Harry Potter: Ultimate truth through myth and symbolism
Editor's note: The following piece was first published in November of 2005. A revised version later appeared in the "Op-Ed" section of The Corydon Democrat, a weekly newspaper in the Southern Indiana area. With the release of the latest movie in the Potter series, and the allegedly final installment of the series in book form, I decided to bring this commentary out of mothballs. ENJOY!
By Chad Phillips
MTW contributing writer
Someone much older and wiser than me once said, “The River of truth runs between the banks of two extremes.” This seems a fitting analogy for a debate which continues ironically enough between evangelical Christians. That debate centers around the popular series of Harry Potter books by author J.K. Rowling. The latest movie adaptation from the series was released in November, and my instincts tell me it will renew the controversy.
The brief treatment which follows is an attempt to shed some light on the discussion. I also wanted to draw out some of the inconsistencies which arise from the often myopic explorations of well meaning Christians who are both the victims and the perpetrators of friendly fire in the war over Harry Potter.
This is essentially an in house debate. I fully understand the reluctance of some Christians to embrace the books as a matter of conscience and religious ideology. But I want to emphasize that this need not be something which divides us. Even in my own church there are people who disagree with me on this issue, and I do consider them friends as well as family in the body of Christ.
Before getting into it, I have something to say to my Christian brethren out there. If you haven’t read any of the books or seen the movies, don’t send me any hate mail until you do. Far too many of us have taken a position on this subject without so much as a glance at the material. Examine the books for yourself; then decide.
So why is it that in Christian circles people are up in arms at the mention of Harry Potter? The simple answer is the Biblical mandate against witchcraft. The logic goes something like this. Harry Potter is a wizard who attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Witchcraft is explicitly forbidden in the Bible. Since Harry as the protagonist of the story uses “witchcraft”, it follows that these stories encourage its use, and perhaps would lure the impressionable mind of a child into the occult.
Furthermore, since the books seem to be aimed at children, the fact that they get darker with each installment is not very comforting to Christians intent on raising their children with a Biblical paradigm. Beyond that, I will point out that given what I know so far about these stories, I am much more concerned about the increasingly violent nature of subsequent volumes of HP than I am about anything else I see modeled therein.
So perhaps as Christians we are wise to be cautious of Harry Potter. If the premises of the critics are true, we could rest here with nothing more to say on the issue. However, a big part of me believes this view may be ever so slightly alarmist, for several reasons. 1. We underestimate the power of the word of God to equip the mind and spirit of a child. 2. We confuse style with substance, and 3. As a general rule we tend to make our decisions about such things based on opinions of others, as opposed to doing our own research.
My own opinion comes by way of taking a hard look at witchcraft from the Biblical perspective as well as that of secular history. I also examined the arguments of those on both sides of this debate. Finally, first hand exposure to the books and the movies that have followed have really rounded out my perspective. Though, having actually analyzed only two installments myself, I can hardly be considered an expert on the subject. All I can do is tell you what I've discovered thus far in my own journey. Certainly, as more information comes to light concerning these stories, it will be brought to bare on this writer's perspective. To my surprise, what I've found so far is that these stories are chock full of (believe it or not) medieval Christian symbolism and “real life” situations illustrating moral absolutes.
Some years ago, philosopher Author Holmes wrote a book in which he states, “…all truth is God’s truth wherever it be found.” And in Rowling’s books we don’t just encounter darkness, but the light of transcendent truth. These stories illustrate moral truth as an absolute embodied in the concepts of good and evil. Rowling also does an excellent job showing us the consequences of choosing one or the other. Therefore, it seems to me that to dismiss these stories without a closer look at their moral implications is to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
It was Dostoyevsky who declared that “If there is no God, then all things are permissible.” This is a significant insight because the fact that moral absolutes are taught in the series implies an ultimate foundation for truth and therefore an ultimate authorship for it. Without an ultimate foundation for moral truth there can be no right or wrong, no good or evil. Things just are.
To illustrate this, there’s a scene in the screen play, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, where Harry has to choose between helping the man who is the very personification of evil, (Lord Voldemort) or standing his ground to fight him. Harry’s dilemma is moral. He can choose evil by helping Voldemort or he can stand up to him and probably loose his life in the process. As Harry ponders his decision, Voldemort says the following words, “There is no good and evil. There is only power…and those too weak to seek it.” Harry’s response is to reject Voldemort and his postmodern world view by calling him a liar and standing his ground to fight the good fight. The point, which cannot be ignored, is that in selecting a paradigm embodying moral absolutes as Rowling has done implies an ultimate moral law, and therefore an ultimate law giver. Such constructs cannot exist without a supreme deity. People in general, and Christians in particular know that deity as God.
But what of the charge that Harry Potter promotes or teaches witchcraft in defiance of scripture? Christian author John Grainger will help us answer this question. He has written eloquently on the subject and points out a critical distinction between the “magic” used as a backdrop in the Harry Potter series, and the magic or “sorcery” prohibited in scripture. In the case of the former, the magic used by both the “good guys” and the “bad guys” in the series is incantational. This particular brand of magic has its roots in European literary works of fantasy. This is the stuff of pretend.
Contrariwise, invocational magic rendered “sorcery” or “witchcraft” in the scripture involves the conjuring of spirits or demons to manipulate people, objects, and circumstances. So there is a significant dichotomy between both incantational and invocational magic. Where the latter is factual, the former is fantasy.
An additional problem I see with some critics of the series is logical inconsistency. I’ve found that some of same people who think Harry Potter is evil have no problem with other literary works of the same genre. The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest all fall into this category.
Perhaps the coup de gras of the whole debate though, is that even the Bible describes a witch conducting a séance for King Saul (1Samuel 28). Should we bar reading that passage because somebody might take an unhealthy interest in the occult? Of course not. So then to be logically consistent, those who censure the Potter series must also censure other literary works incorporating the same subject matter.
What is fundamentally at issue for me as a Christian is the relationship between the actions of people, and the resulting consequences of those actions exemplified in these stories. Our preoccupation with that cause and effect relationship might even explain our fascination with literature incorporating these ideas. For we never seem to tire of mythic concepts like the battle between good and evil, and the Biblical principle of reaping what we sow.
These notions are not exclusive to the Potter series and necessitate a reexamination of self in the light of God’s transcendent truth. Therefore I believe that a moderated approach to these books as well as others from the same genre can provide teachable moments with our children. They remind us of the bitterness of poor choices and the sweetness of wise ones. And they help us to reconnect with something mysterious which we’ve lost in the age we live in—the power of archetypal myths and the all but lost language of symbolism hardwired into our very being.
Christianity is alive and well in the Potter universe, if the reader is paying attention. The final book in the series is rife with examples.
Dumbledore’s mother and sister’s tombstone has an excerpt of a verse from Matthew 6:21 which says “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
A portion of 1 Corinthians 15:26, which was the same verse that was on Harry’s parents’ tombstone: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
I won’t spoil the storyline for those that haven’t read it, but the fate of Harry himself greatly resembles that of Jesus Christ if one cares to look hard enough to see it. I daresay many people can do so for Aslan in “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” - why not a 17-year old boy?
As Chad probably remembers from an editorial I wrote last year, Harry Potter offers an excellent opportunity to study verses with your children. Read a chapter, and find a passage in the Bible that supports or denounces the actions of the story’s hero. Kids will love to participate, be actively thinking about their Lord, and you’re being a quality Christian parent to your child.