Ex Libris

In this facet of the blog, I will be discussing the Harry Potter saga and establishing that it is, in deed and in fact, Christian fiction of the highest caliber, and worthy of being shelved next to the works of C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

First, I would like to briefly mention a breathtaking quote by C.S. Lewis that sums up my person experience of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but also really applies to the saga as a whole:

 The first reading of some literary work is often, for the literary, an experience so momentous that only experiences of love, religion or bereavement can furnish a standard of comparison. Their whole consciousness is changed. They have become what they were not before - what they have read is constantly and prominently present to the mind - [they] mouth over their favourite lines and stanzas in solitude. Scenes and characters from books provide them with a sort of iconography by which they interpret or sum up their own experience.

The great artist - or at all events the great literary artist - cannot be a man shallow either in his thoughts or his feelings. However improbable and abnormal a story he has chosen, it will, as we say, ‘come to life’ in his hands. The life to which it comes will be impregnated with all the wisdom, knowledge and experience the author has; and even more by something which I can only vaguely describe as the flavour or ‘feel’ that actual life has for him…[it will] allow us temporarily to share a sort of passionate sanity.

C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism 

But beyond my own individual experience with the saga,which could feasibly anyway cause me to campaign for it’s Christian-ness out of some sort of personal need or uncertainty or guilt over enjoying the books, there is the testimony of J.K. Rowling herself. She has granted hundreds of interviews, and in a select few, she has discussed her own personal beliefs and how they relate to the Harry Potter story. These are what we will now turn to.

Here is what Mrs. Rowling had to say:

Harry, of course, is able to battle supernatural evil with supernatural forces of his own, and Rowling is quite clear that she doesn’t personally believe in that kind of magic — ”not at all.” Is she a Christian?

”Yes, I am,” she says. ”Which seems to offend the religious right far worse than if I said I thought there was no God. Every time I’ve been asked if I believe in God, I’ve said yes, because I do, but no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that, and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely about that I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what’s coming in the books.”

Oct. 26, 2000, with the Vancouver Sun.

And:

E: You do believe in God.

JK: Yeah. Yeah.

E: In magic and…

JK: Magic in the sense in which it happens in my books, no, I don’t believe. I don’t believe in that. No. No. This is so frustrating. Again, there is so much I would like to say, and come back when I’ve written book seven. But then maybe you won’t need to even say it ’cause you’ll have found it out anyway. You’ll have read it.

- July 13th, 200, with CBS World News

Elsewhere, she has said that she is a Presbyterian in the Church of Scotland, and that her daughter has been baptized into that communion (can’t find the quote right now).

The important thing to note here is that Rowling is a Christian, and if people probed too far into her specific religious beliefs, they would have been spoiled for the events of the rest of the series (”Every time I’ve been asked if I believe in God, I’ve said yes, because I do, but no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that, and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely about that I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what’s coming in the books.”)

Thus, we can see that Rowling 1) believes in God, 2) is an attending member of the Church of Scotland, and 3) her faith impacts central plot points in the saga.

For these reasons, I believe there is enough warrant to analyze the Harry Potter books for their Christian content (if any they contain). This I will do in future installments of “Finding God in Harry Potter.”