Thread: Harry Potter and Christian Theme - SPOILERS
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Old 09-27-2010, 08:37 PM   #12
EatingPie
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrscoach View Post
I see your thoughts, but I don't see Harry set up as a christ figure. He didn't substitute himself for others, he just decided to take Moldyshorts out with him. By your reasoning, anyone who did a good deed at their own detriment would be a christ figure.
Indeed, I agree. Joseph Campbell examines this phenomenon in Hero with a Thousand Faces. However, the allusions between Harry Potter and Christ do not start and end with his sacrifice. If that was all there was to it, I wouldn't have started this discussion!

Quote:
Originally Posted by kindlekitten View Post
I can't believe you started this thread and don't forsee a good future for it.
Well, you asked why I saw HP as a Christian-theme book.

And I'm certainly am not going to stifle my ideas just because of the potential for a heated debate. Besides, this is a totally relevant thread to mobileread.

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anyway, any one of your supposed christian themes you have espoused can be found in Zoroastrism, Greek, Roman, Celtic, Egyptian, even Hopi (as well as several other 1st Nations traditions). the over riding message I got from any of it was that LOVE was the most important part of magic. and that same LOVE can be shared by any of the traditions I just listed above.
You are correct in that many of these can be seen in various mythologies or heroic epics. However, it's the number of them tied together that points toward Christ in particular.

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after your last post about the Potter books being "christian" I went to the Rowling pages where, guess what???? she has absolutely ZIP as in ZERO as in NADA to say about christianity or how it has influenced her life.
To me, this matters very little, if at all. An atheist can write a story with a Christ figure. If you do further research, Rowling has made specific statements about her beliefs, even if it does not appear on her site directly.

But, generally, I prefer to discuss the work rather than the author, so I seldom reference the author's stated beliefs in a literary discussion.

Quote:
please stop now before it gets ugly
Well, I have always gone out of my way to keep things from getting ugly on my end, and I certainly hope that won't happen here.

-Pie
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