Hence Dumbledore’s amusement at Harry’s description of the palace he finds himself in as “King’s Cross” and his Parthian, Coleridgean answer about the reality in your head. Logos is the stuff and substance of mind and everything created beneath the appearances. It may not be gnostic in the heretical sense, if it is gnostic in the way Christ uses the word *gnosis* (and Sts. Paul, Clement, and others), but it is hermetic, sacramental Christianity of a transforming vision — contra a systematic and juridical Christianity — in the tradition of English writers from Blake and Coleridge through the Inklings.

I look forward to reading your thoughts on *Lectures.*
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I think I was interacting less with the mystical King’s Cross, on which I basically agree with you, and more with her reinterpretation of 1 Cor. 15:26. The point of the verse is not what Hermione says it is. She says, “It means . . . you know . . . living beyond death. Living after death,” (p. 328). But this is precisely not what the verse is saying. She literally inverts the meaning of the text. It is saying that when we are physically resurrected, death will be defeated because it cannot hold us. She wants it to say that “going on” itself is victory over death, but in 1 Cor. 15, Paul’s point is that we die because the curse of death is still upon the world, but one day it too will be completely rolled back and everybody comes out of the graves. It is not speaking so much of life after death as it is speaking of life after life after death. So, I think, regardless of the mystical King’s Cross, she actually did reinterpret the passage into teaching that we go off to heaven when we die, instead of that we come back from heaven and get our bodies back. Maybe I’m over thinking the point, but as far as I can tell, that’s what she seems to be saying.

I don’t think her theology is wholly Greek/gnostic (the soul escapes off to heaven forever and nevermind about this world) or wholly Scriptural (we will live in a glorified, physical creation which is this same creation, only without sin and with God present as He is in heaven, since after all, heaven comes to earth in the end). As far as I can see it in DH, and keep in mind I haven’t yet read the Lectures and I am more than happy to be wrong here, she seems to stand between the two.

But in case you’re waiting for it to come to your library, please note right off that the palace Harry thinks of as King’s Cross is not “some kind of ethereal, platonic, not-physical plane.” Read the chapter again. It is a place where Harry is all but omniscient, where his thoughts create physical objects, and where the dead walk in radiant, luminous bodies, but it cannot be described as “non-physical.” Rowling takes great pains to have Harry confirm the sensually experienced reality of this non-local, atemporal place. Hence the importance of the final Dumbledore-Harry exchange.

Which I explain in Chapter 5 of *The Deathly Hallows Lectures.* Harry is not in a “heaven” that is other but in the “kingdom of heaven” that is within, behind, and beneath the surfaces of reality, the “inside greater than the outside,” to use Lewis’ language and a Rowling theme.

This is the New Creation, New Jerusalem, etc, because it is the unity of existence, the creative rational principle that is the Divine 2nd Hypostasis, the Logos that is in every man (John 1:9), the light of the world (John 8:12), and the eye that is the light of the body (Matthew 6:23; this passage being especially important because of the DH eye symbolism, Dumbledore’s luminescent body, and the Ariana gravestone scripture which is the verse in Matthew 6 immediately before it).

Anyway, I don’t go into the resurrection theology in my book, but I’m confident if you do read that chapter you’ll see where you wrong to assume Rowling’s ‘afterlife’ is otherworldly and a cop out. She’s right in the heart of Coleridgean natural theology, which seems awe-fully biblical and patristic to me.

That’s why I asked the question! Thanks for answering

PJ: You lost me on front and back to the Veil. The ampitheatre setting and circular dais are supposed to suggest the “circle has no beginning” as Luna put it in DH, i.e., no front or back, just a center which is a principle or non-temporal non-local origin. With the King’s Cross experience post AK in Hallows, we see here the mystery of death as the unity of existence behind all surfaces (something I explain at length in *The Deathly Hallows Lecyures*).

Felicity, I’m moving discussion of your Luna point to its own thread. Again, it is wonderful to have you back on the HogPro boards. Your find that Ms. Rowling misrepresented Ron’s reaction to the veil as fear when we have nothing in text for that position and when Hermione is clearly border line hysterical was golden.

I wish I can email you this, but I don’t see a “contact the webmaster” link on your site so I will leave this question in the comment section.

Did Jk rowling indeed write the mini books “Quidditch through the ages” and “fantastic beasts and where to find them” or did some editor simply get some subjects on the books and elaborated on them?

other then that I’m really escited to read “Harry, a history” this fall, including the deathly hallows lectures. I’m glad to see there are still some exciting things coming from the world of J.K. rowling. I thought it would all end the minute I turned the last page of Hallows. However, it is kind of silly thinking that these franchises would actually stop. George Lucas and Rowling are making way too much money of their creations to suddenly put a stop to them. Remember when Lucas said that their would be no more space adventures after Episode III, now not only did we get another theatrical release this summer, but were getting a whole television show, including a live action one comin soon starring Madonna!! Also, remember when Rowling said that she would kill Harry after the last book? Then one day I read, “Maybe I’ll write one more book when Harry is an adult” To be honest, I don’t like the thought of these things stopping but sometimes you have to say goodbye to these things during the exciting part. Remember when C.S. lewis was asked if he would write anymore Narnia books, he stated that it is better to stop when the people are wanting more.
-Joel