When I was a student of theology at the Free Faculty of Theology in Oslo at the end of the 1960′s, my teacher of church history lectured on the great theologians of the Lutheran Orthodoxy period of the 17th century, and eventually came to Johann Valentin Andreae. In the year 1614 somebody anonymously authored the book «Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis» («Rumor on the Brotherhood of the Rose Cuceans»). It was a symbolic novel, intended to mirror and criticize life in those days. But it described a secret society of «brothers of the Rosy Cross», being secretly represented everywhere, and only visible through the secret letters RC (= «Rosea Crux»). And people started to believe they really existed.
My teacher said (including most church historians): «We believe now that that novel was written by Johann Valentin Andreae, the famous Lutheran Orthodox dogmatic. And when everybody misunderstood his book, he simply shut up and told nobody he was the author.»

My point is: I think I have seen somewhere that that book was marked by «Lutheran alchemy». Can somebody verify this (or falsify it)?

Odd Sverre Hove

I totally agree w/ you re the “high church” sacramental world view in HP. This is one reason, IMHO, that extreme Protestants, the heirs to the more Radical bits of the Reformation, are less likely to “get” the theology in HP compared to more “Catholic” types. Not that none do, but it’s much more of a stretch for them, say, than it is for our host John Granger, Orthodox Reader.

To “get” what JKR is apparently doing w/ her alchemy and w/ her symbolic realism you need to have a relatively high doctrine of the material world and of human nature. The material must be able to be a vehicle for the divine. Consubstantiation rather than mere sign. Theosis has to be a possibility. All of this is stuff w/ which a scholastic Calvinist is less likely to be comfortable. (Note that I differentiate between scholastic Calvinism and what Calvin himself wrote, which was much more open to a sacramental world view than was the thought of some of his heirs and interlocutors!)

At least that’s what think–Anglo-Catholic that I am.

(My hypothesis, by the way, is that the HP worldview is essentially a Christian one, and in particular a “high church,” sacramental worldview, and that the depiction of evil fits that worldview.)

The science of alchemy I like very well, and indeed, ’tis the philosophy of the ancients. I like it not only for the profits it brings in melting metals, in decocting, preparing, extracting, and distilling herbs…; I like it also for the sake of the allegory and secret signification, which is exceedingly fine, touching the resurrection of the dead at the last day.

Lutheran theology also focuses strongly on the themes of redemption and reconciliation (cfr Rom 5,10-11, 2 Cor 5,18-21, Eph 2,11-22 and Col 1,19-22). An (alchemical) reconciliation between Harry and Severus would be a marvellous solution to hope for.

It was also fascinating to consider the introductory idea: That Martin Luther himself would have enjoyed reading Harry Potter if he had been alive today. I am sure he would. I have read a few of his books (but only a minor part of the enormous library he authored). And I am sure he would have recognised Harry as a typical child of the Heavenly Potter (Jer 18:1ff).

Odd Sverre Hove
Bergen, Norway
(PS: Accio .. you know ..)