Warning. Depending on how careful you are with avoiding any details, this may possibly have a Harry Potter spoiler in it. I don't think it does. But I'm giving fair warning just in case.
Hermione didn't believe the children's stories. They aren't real. They're just children's stories. They're make-believe.
Some people did believe them. Sometimes they were thought to be loony. Sometimes Christians are thought to be loony for buying into those "myths."
Sometimes what appears to be "just children's stories" are much more. When Aslan told the children that they would not return to Narnia, they mourned their loss of Aslan. But he told them they would learn to know him by another name in their world. Narnia is not "just a children's story."
We were talking last night about whether J. K. Rowling intended for Harry Potter to be a Christian story, or if it was just a good story in which some of us saw something more. They say Tolkien did not intend for the Lord of the Rings to be a Christian story, but Christians certainly see a lot of truths encased in the story.
I assumed that's what was going on with Harry Potter too. Now I'm not so sure. That business about the Bard's tales not being "just children's stories" seems like it could be a clue about the very volume I'm holding in my hands as I read about Hermione & Xeno arguing over those "children's stories." Maybe that volume too is "not just children's stories."
I don't like fantasy. I don't enjoy magic in my stories. I don't like talking animals in stories, or elves, or goblins, or any of that stuff. But Narnia and Harry Potter are different. They aren't fantasy. They're theology. And they're stories I'd hate to miss just because they're dressed up in a literature-genre I'm not usually fond of.
(With 150 pages to go in the last Harry Potter book, I reserve the option to revisit this post and stamp my feet and say that I take it all back. Y'know, if it all turns out very wrong, very different from what I expect.)
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Yes, C.S. Lewis intended to write a Christian parable. Yes, the Christ allegory is a common trope in books and movies. However, not every book you can potentially see "truths" in is a Christian work. That would be like saying every book which tries to send a message of compassion is really sending the Buddhist message of ahimsa. Since morality is a separate entity from religion, (and you know it's true although you may not admit it) books with morals are not necessarily religious pieces.
ReplyDeleteSo, I ask of all Christians please stop claiming classics such as LOTR or popular works such as Harry Potter for yourselves. Can't you just be happy with the Bible and the Left Behind series?
Well, aside from the fact that Left Behind utterly sucks...
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to things like LotR and Harry Potter, there are Christian themes. Both Rowling and Tolkien are Christians, and what you believe affects what you write. This is blatantly obvious when you look at literature.
And, incidentally, Rowling specifically said that if people knew what she believed, the ending should be easy to predict. If that doesn't scream that there are Christian themes, I don't know what would.
Dear Anonymous Jane or Anonymous Shannon,
ReplyDeletefirst I'd like to point out that the Left Behind books are not Christian stories.
I agree with you about morality in stories, and that all religions encourage a certain amount of morality, and that it's not unique to Christianity.
However, like I said the other day, there are two different religions out there going under the name of Christianity. One is about mercy for those who don't deserve it. The other is primarily about morality but also includes the reliance upon God's mercy to the undeserving, so it's kinda sorta a religion which conflicts with itself a little bit.
The Harry Potter books not only include truths and morality, they include not only the triumph of good over evil, but they include the uniquely Christian doctrine that sacrifice is made for those who do not deserve it, for those who have despised that mercy. As the Bible says, a man will hardly lay down his life for his friends, but even that could happen in this life. But to lay down one's life for the enemy, that is weird indeed. And it's what Christianity is all about. It may not be the Christianity you learned about, but it's what real Christianity is all about.