Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Christianity and Harry Potter Series


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  • Christianity and Harry Potter Series:  How many times Harry and his friends visit Church? How often in the moments of crisis when they are helpless, clueless, they pray to God for Grace or Mercy? How many times God’s Grace saves them from the Devil Lord Voldemort? Does J.K. Rowling use Christianity at any level in the entire Harry Potter series?


                                                        At least some wizards are known to subscribe to a form of Christianity though little concrete information is available on the subject. Wizards celebrate the two major Christian festivals, Easter and Christmas. Hallowe'en and Valentine's Day also have Christian origins. The Fat Friar was, in his lifetime, a Roman Catholic friar who was executed for witchcraft. Lingering in the mortal world as a ghost, he would thereafter be always resentful of the fact that he was never made a cardinal.

                                                         Christianity lies right beneath the surface of this seventh and final Harry Potter novel, but it requires careful eyes and ears to detect it. Most obviously, the Cloak of Invisibility, the Resurrection Stone, and the Elder Wand are author J. K. Rowling's Deathly Hallows, which have miraculous powers enabling the bearer to move unseen, to contact the dead, and to perform heroic feats.

                                                           However, Rowling also alludes to hallows and death by revealing the epitaphs on the tombstones of Harry's parents, James and Lily Potter; both died on October 31,1981. Traditionally, Halloween is the night when evil runs rampant in the world. Ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and, alas, Lord Voldemort himself, hold sway. However, the following two days in the Christian calendar are All Saints Day and All Souls Day where those faithful people who have died are acknowledged for their steadfast lives here on earth. Harry may wear the lightning-shaped scar Voldemort has inflicted on his forehead, but he is destined to honor his parents by confronting the snake-eyed slayer of his parents. The name Voldemort, one might add, is anything but a hallowed one.

                                                           Christian naysayers decried Harry Potter because they assumed Rowling was faithless, but after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published she admitted that her religion influenced her writing. For years, readers pestered Rowling about whether or not Christian themes were actually present in her books or if believers were just projecting them into the story. Finally, after Harry’s fate was revealed in the seventh installment, Rowling admitted that Christianity, particularly her struggles with the faith, inspired her to write the series. She explained her reluctance to admit her faith because to her “the religious parallels have always been obvious” and she was afraid that it would have revealed the series’ end. In response to those who assumed Rowling was a witch, she insisted that she is simply a writer of children’s fantasy who uses magic as a plot device. She also explained that her children were christened and that they regularly attended the Church of Scotland, whose leader praised her work. It is clear that Rowling purposely weaved religious themes throughout the story. When asked about her views on the afterlife, Rowling said that at any given moment she would answer that she does believe in life after death, yet the concept is something she struggles with. If Rowling depicted the specific facets of belief that she grappled with in Harry Potter, as she admitted to doing earlier, it makes sense that she would include a Christian version of the afterlife within her story. Her shaky acceptance of such an afterlife also explains why she left the destination of departed souls vague, so that readers wrestling with similar issues could discover that they are not alone in their struggles.

                                                         From the time Joanne Rowling published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone under the pen name J. K. Rowling in 1997 until the release of her newest work, the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, in November 2018, the series has been under intense scrutiny. Despite Rowling’s admission that Christianity inspired her writing, critics continue to attack the Harry Potter series and its prequels without remorse. Even in light of the evidence against their claims, Christian detractors either fail to see the religious themes of the books or acknowledge them as minor details in a narrative which depicts the witchcraft in a positive light.
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