God is Alive and Well
In this month of Harry Potter (the latest movie and the last book both debut in July), a short article in Time caught my eye. In it, the Harry Potter series is described as “radical” (compared to Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia) because there is no religion mentioned: “If you want to know who dies in Harry Potter, the answer is easy: God.”
The tone of the piece is not condemning; it’s more analytical. Still, I’m reminded of the pressure groups that sought to ban the Harry Potter series because it advocates witchcraft. To those who criticize Harry Potter as godless, I just want to remind them: it’s a work of fiction. It’s not real. It’s not our world. It’s not trying to be.
In our house we’re big Harry Potter fans. We also go to church weekly, and there have been no dilemmas trying to reconcile the two. That’s because Harry Potter is fun; it’s entertainment. I’ve never focused on the absence of God in the books because there’s so much going on in the wizarding world already. (Honestly, when I first read the Chronicles of Narnia, I was oblivious to the Christian symbolism within it….I just thought it was a good adventure saga.)
Harry Potter is not about the magic…it’s about the people. The focus is on the kids… and they happen to be witches and wizards. That makes it exciting and different, but it’s their relationships that are pivotal to unfolding the story and holding our attention.
In my view, folks who denounce the absence of God in Harry Potter worry too much about its influence. We’re quite a Potter-saturated household; it’s been the basis for a birthday party theme, homemade games, role-play, and the infamous Harry Potter Barbie creative play (picture Ken and friends as the Weasley boys with painted red hair…) It ends there, however. It’s great for the imagination, because it’s clearly not our world. We’re muggles in a muggle world, forever and always.
Be brave. Be a reader.
Susan
July 21st, 2007 21:30
Susan,
I came across the same article as well. What first struck me was the argument that by being “Godless” the Harry Potter series is somehow anti-God. There are children’s books which DO take a stance against God (the Dark Materials series, for example), but the Potter series is not among them. I also noted implicit requirement that God must be present (and must be the kind of intercessory God you pray to in times of need) in a work of literature for it to be spiritual. I’ve always felt the Potter series was quite spiritual. The series deals with such issues as free will vs. predestination, the benefits of unwarranted mercy, loyalty, justice, and even the inevitability of death and the hopes and fears of what may or may not lay beyond.
I was disappointed that the author chose to gloss over that, choosing instead to make the “God is dead” argument.
July 22nd, 2007 20:07
Hi Brian-
Good points, thanks.
I also have to add a post script. I’ve started reading “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” This is not a spoiler, but…so far, two characters have said, “Thank God,” as a reaction to very good news. That makes me wonder if it’s shown up in the other books as well.
Susan
July 28th, 2007 20:39
While Rowling is an English writer as were Tolkein and Lewis, she makes no effort to include any Christian symbols or metaphors in her work. For this, Mr Grossman excoriates her and her book severely.
This is a ridiculous proposition and exercise. Those other two writers were trying to incorporate such ideas and symbols deliberately, and succeeded quite nicely, in my view. That Rowling chose a different approach, almost a different genre, only proves that ……. she chose a different approach and genre.
The series stands well on it’s own, not needing an explicit religious reference or an explicit God reference. We do not expect those references in a detective novel, nor a science fiction one, nor a children’s book, to say they are fine examples of their craft.
A religious theme or a God theme is entirely at the discretion of the author, and to say that a written piece is lacking without it, is to mandate only one type of story, forbidding all others to our personal and cultural deficit.
Sincerely,
Denis Hogan
July 28th, 2007 21:23
Thank you, Denis. Excellent points. Variety is a GOOD thing.
Welcome back, by the way. It’s been slow here lately. (I think a lot of folks are busy this summer…buy what about those brave humans in the southern hemisphere…?
Susan
July 29th, 2007 17:49
It’s been a busy patch for me here, downunder.
I have always thought that Shakespeare’s world view is very pagan — his plays are full of ghosts, witches and spirits, and there are almost no Christian symbols or characters. Romeo and Juliet is one of the few plays that has a priest, and he certainly doesn’t convey any Christian teachings, instead he deals in potions and go-between messages.
Lear rails at the heavens, Hamlet sees ghosts, Macbeth is omen-infested, Midsummer Nights Dream is surreal, The Tempest is magical, and so on.
Just calling on God, doesn’t make a work Christian, even if it is set in an English boarding school. Still, it might go some way towards comforting those who want to see Christianity central to everything.
On a side note, I was looking through a road atlas of Great Britain and I was delighted to see a hamlet called Mugglesworth in Northumberland. Like Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter series is soaked in ‘Englishness’. Very satisfying! Englishness is so delightfully ethnic. Or, that’s how it strikes me, here in one of the fringe cultures on the planet.
July 30th, 2007 08:53
Hi Gillian-
Thanks for fitting BH in. : )
Interesting points about Shakespeare…I wonder what Lev Grossman, the Time writer, would make of that? Popular fiction is one thing…but Shakespeare!
Susan
July 31st, 2007 06:42
Interesting subject, as an author I deliberatly do not include the biblical God in my childrens books, The Tale of a Snail and The Gull and the Crow. My reasons being based on what God suggests we do to naughty children, some of his suggestions do seem rather harsh! I have tried to explore different god ideas in the Gull and the Crow, here I have tried to convey how as a metaphore, three different spiecies of birds in conversation, percieve a god and what is happening. For example the red sunset to a robin redbreast is seen as a god. Ok I know this is a bit far fetched, but the bible has talking snakes.
Keep reading, especially books by D L Nightingale…oppss is that a plug, well I have a computer to keep running so I can contribute to bravehumans.
Have fun, have imagination, to be human is magic, to have an idea is genius, to express yourself is brave…be human.
August 28th, 2007 17:59
Hi folks… exchanges here have got me interested in Richard Dawkins - I’m reading ‘The God Delusion’ and I’m interested to discuss any aspects that might be of interest to any of you. I’ll be out of town for the next few days… but OK after that.
I’m enjoying many of his points. And now I’m looking out for ‘Origin of the Species’. It’s funny how some books are just part of the landscape but you somehow assume that they are not for reading!
August 29th, 2007 22:10
Hi, Gillian!
Feel free to start a topic! I’ve read “The God Delusion” and, coincidentally, I am currently listening to an audio recording of “Origin of the Species” (gotta love LibriVox).