The Christian Origins of Harry Potter

I’ve heard Chris­tians vehe­ment­ly decry the Har­ry Pot­ter series of books as satan­ic. They were respond­ed to by those who claim that the books are all harm­less fun (which they are*).

And I’ve heard Chris­tians talk­ing about the spir­i­tu­al­i­ty of Har­ry Pot­ter, and how alle­gor­i­cal or illus­tra­tive of the Chris­t­ian faith the books some­times appear. They were respond­ed to by those who claim that Chris­tians just try to appro­pri­ate every­thing which is pop­u­lar in order to bol­ster their own subculture.

As it turns out, how­ev­er, it looks as though J.K. Rowl­ing real­ly was infus­ing Chris­t­ian ideas into the Har­ry Pot­ter books.

It’ll be inter­est­ing to see the respons­es Rowl­ing’s con­fes­sions get from the Chris­t­ian community.

I’m hop­ing the gen­er­al con­sen­sus rec­og­nizes not only that Rowl­ing is real­ly strug­gling with her faith, but that the seed of faith has been plant­ed. Pray for God to give the increase, and pray for Rowl­ing. Sim­ple, no?

* Maybe you’re both­ered by the fact there are witch­es, wiz­ards, spells, and more through­out the Har­ry Pot­ter series; that’s fine. How­ev­er, with­in the series, witch­es & wiz­ards are born as what they are. Unlike real life, they don’t have a choice not to be a witch or wiz­ard any­more than I could choose to no longer be a male (unthink­able surgery notwith­stand­ing). It is a work of fic­tion, and there are far bet­ter things for Chris­tians to be spend­ing their time on try­ing to improve — pover­ty comes to mind… or end­ing King James Onlyism.