Blessed is the Kingdom

Seeking The Kingdom In All Things

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

3334991429_c9500c12eb[2]When I first began reading the series of books while assigned to Sacred Heart Cathedral in Knoxville and I was happy that these books were so popular with children and adults alike. It soon became clear to me that not everyone shared this opinion. Many Christians were concerned the books were promoting witchcraft and acted quickly to speak against them. One of our Catholic schools in town even went so far as to ban the books from its library. It puzzled me to hear and see such actions. Had any of these people actually read the books they were condemning as anti-Christian? The themes I found repeatedly in Harry Potter were ones of friendship, loyalty, trust and most importantly the power of sacrificial love to overcome evil.

Having already completed the series of Harry Potter books, it came as no surprise to me that these themes are at the heart of the newest film. While the story line of Harry Potter is not explicitly Christian, there are many themes that Christians can easily recognize as our own. Harry and his friends are called upon over and again to trust those they love more deeply. Once again, we see the story move to a deeper level of understanding that sacrificial love is the key to defeating evil. What struck me most of all is the way both Harry and his teacher Dumbledore continue to see good in other characters who are weak and flawed, refusing to give up the hope that they can overcome their weakness.

I like Harry Potter. It is a story about friendship. It is a story about hope within the midst of darkness. More than anything else, it is a story that reminds us of just how powerful love can be when we refuse to give in to fear and replace it with courage and trust.

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About The Author

Fr. Christian is the pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City, TN.

Comments

  • Konstantina

    http://www.philokalia.org/potter.htm

    I also was very enthusiastic about the books in the beginning, but I found this perspective to help me understand them better. And at least the criticisms offered are based on an in-depth analysis, not mere opinion.

  • Mark G.

    I had a parallel experience as a kid playing Dungeons amp; Dragons down at Bob’s Hobby Shop on Friday nights.

    a. Unlike video games so prevalent today, we had to use our intellects amp; imaginations to play the game. We created the world in which we played. A mysterious plot was conceived amp; clues laid out that led us to our goal. This was all very positive.

    b. We were all imagining ourselves as knights (good) ridding the world of dragons, trolls, amp; orcs (bad). It’s really the playing-out of the Lord of the Rings saga by (Catholic) J.R.R. Tolkein.

    c. It gave us a place to get together with our friends amp; to nmeet new ones. It also kept us off the street amp; out of other nefarious activities on Friday nights.

    Yet, none of this prevented various fundamentalist churches, amp;, yes, a group from my local Catholic parish coming out to picket the place on occassion! Talk about embarrassing.

    I suppose there is in anything good an element that can be twisted around to a bad end, but that doesn’t/shouldn’t spoil the goodness of the thing itself.

    I only read the first Harry Potter book, amp; didn’t find it particularly inspiring or well-written, but I’m not going to protest those that do.

  • Fr. Christian Mathis

    Konstantina,

    Thank you for your comment and the link you posted. There seems to be some analysis in the article, but much of it seems an awful lot like opinion to me. Let me respond to part of the article which I will post in italics to distinguish from my own comments. I will post this response in two parts as it is too long for a typical comment.

    “Even if someone could encounter in the books some humor, some elements of imagination, and a veneer of moral values, stil, how can children read such books? How appropriate cn these kinds of books be when they are plagued with such problems:

    They familiarize the reader with evil, witchcraft, occultism, and demonology. Harry is a wizard (his mother was a witch, his father was a wizard) and is training both himself and the reader to use occult powers of astrology, alchemy, divination, spell casting, and so on.”

    Yes, Harry and his parents are wizards and they use magic. This is not the only series of books where magic is employed. Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Naria, both explicitly Christian books come to mind.

    “They blur the distinction between good and evil. The stories are often portrayed as ‘good’ versus ‘evil’. However, Harry uses witchcraft, among other vices, to overcome the enemy wizard Voldemort. Their powers come from the same source.”

    In fact the books are very clear to distinguish that the “magic” comes from different sources. Voldemort’s magic comes from his splitting his soul through murder, to which even the other evil characters find appalling. Harry’s magic comes from his mother’s willingness to sacrifice herself for him out of love.

    “They cultivate a negative attitude. Characters who have magic powers are portrayed as being ‘cool’–the rest are considered inferior, slow-witted, and wicked.”

    Harry’s step family is certainly portrayed in this fashion, but all humans are not. The same is true for those with magic. Harry and his friends never consider those practicing evil magic as “cool” and Harry protects humans from this when he can, including his cousin.”

    They contain anti-pedagogical messages. Not only do the characters have unethical behavior; such as conscious lying and rule breaking, but also when they are caught, they are not only not punished but rewarded instead.”

    Harry and his friends are frequently punished for rule breaking, even when it is for good. They might get detention, or have to miss an extra curricular activity, just like consequences in real life. They are praised repeatedly for heroic action that saves the lives of others. These actions I would describe as heroic as they have the courage to face evil at great personal risk to themselves when others are unwilling to do so.

  • Fr. Christian Mathis

    “They weaken the will to endure the natural hardships of life. Children get the false impression from the books taht they can escape the hardships of life by cheating and resorting to the paranormal. Thus, they train themselves for a life of misery and failure.”

    Harry endures great hardships in order to overcome evil. He loses his parents and many friends in the process of resisting the powers of evil. Eventually he is willing to die himself if it will save others. We Christians say the same when we quote Christ as saying no greater love is there than to lay down one’s life for a friend.

    “They undermine traditional family values. As was mentioned earlier, Harry’s biological parents were murdered and his foster family is horrible, mean, selfish, and unloving. They are “Muggles” (non-sorcerers) who make Harry’s life miserable because of his beliefs and even make him sleep in a closet! His witchy friends are made to appear very appealing next to these loutish family members. The normal human adults of his family are seen as stupid and powerless, while the witches and warlocks are wise and powerful. What sort of message does this send to children about their relatives who might not live lives as fascinating as those portrayed in the books? Is that the kind of gratitude you would expect form your children for your sacrifices for them?”

    Many children who end up in foster care undergo what Harry does with his step parents. Not all end up taken in by another healthy family like his best friend Ron’s. Harry is briefly taken care of by his Godfather too. In my opinion this would highlight the positive nature of family as Harry is clearly more happy in a loving atmosphere of a traditional family.

    “They nurture a prolonged descent into a daydreaming mental state. The children lock themselves inside their fantasies, alienating themselves from the perception of the true world around them. Hence, not only do they become unable to respond to the requirements of normal life, but they become unable to respond to the requirements of normal life, but they also develop abnormal psychological states–including despondency and megalomania.”

    Many people daydream, myself included, and it does not cause abnormal psychology. I continue to respond well to the responsibilities of daily life as do many others.

    “They cultivate thirst for satanic pride. They tickle the desire to become ‘little gods’–the ancient lie of the serpent–and fill the child’s head with violence, blood sacrifice, and a worldview which is decidedly anti-Christian. Is this desirable? Especially when the books are so well-written that the children are reading them over and over and virtually memorizing them?”

    I’m not sure how one would categorize this last statement other than to say it is an opinion. There are no doubt some satanists reading Harry Potter, but there are many more Christians reading it who take a different message from the books that is based on virtue rather than on the occult.

    Sorry to write such a long response and I mean no disrespect in what was said. I simply as a Christian find much of the tone of what is written in these kinds of articles to be based on fear rather than on faith.

    If I have offended anyone with these comments, I apologize

  • Ashley Siferd

    Thanks for posting. I too enjoy Harry Potter, both books and the movies. I sometimes had a hard time explaining to people who were anti-Potter that they weren’t bad books. They are good books. I learned lessons from them. Even as a 12 year old I could pick out Christian themes, even if that wasn’t J.K. Rowling’s original intent.

    I believe the sixth movie is the best so far. My favorite books are the 4th and 5th!

  • s-p

    Every “religion” has its “slippery slope” folks who live in fear of satan getting a foot in the door through popular culture. I always wonder what would happen if we spent as much time and energy “speaking the Truth in love” to the world (like St. Paul did on Mars Hill to the pagan Greeks) as we spend trashing their icons which always have a kernel of truth. My son said he thought the movie was good but was gnostic. My other son said he just thought it was good and didn’t see that. I won’t see it because I just don’t see many movies and I’m not a Harry Potter fan for no particular reason, I just don’t care for the genre of literature. I guess the bottom line is, if you are going to be tempted to become a witch watching the movie or reading the books, don’t do it.

  • Fr. Christian Mathis

    I agree Steve…..stay away from anything that leads you in the wrong direction is good advice.

    I’m curious as to what it was in the movie that struck your son as gnostic. If I see the movie again I will have to keep my eyes and ears open to it.

  • s-p

    Hi Father, He didn’t elaborate, but it had to do with the concept of “God”, and a dualism between the “spirit world” and the material world, and that good and evil are just two eternal sides of the same spiritual world. Kind of like the “Star Wars” spirituality. I pretty convinced that outside of “orthodox” Christianity, the only option left to modern pop spirituality is either gnostic dualism or an Eastern philosophy of good and evil. Those are the only two “spiritualities” portrayed in the popular media today, sometimes even when portraying Christianity.

  • Fr. Christian Mathis

    hmmm…I suppose one might see that in the books and films, but seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

    I do have to agree with you on the modern pop spirituality. I am continually trying to remind others of our roots and how far we have often travelled from them in recent times. Gnosticism seems unfortunately alive and well.

  • the booklady

    Dear Father,

    We’ve read all seven Harry Potter books in our home so many times I’ve lost count. We read them all aloud first as a family, mostly my dear husband doing the reading because he does better voices and impersonations than I do. When we first began I was a little concerned about the books being too scary for my daughters but I found I was usually more scared than they were. Mostly we laughed out loud at the foolish pretensions of the muggle Dursleys, the hilarious Weasley twins and the fun Harry had in discovering he truly belonged somewhere. We enjoyed marveling at the castle, every day life, ordinary kid stuff and J.K.Rowling’s creativity in drawing on literature, Latin and history. Later we cried as evil forces truly began to wreak havoc on Harry’s fragile world. We worried, struggled, wondered, puzzled and discussed — endlessly — how Harry and his dear friends were going to overcome the evil Lord Voldemort, because of course he was going to. He had to. Evil has to lose; Good has to triumph. The stories teach classic truths. The stories ARE classics. They will be studied for as long as people read. They are the best books written in a long, long time.

    For a Catholic reference on HP you might be interested in, The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide by my Goodreads’ friend, author and homeschooling mom, Nancy Carpentier Brown, moderator of the The Blog of the American Chesterton Society.

    There are several other books I could list which also delve deeply into the HP series and show how and why they are not harmful to kids. In fact, just the reverse. But, the bottom-line is, if people don’t like a book/series or don’t believe it’s good, they shouldn’t read it and they certainly shouldn’t let their kids read it. However, until you have tried a book/author you don’t know for sure. Many sources call James Joyce, Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Dan Brown great. Others say they are awful. I refused to call them either until I tried them. Now I know I won’t waste any more time on any of these authors; I didn’t even need to finish their books to figure out how awful they were.

    One exception I have made to my ‘test first’ rule is Philip Pullman and his series, His Dark Materials. What I read about that in The Pied Piper of Atheism was sufficient to convince me I don’t need to waste my time on such perversion and evil. As I wrote in my blog post on the subject, ‘Speaking about his contemporary competition, Pullman is quite thrilled by the heavy artillery Christian critics have trained on J. K. Rowling. This amused him. “Harry Potter’s been taking all the flak”, he told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2003. “Meanwhile, I’ve been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God.” (page 89)

    In Christ,

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