How Christians can read books like Harry Potter in a smart way
But I wanted to see for myself. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from a no name author writing about witches and wizards! Though the books were not of same caliber as the Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings, they cannot be dismissed offhand. I was surprised by the deep themes J.K Rowling treated. They are the age-old themes of God’s story: the nature of the universe, good and evil, love, death, sacrifice and resurrection. There are few books written today that engage any of these themes quite so powerfully and are simultaneously so popular amongst our children and young people. I have always believed that we can read just about anything with our kids as long as we are talking about the content, the worldview the book represents and how the topics affect us. Obviously, the age of the children is a factor, as well as their maturity level. But if my kids can read Harry Potter, understand the themes in them and talk to their friends about them from within the framework of a Christian worldview, it is a win-win situation.
We all, atheist and religious alike, long for stories of love and sacrifice, victory snatched from the jaws of defeat. Stories where all evil is banned and justice prevails. It is a longing at the center of every human heart, revealing both a recognition of our limited abilities to make things right and desire for things to be right. It is the deeper magic that goes beyond all common sense, the power of love over death, that draws hearts universally. Harry Potter does this on multiple levels. Here are some of the themes we can discuss with our children and their friends:
The nature of Good and Evil
Lord Voldemort, the incarnation of evil itself, claims that “there is no good and evil, only power and those too weak to seek it” (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone). Ultimate evil is to say there is no good and evil. Evil power is found in blurring all the moral lines. The Bible, too, affirms this truth: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). We can ask, Where does our culture blur the lines between good and evil? Is might really right? How does one stand up to such evil?
The power of love and self-sacrifice
Dumbledore again mentioned that Lily’s blood, shed in self-sacrifice, was a powerful protection against evil in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, “Your mother’s sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield I could give you.”
"But I knew too where Voldemort was weak. And so I made my decision. You would be protected by an ancient magic of which he knows, which he despises, and which he has always, therefore, underestimated — to his cost. I am speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you. She gave you a lingering protection he never expected, a protection that flows in your veins to this day."
Harry is both the recipient of sacrificial love and the sacrifice. He ends up sacrificing his life for his friends at the end of the story. Of course, this is the central theme of the Gospels too. Jesus’ blood shed for his beloved is a shield for us. He took the deadly blow that was intended for us and his blood now covers us as a shield when Satan wants to attack us. We can ponder questions like: How do people deal with their sin? How is one saved from it? In what way is Harry's sacrifice different from Jesus'? Why is the cross central to a Christian’s worldview? Why is it good news? Why is death at the center of love?
Life, death and resurrection
In an interview here, J.K Rowling says, “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 second is a direct quote of Jesus from Matthew 6:19, the first from 1 Corinthians 15:26. For death to be put to death is a deep longing of the human heart and this is what the Bible says has happened in Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection. "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1Co 15:54-55)
This is not a topic that is discussed often where I live (post Christian, atheistic Germany). People pretend death doesn’t affect them because it is a natural part of life. But they cannot explain the anger and sorrow they feel when they lose a loved one. It doesn’t make sense to have these feelings in a materialistic world. But we can prod…Why does death feel like such an intruder? Is there really anything after death? Is there any certainty we can have that death is not the end? Is there any power that can overcome death?
There are many other interesting themes in Harry Potter, such as truth, identity, belonging, friendship and courage about which one could ask similar questions.
Tim Keller has been fascinated by story and how story is the fabric into which God weaves and speaks. He reviews Stuart Barton Babbage book entitled The Mark of Cain here. “He showed how these authors’ stories and fiction bore witness to important aspects of the Bible’s account of the human condition. In successive chapters he showed modern literature’s witness to the inveteracy of evil, the impotence of the human will, the horror of alienation, the indelibility of guilt, the gift of pardon, the longing for immortality, the joy of grace, and the mystery of love. In short, he showed the fragments of the Christian story even in the stories told by the great artists of the modern era. Or, put another way, Babbage showed how the Christian master narrative made sense of all these other dark, gripping, and moving narratives.” At the end of it Keller writes: “And, in the end, learning this discipline—of seeing God’s story in the stories we tell today—will be a way for us to deepen our own understanding of and joy in the gospel we believe.”
I understand parents who want to distance themselves and their children from books like Harry Potter. Some might find other books to be far better literature. But we can also read them critically, finding the threads of God's story in them and using them to point others to the metanarrative of all time. I think we can say that all good stories are Gospel stories. If Christians disengage themselves totally from the world around them, they miss out on many opportunities for discussion with their unbelieving friends. Let us use the stories of our day to help our children understand their world, their own hearts, the gospel and how it is good news for them and their friends. Let’s not shield them from controversial topics in the hope of protecting them. Let’s talk to them about how God's big picture of redemption provides reason for hope and a relationship with the living God who can make sense of our personal stories and help us see how they fit into his grand narrative.
