Harry Potter and God

Christianity for the Next 1000 Years

In the beginning, God created skies and earth

The Harry Potter books are such great page turners for many reasons.    

The main characters are Harry, Hermione, and Ron.  They are such adorable, riveting, and interesting characters.  Whether reading the books or watching the movies, I experience the joy of watching three people whom I care about transform into adults whose lives are imperiled by withering adversity.  

Three of the minor characters, Professor Snape, Professor Dumbledore, and Voldemort, are so important to the story that they arguably are main characters.

Indeed, you could make an argument that in all seven books, the main character is Professor Snape.

There is a host of minor characters too who drive the story to the end.  For example, Professor Slughorn does not appear in the books until the sixth book yet he knows something that is crucial to the plot. 

Setting drives the story.  The action that unfolds at Little Whinging and Hogwarts is uncommonly from each other.  When the Hogwarts setting spills into the Little Whinging the story juices up in remarkable ways.    

For example, when a house elf, something I've never run across in fiction, suddenly appears in Harry's bedroom in the second book.

The conflicts are many and interwoven in interesting ways. I cannot think of any conflicts that do not unfold in these books: man vs self, man vs man, man vs woman, man vs supernatural, man vs nature, man vs machine, and man vs society--muggle and magical.

The plot is a seven book narrative string, or cord I should say, that never frays.  The plot has exposition, that is, the stuff that happens.  It has complications, many in all those magical devices imagined by the author.  It has a climax, possibly two, that is explosive.  Finally, the denouement or resolution makes the world right again.

And such multifarious themes that touch on common human experience!  Themes of love, loyalty, duty to friends and family, the struggle against evil in oneself and others, death and salvation always for some, punishment and forgiveness always for some.

After I read all seven books, I felt so much sorrow as I neared the end.  It is grief that one feels because we know the best things in life must end.  Once the books and the movies were done, I longed for more because I fell in love with the characters.  

I read the books three times and not once was God mentioned, but that's okay.  I've read a lot of God books that never mention Harry Potter...except...well...there are...arguably...thematic links.

When we turn to the God library, there is only one main character in the Jewish Bible.  That character is male and has several names:  Elohim, Yahweh, Adonai, Jehovah, El-Shaddai, El-Elyon, and El.  

The character called God is a dynamic character in the fictional sense that God changes.  God is not a flat character who remains the same throughout the story.  All the other characters, from Moses to Mephibosheth, are minor.  Many of them are dynamic, however, and that’s a nice touch.  Moses changes from a fearful, hesitant servant to a powerful leader who screws up.  

Even Samson changes.  He's a dummy until the very end when we see he has transformed from a seeing man who was blind to a blind man who can see.  Alas, in his wisdom he murders a lot of people...and I thought blind men saw better.

There is only one setting, and it is expressed in the first verse: everything.  God dwells in everything, or to make my theistic friends happy, God dwells so nearby everything that God feels as if God is in everything.

"Everything" is broken up into many places:  Eden, Ur, Mamre, Babylon, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Judah, Galilee, and Jerusalem.

Look at all the conflicts:  God vs self, God vs gods, God vs man, God vs woman, God vs supernatural, God vs society, God vs machine.

There is a narrative strand that courses through the Bible although it frays in all kinds of directions.  I see the same story of a good world gone bad and a God that uses people, places, and things to return the world to its goodness.

Look at all those themes.  Many would argue that the Bible is a foundational repository for all themes literary.  

The Bible is not a page turner however.  That is because it is written by many people and it contains all kinds of writings written for different purposes:  myths, legends, poetry, history, genealogy, proverbs, short stories, hymns, gospels, sermons, letters, and a terrific Stephen King bloodbath at the end to punctuate all the books with finality.  

Just like Harry Potter, the main character wins in the end...with help.  

Unlike Harry Potter, the story ever ends and the love I feel for the main character goes on and on.

Blessings...