of trouble (Best shown through the Marauders decision to become Animagi to join Remus in his times as a werewolf).
8. We must strive to show mercy and forgiveness to those who wrong us (This reminds me of Dumbledore's offer of mercy to Draco, but forgiveness is a repeated theme in the books. It is a theme that Harry still needs to work on).
9. There is good and evil, and it is our responsibility to fight evil.
10. We cannot defeat evil with evil.
How is that for a list of Christian values taught in the books. I truly do not believe a book must be explicitly Christian in order to be a Christian book. Furthermore, a book does not need to be "Christian" to display a Christian worldview. However, I happen to agree with Rowling who said of the books "Umm... I really don't think they're that secular." And you have to admit the author would probably know.
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I haven't read any of the HP books, so I'm not qualified to say anything specific on the topic, but here are a few general thoughts.
Your list of moral truths that come through in Harry Potter do show that the books are moral, but only number 8 seems specifically Christian to me--and even this point can be found outside Christianity. In fact, all ten points are accepted moral truths of modern secularism just as well as Christianity. And many of the points exist in virtually all religions, because they are part of the natural law that all men know by virtue of being human.
I'm not arguing that Harry Potter doesn't have a strong moral compass behind it. Probably this compass does come from Rawling's beliefs as a Christian, but I think these ten virtues are widely held by many non-Christians and we would be wrong to consider a work Christian because it held to all of them. It seems more appropriate to say that the work is morally sound.
I wouldn't even consider Lord of the Rings a Christian work, despite how heavily Catholicism informed Tolkien's imagination. It is, however, a highly moral work, just as your ten points show Harry Potter to be.
A writer's moral understanding should always shine through in his work, but I don't think in itself this makes the work religious. In fact, most religious fiction is probably not very good, since an writer cannot be very authentic to human experience if he is always trying to be doctrinaire.
These morals may be held by secular people and may be part of the natural law written on our hearts; I call them Christian because they are Biblical (would you be happier if I found a scripture reference for each claim?).
A truth does not need to be solely Christian to be a Christian truth. In the same way I can call murder "Un-Christian" even though nearly everyone agrees it is wrong. Moreover, I never, ever claimed the books to be "religious" a distinction which might not mean much to you but means very much to me. I feel that the books teach a Christian message (so what if it does not appeal only to Christians). And I further believe that the books are honoring to Christ, pointing toward him rather than away.
But rather than argue. I would like you to tell me how would you define a "Christian work". It would seem from your comments that you disagree with my statement "I truly do not believe a book must be explicitly Christian in order to be a Christian book."
I would say a Christian work is any work which honors Christ and reveals God's truth.
I agree that most religious novels are cheesy. They seem to follow too much of a formula.
If you consider a book Christian because it's morality is in line with Christian teaching, then even books written before the Incarnation could be considered Christian. Therefore, a pagan such as Plato could write a Christian book. If this is what you mean, then by all means the Harry Potter books are Christian (as far as I can tell from your post). I can understand this definition, although it isn't what I (or probably most people) would think you mean when you say a work is Christian.
How do I define a Christian work? This is a very good question. I think a necessary, but not a sufficient condition, would be that the work could not be fully understood without a knowledge of the faith. I would also consider it necessary that the work had some sort of theological purpose, even if a very basic one. Both C. S. Lewis's Narnia novels and his space trilogy fit this definition. Other obvious inclusions would be Paradise Lost, the Divine Comedy, and the Left Behind series.
I struggled for a while trying to decide whether Graham Greene's novels, such as the Power and the Glory and the End of the Affair, should be included because of their religious content. I think I would classify them not as Christian novels, but novels (and very good ones) written within a strongly Christian context. The books meet criterion one, in that they require a knowledge of the faith to be fully understood, but I think that Greene's purpose was more to write a good novel than to offer any theological instruction.
I've been thinking about this post since I read it and I'm honestly still trying to make up my mind. When I first read it I completely agreed with Dave's first comment in that the HP books were very moral, but not at all Christian in nature. However, and Dave qualified in his second comment, I think they are Christian in nature.
He qualified it that the books couldn't be "fully" understood without knowledge of the Christian faith. In that case then no, the books couldn't be "fully" understood as the author intended them to be unless you knew you were reading a fairly direct and basic allegory of Christ’s ministry. I mean heck, even most of the major, and some of the minor, miracles are there from feeding the masses to, most likely in the last book the resurrection[2]. Without the knowledge of what you were reading while you were reading it, I don't think you would fully understand the HUGE amount of symbolism contained in the book.
As for having a theological purpose I would say that the books most definitely do have a theological purpose. The one BIG purpose that I see is the lesson to Christians that their religion is a whole lot more all encompassing than most of them understand. Throughout the books she is trying to show that no matter what the circumstances or conditions, the story of Christ does triumph. Even when that story is brought into contact with traditionally pagan concepts and traditions, the Christian story holds together and wins. To use a modern term, the biggest theological merit of the books is that it shows the Christian story in a completely different paradigm and completely different world view than most Christians think about their religion on a daily basis, and that (should) cause them to think long and hard about their faith.
[1] I almost said "an indirect" but upon further contemplation changed it
[2] Although that one might be an indirect because it might be only in the students (disciples) minds, or a portrait, that Dumbledore is resurrected.
An important point in all of this is that while I do agree with Dave in his last post about the two qualifications of a book being Christian, I don't agree that it is Christian for the reason's Shae listed. To me, any moral book has a lot of those lessons, regardless of whether it's Christian or not. In fact I can point to any number of secular, and even some pro Atheism and pro Pagan and pro Wiccan books that teach most of those points if not all. In fact, the cornerstone of the Wiccan religion, the rule of 3, supports #s 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 10. And several other tenents of the Wiccan religion teach the other points. The very fact that the Christian religion teaches several moral things shared by other religions doesn't necessaraly make a book Christian because it essposes those moral values. In that manner I could say that the HP books were very Wiccan in the true sense of the Wicca (not the concept most people have of it). But I know that they are instead Christian because of the allegory going on behind the morals and the symbolism tying them directly to the story of Christ.
Firstly, I do not consider it necessary for writing to be post-incarnation in order to be Christian. This would rule out the entire Old Testament, every word of which I believe is revealing of Christ in some respect.
Secondly, I do not consider it beyond the realm of possibility for a non-Christian to write a "Christian" work. However, I find that no matter how morally sound a work is in most respects, the author is almost certainly bound to point the reader away from Christ in some respects.
It is more than moral soundness that makes a book Christian, though, as I said previously. It requires pointing toward/revealing Christ. The morals from the story which I bring out are not proof that it is Christian. They are evidence. And while the world may pay lip service to these morals, you would be hard pressed to find a non-Christian who actually embraced all of them.
Moreover, I certainly understand the Harry Potter books differently than those who lack the Christian faith. Without the last book out, it is impossible to really make clear statement. But I have expectations from book 7 that I would not have if I were not looking at them from a Christian worldview.
I do believe the books have a theological purpose. I think that they are setting out to teach readers that the lessons the world is teaching them are not true. And that there is a greater truth to search for. Her characters and storylines give hints to what that truth is, even though they do not explicitly show it.
Of course, you haven't read the books, so you can't really judge whether or not they are Christian. But if you ever do read them, you'll have to let me know what you decide then.
Hey, Scott must have written his comment at the same time that I was replying to Dave.
Thanks, Scott, by the way, for backing me up.
I often find that ideas are really clear in my mind, but I have trouble getting them into words.
I NEVER SAID THAT I THINK THE BOOKS ARE CHRISTIAN SOLELY BECAUSE THEY TEACH A MORAL MESSAGE.
I gave those messages as evidence of its Christian nature. Because the books could not be truly Christian regardless of symbolism if the morals they espoused were in any way contrary to the teaching of Christ.
I further clarified in my first comment that a Christian work must honor Christ and reveal God's truth.
If you were the books were Wiccan I doubt they would honor Christ. Moreover, I have read many non-Christian books that are packed full of Christian symbolism but which seem to get the basic message all wrong.
I don't think my second comment was worded very well. Sorry about that Shae. I meant that I agreed with your clarification in your comment that the morals were not the reason but evidence of the reason. Which Is why I pointed out that evidence can point both ways, but that in this case you were right about the conclusion that the evidence pointed to because of the ideas behind the evidence.
I don't know if that made any more sense than my second comment, but the point was I was trying to agree with you. Again, sorry if that came out wrong.
Not having read the books, I couldn't be expected to know that there was more that made them Christian than the ten points you listed in this post. In fact, you said that books were not allegorical in the way that Lewis's books are, so naturally I didn't expect to hear about the allegorical elements that Scott pointed out. Allegories fit my two criteria, so if Harry Potter is Christian allegory, then it is a Christian series. And since I haven't read any of it, I will have to rely on those who have to identify this allegory.
A good distinction between Lewis's fantasy world and Tolkien's, by the way, is that the former is allegorical while the latter is not. Gandalf may be a Christ figure, and the Elven bread may reflect the Eucharist, but this is not a result of intentional allegory, but of the Christian nature of Tolkien's imagination. Tolkien had no theological intention. If anything, his purpose was to create a national mythology for England. (In fact, he disliked his friend Lewis's books for their allegory.)
So in any case, I leave it the readers to determine the extent of the allegory in Harry Potter.
I do think, Shaelin, that you are a little unfair to non-Christians. The major religions of the world are remarkably similar with regard to their basic moral teaching, and Greek philosophy (pre-Christian and non-Hebrew) is also highly moral. And Greek philosophy, although it may have led people away from Christ, also played an important part in the development of Christian theology. God gave men reason, and so surely reason is not useless in uncovering moral truths.
I do believe that to the extent that humans do good, they are following Christ, but this is not the same as saying they are Christians in the everyday sense of the word.
I have read the books and still have a hard time seeing all the "Christian-ness" in them. One could argue that I'm not looking hard enough, but how hard does one usually have to look in an allegory?
I'm a bit skeptical of most allegorical readings of anything other than an expressed allegory, see "Pilgrim's Progress". The reason is that I could, and have heard people do this, take any story where a person dies heroically after being betrayed and say that it is a Christian allegory. Further, the extra-textual evidence that HP is a Christian allegory because Rowling is a Christian and "doesn't think the books are all that secular" seems insufficent. It seems to me that she is being purposely vague to draw in as many people as possible.
However, one of the most important matters I learned while studying literature is that the only thing harder than proving that a theory about a book is true is proving that a theory about a book is not true. I hate to sound relativistic, but if you read HP allegorically, you will find that it's an allegory. If you don't, you won't.
Dave, by saying that the Harry Potter books are not allegorical in the same way that C.S. Lewis books are, I did not intend to say I did not believe that there was an allegory. I more meant to say the symbolism is not so explicit. Anyone who knows the basics of the Christian faith will see the allegory in Narnia, at least the most basic points. Though the deeper you grow in faith the more you find in the books.
Monica, I agree with you that it is easy to find allegory when you are looking for it. And I was quite skeptical of any allegory in Harry Potter when I read the first few books.
However, I suppose that especially in books 5 and 6 Harry's relationship with Dumbledore really resonated with me as I reflected on my own relationship with Christ. After reading them and looking back on the other books the symbolism seemed very clear to me.
From David's definition I guess the books are only "Christian" if Rowling intended this symbolism. I disagree.
And I wonder, Monica. If I am right and Dumbledore is resurrected in book 7 if you will find it easier to identify an allegory in the books? Would that change your opinion?
I of course could be wrong.
Because I appreciate the importance of not reading symbolism where it is not intended, I think there is really only one obvious solution. I am going to write to JK Rowling and ask her. At least I could suggest that she make some sort of public statement on the matter.
Shaelin, in your last comment you seemed to be saying that it did not matter whether Rowling intended an allegory (when you criticized my criteria), but then you said that you would write to ask her about her intent anyway.
I may be a little old-fashioned, but I do value authorial intent. If Rowling says that she has written Christian novels (rather than novels with a Christian influence), then I would accept her statement.
Without authorial intent as part of the criteria, we're back to the situation where Buddhists and Sikhs could unwittingly write Christian books, and that just doesn't work for me.
It's like the man who commented about the violence in Palestine between the Jews and the Muslims, "Why can't they just be good Christians and sort this out?" (anecdote courtesy Mrs. O'Neil)
Harry Potter is not a Christian book. It may show good values that applies to a christian, but it's not a christian book. It's more of a fantasy to me.
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