The author created and offers a course at Yale called 'Harry Potter and Christian Theology'. Her course is supposed to provoke thought about Christian Theology in persons who were not likely to think about it. She said she had at least one success with a sophomore of hers. She said:
"Curiously, what the Harry Potter books do is to accomplish the work of Christ utilizing a whole community instead of a single person, which explains why no individual character closely resembles Jesus. This means that salvation is accomplished not by one person but by many people working together, with love (aka God) for a guide. Ethically, a theology like this has important implications because it empowers people -- both in Harry's world and our own -- to live the life compassion for which Jesus lived and died."
I disagreed and commented on the article but sadly my comment was not approved and posted. This is what I said:
"While I support intellectually provoking students to critically think about the implications of Christian theology and while I can relate to your feeling of satisfaction about your sophomore, I must disagree with your synthesis of Potter and Christian theology for the following reasons:
1. "[P]resenting God as an abstract concept" is un-Biblical and flies in the face of sound doctrine that God is a personal being. (Hebrews 1:1-3 states that Christ was the express image of God’s person or substance.) As a personal being God is love simply because God is the epitome of perfect love.
2. The thought that there is 'good' witchcraft as opposed to 'bad' witchcraft is self-defeating and does not support the assertion that "the Harry Potter books ... accomplish the work of Christ utilizing a whole community instead of a single person..." where: A. The practice of witchcraft in general is denounced by the Bible (Galatians 5:20); and, B. according to the bible a house divided against itself cannot stand (Matthew 12:26).
3. To say that "Neville, Ron, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, Fred, George, Ginny, Luna and a host of others" work "together, with love (aka God) for a guide" to defeat evil implies that God cannot defeat evil without human effort. This assertion stands to dethrone God, negate God's omnipotence and discredit the individual self-sacrifice attributed to Christ.
4. You said: “Ethically, a theology like this has important implications because it empowers people -- both in Harry's world and our own -- to live the life compassion for which Jesus lived and died.” I say that ethics and religion are relative and true theology has nothing to do with either. Christ defeated evil with one sacrificial act, once, for all time. The compassion of Christ is another matter altogether.
Theology may be viewed by each individual embarking upon the journey as a road leading to a profound relationship with creator God and not as a path to religiosity. Empowering persons to live compassionately like Christ would be subjective of the God/person relationship and not the objective.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article about your course despite the undertone that the end justifies the means. Please visit MY BLOG when time permits. Cheers."
HAVING SAID ALL OF THAT, I want to know what YOU think! Are the Harry Potter stories compatible with Christian Theology?
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