Tag Archives: Harry Potter

Another reason to like Harry Potter: he upsets atheists

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From here:

This month, the final Harry Potter film had the most successful opening weekend of any movie ever. Among the fans who lined up for the opening midnight showing were Christians, many of whom see striking similarities between the story of Jesus — with its sacrificial death, burial and resurrection — and the story of Harry Potter.

But at least one atheist has also noticed these similarities, and he’s written a book about it. In the newly-released (and blasphemously-titled) Jesus Potter Harry Christ, Derek Murphy makes the case that J. K. Rowling — the author of the Harry Potter series — achieved her success by tapping into some of the deepest and most ancient longings of the human heart. These same longings, Murphy argues, compelled first-century pagans to construct what he calls “the Jesus myth.”

Surprising: Jesus Potter, Harry Christ but no Jesus Murphy.

As Chuck Colson notes, both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien recognised that the truth of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross and subsequent resurrection is so powerful that it permeates the entire universe and ends up finding expression in unexpected places – like Harry Potter:

Well, Murphy is certainly right in recognizing a common thread through pagan religious beliefs. As C. S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, the heathen religions are full of “…those queer stories…about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men.”

But what Murphy misses — and Lewis got — is the fact that the human longings for sacrifice, resurrection and redemption are stamped on our hearts for a reason: They point us straight to the God who stepped into history to fulfill them!

In a letter to a friend, Lewis recounts a conversation he had with J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings — and a close colleague of Lewis.

“The story of Christ,” said Tolkien, “is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened…The Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through what we call ‘real things.’”

 

 

Harry Potter is not a Catholic

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And he has upset some who are:

“The positive review of the latest Harry Potter film in L’Osservatore Romano is symptomatic of serious problems in the condition of many modern Catholics,” Michael D. O’Brien, author of “Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture,” told LifeSiteNews last week.

[………….]

Cardinal Ratzinger’s was not the only Vatican voice to express grave concern over Potter.  The Vatican’s chief exorcist, Rev. Gabriele Amorth, has repeatedly condemned the Harry Potter novels.  In 2006 he said, “You start off with Harry Potter, who comes across as a likeable wizard, but you end up with the Devil … By reading Harry Potter a young child will be drawn into magic and from there it is a simple step to Satanism and the Devil.”

I haven’t seen the final film yet, but I have read all the books. I could be wrong – time will tell – but I am reasonably convinced that Messrs Ratzinger, Amorth et al are tilting at the wrong windmill.

For all its magic, wizards, wands and silly quidditch, Harry Potter remains a classic tale of good against evil. I don’t think it is as good as Lord of the Rings or Narnia, and obviously it is lacking the more explicitly Christian parallels – particularly in Narnia.

Tolkien was criticised for the apparent lack of the Christian God in Lord of the Rings: his response was that obviously he is there – it is up to the reader to notice him. C. S. Lewis was criticised for allusions to the occult in his science fiction trilogy, particularly in That Hideous Strength. So Christian Potter pooping is to be expected.

Flawed though they may be from a Christian point of view, at least the books use God given imagination to revitalise the truth that we dwell in a universe where cosmic forces of good and evil do battle – we are the soldiers and good eventually triumphs.

Not a bad story.

Child abuse, the devil and Harry Potter

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From here:

Child sex abuse scandals rocking the Catholic Church are evidence of the Devil’s presence in the Vatican, the Pope’s chief exorcist said yesterday.

Father Gabriel Amorth, 84, who has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms in a career spanning 24 years said Pope Benedict ‘fully agreed’ with him in ‘casting out evil’.

I quite agree.

Father Amorth, who was ordained in 1954 and who is president of the International Association of Exorcists, said of the JK Rowling books: ‘Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil.
He said Rowling’s books contain innumerable positive references to magic, ‘the satanic art’ and added the books attempt to make a false distinction between black and white magic, when in fact, the distinction ‘does not exist, because magic is always a turn to the devil’.

Possibly true, although I found the Harry Potter novels a thumping good read and an imaginative illustration of humanity’s participation in the drama of good vs. evil. I’ve forgotten where C. S. Lewis mentions it (That Hideous Strength, perhaps), but he has God chiding – not condemning – Merlin for dabbling in matters forbidden; I hope the same for Harry.