Comments on: Alan Jacobs: Harry Potter is not a Christ Figure

By: Hogwarts Professor · Give-and-Take on ‘Who is the Mockingjay?’ Part 1

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:58:15 +0000

[...] Jacobs is still struggling to come to terms with Harry as a Christ figure (he wrote flat out in his Books and Culture review of Hallows that Harry most certainly was not a Christ figure). I suppose if your definition of ‘Christ [...]

By: HogwartsProfessor.com · Searching for Christian Imagery in ‘Harry Potter’

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:34:50 +0000

[...] NPR reports that Christians and University Professors have discovered edifying Christian content in Joanne Rowling’s books. In a piece last Saturday titled Searching for Christian Imagery in Harry Potter, Guy Raz breathlessly interviews professors from Pomona and Brite Divinity School who think that Harry — and Dumbledore! – are Christ figures. [...]

By: wordsaremagic

wordsaremagic — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:38:15 +0000

So, Alan Jacobs has realized that HP is not an allegory!

Ho-hum…

By: Forks High School Professor · John Mark Reynolds on ‘Twilight’

Forks High School Professor · John Mark Reynolds on ‘Twilight’ — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:13:52 +0000

[...] Jacobs’ essay on Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, The Youngest Brother’s Tale, and the Hogwarts Professor essay about it, for another instance of this prudent if patronizing posture using [...]

By: weber

weber — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:41:44 +0000

Sdurnil, you’re absolutely right. Notice also, that, in speaking of Harry as a Christ figure, the people he brought back through the resurrection stone could be likened unto God the Father. They are with him up untill the very end, when he has to go alone, as did Christ at his final moments.
I agree, though, that there can be more than one Christ figure in a book, and that perhaps Lily is a Christ Figure as well.
If someone were to write a story involving each of us or all of us, we might be considered “christ figures” as well – because we strive to imitate Christ in our lives, just as certain characters end up immitating Christ throughout the story. That we share similarities w/ Christ in no way says that we would consider ourselves parallel to Christ as Aslan is, but that we have the spirit of Christ living in us, and that we try to act like him, just as Harry adopts Christ-like characteristics. In that way, then, Harry is easily both the everyman and the Christ figure rolled into one.
In that sense, though, you could make out a great number of characters to be Christ figures – practically all the protagonists, which I don’t think would really work w/ the normal idea of what a Christ Figure is.
And I think you’re right about the youngest brother, John.

By: Arabella Figg

Arabella Figg — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 16:58:13 +0000

Oops, in my previous comment, a typo. I meant to write “has rendered it INeffective.”

As I am in keeping Thudders from…no! Thudders!

By: Arabella Figg

Arabella Figg — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 00:04:17 +0000

Helen, that was beautiful, supported so well with Scripture.

And, Shane, I agree. I believe the splintering of the Church has rendered it effective in ways we may be too blind to see (”take the log out of your own eye so you can remove the splinter from another’s”–loose translation).

Someday, no more division, contention, competition and predjudice amongst our “houses.” We can be Ravenslythergryffinpuffs. I so look forward to it.

Oops, I hear growls and hissing…

By: Shane

Shane — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:04:38 +0000

sdurnil:“The faith and bravery it took for Christ to face that moment really bring home the sacrifice He made. To me, Christ is the ulitmate Gryffindor.”

That’s an interesting thought. Though I wonder if instead of one house it would be the perfect union of all of them. Which brings to mind an old thought I had once:

The Hogwarts Houses remind me of the Church. Many different branches and when not in order, disastrous, but when in unity strong enough to assault the very gates of hell. (Or in Harry’s case Voldemort’s regime.)

-Shane

By: Helen

Helen — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:08:40 +0000

“To me, Christ is the ulitmate Gryffindor.”

And the ultimate Slytherin: “be ye therefore wise as serpents”

And the ultimate Hufflepuff: “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

And the ultimate Ravenclaw:”Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

ALL the virtues find their fullest expression in Christ, though I suppose
we can be excused for noticing most the ones we find most congenial.

By: sdurnil

sdurnil — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:44:17 +0000

Rumor,

Actually, at the moment of His crucifixion, Christ was without God. Remember, He called out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” God had to withdraw Himself from Christ’s human body, as He couldn’t die with God’s touch still on Him.

The faith and bravery it took for Christ to face that moment really bring home the sacrifice He made. To me, Christ is the ulitmate Gryffindor.

susan