Comments | koinegeek: Harry Potter and Christianity

koinegeek

Harry Potter and Christianity

Aug 04, 2005 17:24

A couple of days ago, lilia2000 wrote an entry with a link an article which claims that the Harry Potter books are Satanic...:

Harry Potter "Review"At first I thought that site was a parody of some kind, but upon further research, they're serious. I'm aghast at some of their claims. It saddens me that there are Christians out there like this ( Read more... )

thoughts, harry potter, link, christianity

Comments 31

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koinegeek August 4 2005, 14:59:44 UTC

The first article is laughable. I read through it, just in case I found something of value, but I shook my head through the whole page.

The second article sums up a general defense for Christian applicability of Fantasy books.

I've visited The Patronus this past week and read a few of the articles. Very good work! You draw some wonderful spiritual parallels in the HP books.

moonli August 4 2005, 14:55:13 UTC

There's a book out that I want to read called "Finding God in Harry Potter."

koinegeek August 4 2005, 15:02:49 UTC

Hrm, Looking for God in Harry Potter
by John Granger?

Granger, hrm, a relative of Hermione? :-)

cswo August 4 2005, 19:24:02 UTC

I have that book. Overall very well written and he argues his postition very well. :D

koinegeek August 5 2005, 07:41:52 UTC

Cool! I'll have to check it out.

Thread 7

darkladyothsith August 4 2005, 15:04:34 UTC

Believe it or not, I've seen some Christians criticize Tolkien's works as Satanic as well-- and in at least one case that I recall, accusing the Narnia series of being Satanic. That sort of attitude is one I've never been able to understand.

It reminds me of someone in my particular faith who I met who would only read books that were written by the leaders of our church-- could be a historical work by someone who was a member of my faith, but he wouldn't read it because it wasn't by the leaders of our church. Sad state of mind.

Harry Potter is enjoyable. I don't think it's nearly as deep as Tolkien's work, nor is it allegorical like Lewis's, but it's still good fiction. What closed off worlds some people choose to live in.

koinegeek August 4 2005, 15:13:11 UTC

I did say "nearly" :-) I find Rowling's writing masterful that she can enthrall both pre-teens and adults of today. Perhaps it's unfair to compare her to Tolkien and Lewis since their writings are a bit older and harder for some to digest. (I know, plenty of children can read LWW without a problem, but you must admit HP is a little easier to digest. Then again, I've read HP recently and havent read CoN in a while...).

I find it hard to believe Lewis' works ever being classified as 'satanic'. The allegory is right there! Even as a buddhist child growing up, I saw the Christian message (though I didn't have quite the background to understand it). As far as Tolkien, the only reason I didn't make it through the Silmarillian as a teen was the overt references to Illuvatar/God.

kookie_chick August 4 2005, 15:44:43 UTC

In that first article, the writer doesn't even get the story right. So he obviously didn't even bother to read past the beginning 50 or 60 pages. I was honestly one of those Christians who criticized the books without ever having read them simply because everyone else at church was doing it. I just sort of fell in line. I assumed that people knew what they were talking about. Ha! I'll never make THAT mistake again! I picked up and read the books for the first time early in September 2004. And I did it on a (Christian) friend's recommendation. Since then I have read the first 5 books 4 times and the newest one twice. After reading just the first book, I ran right out and got the first two movies, and got the 3rd movie the day it was released in November. So although I am also a johnny come lately to the Potterverse, I was an instant huge fan! And I don't see anything in the stories to make me feel that it's "wrong" for me to enjoy them because I'm a Christian ( ... )

cswo August 4 2005, 19:38:58 UTC

That's right when I read the books for the first time. I'm on my forth re-reading now. I too made that very same mistake... LOL

koinegeek August 5 2005, 07:47:02 UTC

I'm also a late-comer into the Potter-verse. Not because of any Christian anti-Potter sentiments, but just that I am into so many genres that I didn't have time for it. Now I'm hooked! One of my most fundamentalist friends read HP for himself and ended up loving it and recommended it to me :) Of course, this same person shares a love for Tolkien and Lewis. Heck, I'll probably run into him at Dragon*Con again this year :)

I'll have to check out that "Finding God in Harry Potter" book too. Sounds very interesting.

kookie_chick August 4 2005, 15:51:30 UTC

Oops! Meant to use my Prof. Snape icon since we're discussing HP. ;)