Comments on: Religion: According to Harry Potter

By: Victoria

Victoria — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:00:29 +0000

When I read some of these posts about the Harry Potter series, I often think of this verse:

Abstain from all appearance of evil.
1 Thessalonians 5:22

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By: Galadriel

Galadriel — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:38:42 +0000

Well, perhaps. If someone made a class about spiritual themes in something I had written, I wouldn’t be very happy about it. To dig them (spiritual themes, allegories, etc) out of their subtlety ruins them, methinks.

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By: Bianca

Bianca — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:02:35 +0000

Harry Potter’s religion? Male witches are known as warlocks, so his religion is warlockery, of course. Warlockcraft doesn’t sound right.

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By: SteveG

SteveG — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:51:10 +0000

I got the impression that it was a “chick” series.

It pretty much is. I may be one of about ten heterosexual men who liked it without the influence of a girlfriend or wife.

But I was drawn to the portrayal of deep and abiding friendship among the girls, I liked some of the male characters and I was a fan of the writing, which was always first-rate.

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By: Chas

Chas — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:45:07 +0000

Not having read Harry Potter, I ignored this thread until now, but became curious. I’m glad I peeked in. As I said, I never read it, can’t comment on it. But I covet for our young boys, the thrill of reading the, admittedly non-Christian, books like Tom Sawyer, Huckelberry Finn, Treasure Island, “The Hardy Boys” series, etc. Later: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Lord of the Flies. I was surprised to learn that my 48 year old son never read Pilgrim’s Progress.
I was interested in the explanation of “Sex and the City”. I have heard a lot about it, (But never heard of “The Shield”.) I watched a couple of episodes (of SATC) when it came on regular cable TV. (I don’t have any premium channels.) But I couldn’t get interested in it. I got the impression that it was a “chick” series.

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By: Victoria

Victoria — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 05:04:04 +0000

Mumsee, you have your hands full. You write:

“Her classmates took it upon themselves to print chapters of the book for her at school so she could read them on the bus and such. Not all is as simple as we would wish.”

Wasn’t that just real special of those kids. Right you are, it isn’t simple.

God bless you and your husband.

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By: Pauline

Pauline — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:33:01 +0000

Galadriel,
I agree, it would be interesting to hear Ms. Rowling’s comments on this course. But I hardly think she would be upset by it. In an interview after the seventh book was published she acknowledged that she had intended there to be biblical parallels from the beginning, but did not want to make them too obvious to readers.

“To me [the religious parallels have] always been obvious,” she said. “But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.”

Readers were supposed to wonder if Harry was going to die, and if they saw the biblical parallels they might realize too soon that he was going to die and then be resurrected. Which might spoil the story for people who don’t want to know the ending ahead of time.

Another interesting quote in the article is about the quotes on tombstones. On Harry’s parents’ is “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” and on Dumbledore’s mother’s and sister’s is “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

“They’re very British books, so on a very practical note Harry was going to find biblical quotations on tombstones,” Rowling explained. “[But] I think those two particular quotations he finds on the tombstones at Godric’s Hollow, they sum up — they almost epitomize the whole series.”

The article is at http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1572107/20071017/index.jhtml

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By: Galadriel

Galadriel — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:56:25 +0000

I still want to know what Ms. Rowling thinks about all this. If I were her, I’d be rolling in my grave. If I were dead, that is…

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By: HogwartsGirl007

HogwartsGirl007 — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:54:19 +0000

Honestly, if anyone is interested in taking that course, getting no credit mind you, please simply join ANY Harry Potter FanFiction Website. oh my god. i cannot believe that it is coming down to this. i can name at least 40 people that are my age (19) that know more about Harry Potter than any Professor at Yale. just so that everyone here knows, we pick Harry Potter apart FOR FUN!

To:Danielle Tumminio,

if you ever want some guest speakers, please just post us on LJ or IJ… we would be happy to put your students to shame. we can out think anything/anyone. again please just check some of our posts.

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By: mumsee

mumsee — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:38:12 +0000

Theselittleones,

We did and once these are officially ours (adopted) we are free to do as we like but as “wards of the State”, the State desires that they get the full benefit of public education. Perhaps it is their view of job security, I don’t know. I did mention to my hubbie that maybe he wants to tone down the homeschool enthusiasm until the adoption is done, perhaps that is why our social worker is having such a tough time getting the paperwork started.

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