Harry Potter is Christian
John Granger is the most vocal proponent of the idea that the Harry Potter stories are really a Christian allegory. In his book Looking for God in Harry Potter, he argues extensively that just about every name, character, and event points in some way to Christianity. He argues that the centaurs are Christian symbols because Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. He argues that Harry Potter’s name alludes to “Son of God†because the Cockney and French pronunciations of Harry are “Arry,†which sound like “heir to,†and God is described as a “potter†by Paul.
The best evidence that there are Christian intentions behind her books comes from an article in American Prospect:
“Rowling initially was afraid that if people were aware of her Christian faith, she would give away too much of what's coming in the series. "If I talk too freely about that," she told a Canadian reporter, "I think the intelligent reader â€" whether ten [years old] or sixty â€" will be able to guess what is coming in the books."â€
If more knowledge about her Christian beliefs would lead an intelligent reader to accurately guess where the books are going, then naturally the plot of the entire Harry Potter series must somehow be inspired by Christianity. It must be possible to map people and events from Harry Potter onto people and events of the Gospels, and this means that Harry Potter is an allegory of the Gospels.
Harry Potter is not Christian
For Harry Potter to be a Christian allegory, it must be intended as such and it must employ uniquely Christian messages, symbols, and themes. If it contains themes or messages that are part of many beliefs, including Christianity, then it could function as an allegory for any of them. If it is intended as a Christian allegory but doesn’t contain uniquely Christian themes, then it’s a failed allegory.
John Granger’s premise is that any story which “touches†us does so because it contains Christian themes and we are hard-wired to respond to those themes. Anyone working from such an assumption will find Christianity lurking everywhere if they try hard enough â€" and Granger tries very, very hard.
Often, Granger stretches so far that you can tell that he’s getting desperate. Centaurs exist as basic figures in mythology and cannot be connected to Christianity except by the most elaborate stretching of imagination â€" especially when they don’t do anything particularly Christ-like to justify saying that they are references to Jesus entering Jerusalem.
Sometimes the connections Granger tries to draw between Christianity and Harry Potter are reasonable, but not necessary. There are themes in Harry Potter about sacrificing for friends and love triumphing over death, but they are not uniquely Christian. They are, in fact, common themes throughout folklore, mythology, and world literature.
The exact details of J.K. Rowling’s beliefs are unknown. She has said that she doesn’t believe in magic “in the sense†that her critics allege or “in the way†it is portrayed in her books. This may merely mean that she believes in the “magic†of love, but it may also mean that her beliefs are not quite the same as orthodox Christianity. If that is the case, treating Harry Potter as an allegory for orthodox Christianity â€" like the Narnia books are â€" may be mistaken. Perhaps she’s actually writing an allegory of the history of the Christian church, not of Christianity itself.
Resolution
Most of the arguments for the idea that the Harry Potter books are a Christian allegory rely on very thin comparisons between the books and Christianity. To call them “weak†would be a gross understatement. Even the best comparisons are of messages or symbols that occur throughout world literature and folklore, meaning they aren’t unique to Christianity and therefore are a very poor basis for creating a Christian allegory.
If it were J.K. Rowling’s intention all along to create a Christian allegory, which is certainly plausible given her statements, then she will have to do something in order to match Harry Potter more closely with Christianity and Christian messages. If she doesn’t, then it will amount to a failed allegory. Even if she does, though, it will be an arguably weak allegory because so much has happened thus far without the connections to Christianity being very clear.
A good allegory doesn’t beat you over the head with its message, but after a while the connections should start piling up and the purpose of the story should become evident, at least to those who are paying attention. That hasn’t been the case with Harry Potter, though.
For the time being, then, it would make the most sense to conclude that the Harry Potter stories are not a Christian allegory. All of this could change in the future, however. Something might happen in the final books which is much more explicitly Christian in nature â€" the death and resurrection of Harry Potter himself, for example. If that happens, then it would be hard not to treat the stories as a Christian allegory, even if they don’t start off doing it very well.
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