Hogwarts Professor

Did anybody else wonder what the New York Times Sunday Book Review editorial board was thinking when they decided to ask Christopher Hitchens, world’s brashest atheist and author of God is Not Great, to review Joanne Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? I don’t get it. I know he does book reviews for The Atlantic and The Times in addition to political commentary, but he doesn’t have any sympathy for the work, even where you think he might (can you say “Islamofascism”?).

You can still read the Hitchens review online today and Monday before it falls behind the NYT profitwall and I urge you to do so. You won’t be surprised that he urges readers to try Philip Pullman, public atheist, if they want a really good read….

More tomorrow, God willing, on the Literary Alchemy, Christian Content, and genius of Deathly Hallows. Stay tuned!

I’m through the Nigredo portion of my monster post on Alchemy in Deathly Hallows. Maybe tomorrow I can storm through the Albedo and Rubedo so it will go up here for your comment and correction. Until then, I offer this placeholder and thought provoker for those All Pros who check into HogPro daily. My apologies for this delay!

Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes the weekly religion column for the Scripps Howard News Service that is syndicated to papers throughout the country. He reports on the coverage of religion in Main Stream Media every day at www.GetReligion.org on which site in addition to his columns he has followed the “ghost” in the Harry Potter story since 1999. The first TMatt post Deathly Hallows column was called “Final Harry Potter Wars, Part I.” Here is the second part, hot off the presses:

Coming soon to a parish near you: Sunday school with Harry Potter.

This could happen if your congregation buys the new “Mixing it up with Harry Potter” study guides from the Church of England. The goal of the 12-part series is to use scenes from these omnipresent books and movies to help children discuss big issues such as death, sacrifice, loneliness, fear, mercy and grief.

“Jesus used storytelling to engage and challenge his listeners,” said Bishop John Pritchard of Oxford, speaking on behalf of the curriculum. “There’s nothing better than a good story to make people think, and there’s plenty in the Harry Potter books to make young people think about the choices they make in their everyday lives.” [Read more…]