I think you're too hard on Rowling. I don't just say that because, as a Mormon, I prefer to think that the central message and purpose of the Christ was to establish the truths of creation ex nihilo and immediate post-mortem judgment and resurrection; but because I think that its not necessary for a fictional work to capture a full theological system for it to teach Christian truths and therefore be Christian. In my mind the idea of salvifically dying for one's friends is Christian. That said, I agree with most your particulars, including the vapidity of the Ravenclaw wisdom and Rowling's shrivelled notion of duties to the state.
A few quibbles:
[Faith] is the defining feature of any religious or philosophical identity, from Platonists to Mormons to atheists. Only, Christianity makes it even more evident, by making faith itself into a positive virtue.
Mormons (who I would argue are Christians) teach that faith, hope, and charity are positive virtues.
There is a lot of difference between Purgatory and the doctrine that the soul can grow and change after death. This is a doctrine hinted at in Goethe’s Faust, and taught, if I understand correctly, by the Mormons.
Interesting. Of Mormons that have an opinion on that subject, a minority believe that fundamental change is possible after death while most would say that the growth and change a person undergoes after death is just the following of the trajectory the person embraced in life.
, Mormonism, Buddhism, even Hebraism, could survive an attack on their historical claims, because their centre is the doctrine, the philosophy, the attitude, the code of laws;
This is almost 100% contrary to fact, with respect to Mormonism (and, I think, with respect to Judaism). Mormonism's two fundamental claims are historical:
(1) the actual death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, outside the city of Jerusalem, by decree of the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman Procurator Pontius Pilatus, in or about the year 33AD
(2) the appearance of that same Jesus to a lad named Joseph Smith, his use of that lad to establish a Church, and his ongoing direction of the same
A (3) third claim, which is almost as fundamental, is also historical, i.e., that Christ also appeared to inhabitants of the Americas, a record of which event was preserved and transmitted to modern times through miraculous means.
Everything else that is Mormon follows from the above three claims.
I do beg your pardon, and withdraw unreservedly the remarks you refute. When it comes to the views and religions of others, my statements are always "under correction".
I don't just say that because, as a Mormon, I prefer to think that the central message and purpose of the Christ was to establish the truths of creation ex nihilo and immediate post-mortem judgment and resurrection
That should be:
I don't just say that because, as a Mormon, I prefer to think that the central message and purpose of the Christ was not to establish the truths of creation ex nihilo and immediate post-mortem judgment and resurrection
A few quibbles:
[Faith] is the defining feature of any religious or philosophical identity, from Platonists to Mormons to atheists. Only, Christianity makes it even more evident, by making faith itself into a positive virtue.
Mormons (who I would argue are Christians) teach that faith, hope, and charity are positive virtues.
There is a lot of difference between Purgatory and the doctrine that the soul can grow and change after death. This is a doctrine hinted at in Goethe’s Faust, and taught, if I understand correctly, by the Mormons.
Interesting. Of Mormons that have an opinion on that subject, a minority believe that fundamental change is possible after death while most would say that the growth and change a person undergoes after death is just the following of the trajectory the person embraced in life.
, Mormonism, Buddhism, even Hebraism, could survive an attack on their historical claims, because their centre is the doctrine, the philosophy, the attitude, the code of laws;
This is almost 100% contrary to fact, with respect to Mormonism (and, I think, with respect to Judaism). Mormonism's two fundamental claims are historical:
(1) the actual death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, outside the city of Jerusalem, by decree of the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman Procurator Pontius Pilatus, in or about the year 33AD
(2) the appearance of that same Jesus to a lad named Joseph Smith, his use of that lad to establish a Church, and his ongoing direction of the same
A (3) third claim, which is almost as fundamental, is also historical, i.e., that Christ also appeared to inhabitants of the Americas, a record of which event was preserved and transmitted to modern times through miraculous means.
Everything else that is Mormon follows from the above three claims.
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That should be:
I don't just say that because, as a Mormon, I prefer to think that the central message and purpose of the Christ was not to establish the truths of creation ex nihilo and immediate post-mortem judgment and resurrection
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