Dear Mr. Granger,
I heard you speak at Biola’s Torrey Honors Institute back in September 2008; I’m sorry it took me so long to write as you requested. I read How Harry Cast his Spell twice and the Harry Potter series once in the meantime. Having heard your lecture on “The Eyes of Harry Potter” and read the book, book 7 made much more sense to me. Thank you for putting in the work to help us understand the story better.
I like what you say in the introduction about how the books are not meant to be used merely as Christian propaganda. As people who dwell in a universe that God made beautiful, we don’t have to force everything to be utilitarian, because beauty itself is good for our souls. I have one question: Would it be a misuse of the text to discuss its Christian content with the purpose of evangelizing?
You said that the reason the evil characters of Harry Potter can use invocational magic is basically that all of us can choose to serve Satan with our talents. But if this power is harmony with God’s good Word, I don’t understand how it can be twisted to evil. The only way I can harmonize it is that magic is seen within the story as merely a technology, not a subcreative act.
In regards to the body-mind-spirit trinity of Ron, Hermione, and Harry, are there any times when Harry is wrong and one or both of them should legitimately take precedence?
Your arguments on Harry as both Christ symbol and Christian Everyman are cogent and convincing. They helped me define what I felt about the books.
Thank you again for your book. I plan to review it many more times and to make use of the themes you helped me discover in my own writing.
Yours,
(Name withheld)
Dear Torrey friend,
Your prayers.
Would it be a misuse of the text to discuss its Christian content with the purpose of evangelizing?
What text is misused in the good work of evangelizing? I’d steer clear of saying the books are Christian tracts, but certainly Harry’s sacrificial death made in love to save his friends (and consequent ‘resurrection’ and victory over interior and exterior evils) has its power because it echos the path of Jesus Christ and every believer’s life in Christ.
But if this power is harmony with God’s good Word, I don’t understand how it can be twisted to evil.
The same way — and I mean the exact same way — that our logos minds and speech which are extensions and expressions of the Principle which is the unity of existence can be made into evil. We have free will because God wants us to choose to pursue a life in communion with his love, graces, and mercies. That we choose not to means we cannot become his likeness; we remain in his Image regardless of our choices, however distorted that iconography may be.
In regards to the body-mind-spirit trinity of Ron, Hermione, and Harry, are there any times when Harry is wrong and one or both of them should legitimately take precedence?
Sure. Harry as often as not is clueless until he makes his decision on Easter morning in his grave (or, at least, a grave of his own making) to choose to believe and conform his will to the loving will of his mentor, despite his doubts. When Harry dies to his persona or ego there, he finally masters his Horcrux or Voldemort-sin nature and assumes his full identity as logos-mind or spirit in the triptych, the Invisible Eye/I of the Cloak he is by nature. From that decision on, he is totally in charge; until then, he just a work in progress and very much subject to the scar’s influence.
Hey, I think that was all your questions! Thank you for writing and for sharing your questions and kind comments with me. I love Biola and hope to come back soon.
My regards and greetings to my friends in California! God allowing, I’ll be out that way sooner than you think…
Fraternally,
John
Regarding using God’s word for evil: check out Matthew 4:1-11.
Great questions, though!
To our Torrey friend, I had a couple of thoughts to encourage your desire to carry a spirit of evangelism in sharing the Harry Potter saga with others.
J K Rowling has a variety of themes running through these books, many of which have been discussed at length here at Hogwarts Professor and other HP sites, but Rowling does not shrink back from the fact that her religious beliefs were symbolically and directly incorporated into Harry’s journey.
Looking into Shawn Adler’s MTV article back in 2007 on “HP and Christian Imagery” would be a great help to you.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1572107/jk-rowling-talks-about-christian-imagery.jhtml.
“Author J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books have always, in fact, dealt explicitly with religious themes and questions, but until “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” they had never quoted any specific religion.” (Shawn Adler)
Rowling again states, “To me [the religious parallels have] always been obvious,” she said. “But I never to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.”
In a letter to a Canadian school teacher who was curious as to why she chose “Kings Cross” as a key to Harry’s journey’s at the beginning and end of each year at Hogwarts which curiously seemed to always have ended with a close encounter with death, Rowling stated, “Then there is the fortuitous name “Kings Cross”, for Harry it has been established in the books as a gateway between two worlds, also the theme of sacrifice and resurrection is quite explicit here. Now upon the revelation within Deathly Hallows, while I am no Christian proselytizer, there is no denying the Christ-like symbolism of what Harry does entering the forest.”