Scott Moore, Why I Am Looking Forward to Harry Potter

July 16 has been circled on our family calendar for many weeks now.  It's not the date for our family vacation or the birthday of one of our five children.  It's not a swim meet or a recital or a ball game.  July 16 is the publication date for the sixth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and folks around our house are pretty excited.

        Some Christians have rejected J. K. Rowling's bestselling books on the grounds that they are contrary or harmful to our faith.  On my reading, nothing could be further from the truth.  Rowling's work exhibits all the marks of the well-formed Christian imagination.  These are wonderful books which explicitly draw upon the deep symbols and classic narratives of the Christian tradition. Christians should read these books in the same spirit with which we read C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia or J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Rowling herself has repeatedly demonstrated her affection for these great Christian writers, and it is easy to see how their work has influenced her own. 

Do these books contain witches and goblins and magic spells and even tragic deaths?  Yes, but that does not mean that they celebrate the occult.  They also demonstrate great truths and show the sustaining power of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love-not to mention the cardinal virtues of courage, temperance, prudence, and justice.  Whether in the wonderful names of the characters or in the spells which the children are taught or in the magical creatures which inhabit the forbidden forest adjacent to

Hogwarts School, every book thus far has drawn on classic Christian symbols and motifs.  For instance, in the second book, Harry must fight a great serpent (the historic symbol of Satan) and he realizes he cannot do this alone.  In his weakness, he calls for help, and a phoenix (a Christ symbol in the Middle Ages-the bird who dies and rises again) comes to his aid by bringing him a double-edged sword (Heb 4:12).  The phoenix assists Harry in his struggle, and though Harry ultimately defeats the serpent, he is badly wounded.  The phoenix then comes and weeps in Harry's wounds, restoring him to health.

By Book 5, we've learned that the little band of faithful believers who are united in their struggle against the dark wizard lord call themselves "the Order of the Phoenix." They are a symbol of the Church, and we're not surprised to discover either that the Powers That Be want to root them out and destroy them or that some members must heroically sacrifice themselves for the good of the Order. Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for a friend.

        We don't yet know the identity of "the half-blood prince."  Ms. Rowling has said that it is neither the evil Lord Voldemort (whose name means "willing death") nor our hero Harry.  We do know that much of the animosity in Harry's world is predicated on the racist prejudices of the "pure bloods" (such as the malicious Malfoy ["bad faith"] family) against the "half-bloods" (those witches and wizards who come from non-magical families).  We also know that Harry's destiny is inexplicably intertwined with that of the dark wizard.

        My children are far less interested in Rowling's use of medieval symbols or her playful puns with Latin words and phrases.  When I tried to explain to my fourteen year old son the relation of the game of "quiddich" (the wizard game like unto soccer played on broomsticks) to the philosophical concept of "quiddity" (the essence or "whatness" that makes a thing what it is), he just rolled his eyes.  He and his siblings simply know Rowling as a great storyteller, and they just want to know what happens next.  They're bound to be right. 

        Christian families shouldn't fear the Harry Potter books.  Read them for yourself.  Read them with your children.  Talk with them about hope and courage and love. Chances are-you'll be looking forward to number seven as much as we are.

© 2005, Scott Moore.

Scott Moore is a Guest Contributor for Common Grounds Online. He is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Baylor, where he is also the Director of the Great Texts Program. For more information about Professor Moore and his work, please see his website.

 

Editor's Note: Resources about Harry Potter

Amazon.com link to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

A superb piece by Wheaton Professor of English, Alan Jacobs, in the January 2000 First Things (here).

Ken Myers interviews Alan Jacobs about Harry Potter on the Mars Hill Audio magazine (here).

Denis Haack of Ransom Fellowship tells the story of how J.K. Rowling came to write about Harry Potter (here).

See John Granger’s book, Looking for God in Harry Potter and his website, Hogwarts Professor.

Comments

[Travis]

Excellent post, Scott! I'll be sending some traffic your way on this later today from BHT and my blog. Nicely written.

Just one question. Granger, if I recall, said "Voldemort" means "flees from death." "Mort" is obviously the "death" part. How 'bout the "volde" part?

[Serven]

Great post, and I too love HP, except that the last book stunk.

[Travis]

No. The last book did not stink. So there.

[Glenn]

Serven, if I may add my meaningless humble opinion, I thought Book 5 to be somewhat near your description the first time I read it but two weeks ago on my re-read in anticipation of the HP 6 I enjoyed it considerably more.

I still found myself irritated with the incessant depictions of Harry being irritated, blowing up at his friends, having infinitesimal patience, and imposing worst possible interpretations on friends' statements. All that certainly wore on me even the second time.

However, this time I recalled what a complete ass I was to my parents (and probably everyone else) at Harry's Book 5 age. And I thought Rowling captured well an adolescent's awkwardness with first romance, and the easily manipulable shifts of "public opinion" over superficial things. As well her rendering of the frustration of Harry & friends at being kept out of the loop when they had already done so much-- how many times have I seen tension between teens and adults over responsibility. Finally, while the runway was loooooooong, the climatic scene in the Ministry of Magic was utterly absorbing.

[Aaron]

I've only read the first two Potter books which may disqualilfy me from participating in this discussion . . .

For my high school english class, I perform a little test. I read aloud to the class the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book and the first chapter of Robert Louis Stevenson's KIDNAPPED and ask them to comment on the differences. Without being able to articulate it clearly, they are able to tell that there is something two dimensional, something "light" about Rowling's writing. Stevenson, however, in plain and simple prose IMMEDIATLY draws the reader both into an adventure and into the recesses of a character's heart.

I think that Rowling is a good writer and I'm delighted kids are excited to read--far better than tv or video games. Furthermore, I understand why Christian adults would want to know what the culture is reading and liking, etc.

Nonetheless, I think the Potter craze affords adults an opportunity to point readers to, well, better literature. I'm not sure if I'm stating the obvious or committing Harry Potter blasphemy, but there it is.

[Travis]

I'd like to add that after all Harry had been through, it was about dang time that we saw him act like a troubled teen throughout the course of a book. I thought OotP captured that well.

Aaron, I think reading Books 3 and following might influence your opinion on that a little. Book 1 started slowly, and Book 2 is my least favorite. She really steps it up in books 3-5.

[Scott H. Moore]

Thanks for the comments, friends.

To Aaron: I certainly think that there is greater literature out there than the Potter series. I direct a "great texts" program here at Baylor, so I'm eager to steer students toward "the best that has been thought and said" (as Matthew Arnold put it). So, if my students (or my children) were to stop with Potter and never read anything else, that would be awful. But I'm optimistic, both about the quality of the Potter books and about their capacity to point young readers to the Greats. Ms. Rowling certainly knows great literature. There are explicit allusions to Homer, Dante, St. Augustine, Shakespeare, Machiavelli, Jane Austen, and much more in her books. Young people (and not so young people) who enjoy her books have every reason to branch out and enjoy even greater literature--and that includes the study of languages like Latin and Greek (which Ms. Rowling certainly uses).

To Travis: if my friend John Granger says that Voldemort means "fleeing from death," then I'd be hard pressed to argue with him. John is an excellent linguist and he's done more than anyone to track down the references and allusions in the names and spells. However, it is the case that in Latin "volo" means both "I fly/flee" and "I will/wish". I think "Voldemort" could probably mean both, but I'll defer to John.

[Serven]

Why was Book 5 so bad?

Here are my reasons for thinking so:
Waaaaaayyyy too long. 900+ pages is absolute craziness. Now, some people think more pages of HP means more pure goodness. Needless to say, I am not one of them. I think Rowling has gotten too big for her britches and has scared away any editor from taking anything out for any reason. And of course, who can argue with the sales.

But half as short would have been twice as good. I think JKR is getting too caught up in all the shenanagins she has introduced that people love. Must have a quidditch game; must have exploding candy; must have flue powder, etc. Which is again fine and cute, but when you add them all up, you have 200 pages of this sort of stuff.

The only thing I think that saves this book is the consideration that it's a transitional one, setting up what is going to happen in Book 6. At least I hope so. If not, I'm out.

My order of preference: 3,2,4,1,5

[Travis]

I don't know. I never got bored while reading book 5. I never thought, "Boy, this is dragging on."

My order of preference: 4,5,3,1,2

[Sarah Hazel]

Now that everyone has read book 6, can we have another discussion?

[Glenn]

Waaaiiitttt!!!! I just GOT it. No no no spoilers. I'll crack it later this week.

[Catherine]

A well-written article by Jerram Barrs on this.

http://www.christiancounterculture.com/articles/harry_potter.html

[TS]

I think kids should spend their time reading the best, not what is second-rate. As to the allusions in her book, they won't appreciate or even recognize the allusions if they aren't well-read. Books like Moby Dick, A Tale of Two Cities, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice can stimulate thoughtful discussions on courage, self-respect, sacrifice, magnanimity, responsibility, etc..far better than second-class books. We should not assume that these books are over the heads of youth. We don't give them enough credit for having fine minds.