Harry Potter and Christianity

Most people across the world are fans of the Harry Potter series of books, by J K Rowling, and the associated films, plays and spin-off merchandising. The author, whose earlier life was plagued with loss and a bad first marriage, first imagined ‘Harry’ on a train to Kings Cross station and wrote her first book in Edinburgh cafés with her small daughter sleeping beside her. Despite an initial struggle to get published, the Harry Potter series about the boy wizard became phenomenally popular, such that publication of subsequent books often saw long queues at bookshops with children often dressing up as their favourite characters. J K Rowling is also credited with getting hesitant readers, especially boys, to read. The Harry Potter franchise continues to make news, attract controversy and delight fans all at once.

There are some actual biblical quotations referenced within the books as well, such as, ‘the last enemy to be destroyed is death’ (1 Corinthians. 15.26) which appears on Harry’s parents’ grave...

However, not everyone has been a fan of the Harry Potter stories, despite their popularity and ubiquity, some Christian parents and teachers have refused to read them or teach them to their children. It is worth considering why this is so, but also why the stories might more positively be considered as a route to deeper understanding of Christian principles and life.

Christian objections are principally about the framework setting for the HP novels. Harry and his friends are possessed of an innate and uncontrolled magic, which needs to be honed and tutored as they become fully fledged witches and wizards, using spells, charms and potions to control their chaotic world. Some Christians have warned that the seductions of belonging to a magic school like Hogwarts could lead children to seek occult involvement in the real world, with resultant harm to their spiritual health. Some Christians also worry that readers will turn away from Christian living and belief by indulging in wands, spells and the search for an alternative, magical way of life.

Other objections include concerns about the dark, violent and destructive elements of the unfolding story; Harry Potter’s disobedient streak; the absence of overt Christian messaging or teaching, and the normalisation of violence and pain as part of children’s lives.

Objections aside, the problem with refusing to read the stories for fear of their content means that one never gets any further, or discovers the larger themes and ideas which very much chime with Christian understanding and open up many possibilities to talk about what Christians do and don’t believe and how we navigate our complex world. Additionally, J K Rowling herself has said that she deliberately included Christian themes within the stories. There are some actual biblical quotations referenced within the books as well, such as, ‘the last enemy to be destroyed is death’ (1 Corinthians. 15.26) which appears on Harry’s parents’ grave...

the Harry Potter series can be read entirely as a narrative about the power of sacrificial love

In particular, the Harry Potter stories explore themes like: how people become evil and how evil can be resisted; the power of sacrifice; the importance of friendship, trust and loyalty; eternal life vs immortality; the promise of an afterlife and overcoming the fear of death; resistance of the glamour of power and trampling on and bullying the weak; care for all creatures; and, above all, the importance of love for one another in the face of persecution and suffering. These themes will be explored below, with some references from the Bible added to show the similarities.

For example, the Harry Potter series can be read entirely as a narrative about the power of sacrificial love, and what it costs to resist and overcome evil, which is very much a Christian theme. Bullied and neglected by his adoptive family, for reasons which later become apparent, Harry discovers that he is imbued with protection against evil by the power of his mother’s selfless sacrifice of her life for him. In the heart of his new magic community, Harry discovers powerful friendship, that he is being watched over, and cared for, and what it means to be delivered from evil (Matthew 6.13). It is not a happy-ever-after fairy story; good people, loved people, do die, and their loss is acknowledged as powerful bereavements. As Harry himself prepares to die for his friends (John 15.13) he discovers an essentially biblical message: who lays down his life shall receive life (Matthew 10.39) and further learns here and in other places in the books, that there is an afterlife and we do not need to be afraid (Isaiah 41.10-14).

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Dumbledore has extraordinary power, but refuses to use it to control others, even offering evil Voldemort chances to repent and be changed.

Another important message is about the forms in which evil can manifest itself. Voldemort believes that only ‘pure’ wizards are worthy of the gift of magic. To that end he seeks to eliminate people who are not worthy, no matter how gifted or deserving. These ‘sub-human’ wizards and witches are hounded, persecuted and killed to preserve the master-race. Similarly, people who hold these views have creatures to serve them and they treat them badly. Harry and his friends believe in the equality of all and freedom for those brutalised in service (Galatians 3.28). Here are important moral messages which Christians recognise and uphold. Rowling shows how easily people can be swayed by arguments about superiority and the desire to control and subjugate others, and about what can be done to stand up to those who love only power.

Another strongly Christian message comes through the wise headteacher Dumbledore, who tirelessly resists evil and suffering. Dumbledore has extraordinary power, but refuses to use it to control others, even offering evil Voldemort chances to repent and be changed. Finally Dumbledore gives up all power, sacrificing his own life, not for the ‘good’ Harry, but for his enemy, the corrupted, suffering boy, Draco. When Draco says ‘I have you at my mercy’ Dumbledore says, ‘it is my mercy that matters’ indicating that this is not a situation about earthly power and control but a spiritual struggle. The story states that taking the life of a fellow being rips the soul to shreds. Similarly, Dumbledore encourages Harry to learn about Voldemort’s background to understand how he became evil and understand and pity his need for power and glory in the yawning absence of friendship and love. In this way, Harry is urged to defeat evil but not simply to condemn, and always to understand the ways of corruption, power and greed and what it does to people.

There is no doubt that Harry is a flawed human being like all of us.

We also learn that, like God, Dumbledore knows the secrets of his pupils’ hearts and gives them what they need in times of utmost trial. When Harry’s best friend, Ron, runs away and abandons him, Ron has a gift from Dumbledore which enables him to come back when he finds his courage. When Harry is apparently alone and at the mercy of Voldemort, Dumbledore’s Phoenix arrives to protect him and heal him. In a deeply heart-wrenching scene, an invisible Dumbledore reveals himself to have been alongside Harry all the time as he sits before a magic mirror longing for glimpses of his lost family. Harry, orphaned and alone, realises then that Dumbledore has always been with him (Isaiah 41.10). Dumbledore presses Harry to live his life in abundance not in dreams (John 10.10).

We also learn about faithfulness and love through the horrible and apparently evil Snape, who acts as a double agent to foil the plans of the truly evil Voldemort. Snape does this out of an enduring love for Harry’s mother, never revealing his motives and allowing himself to be despised and hated for the greater good (Isaiah 53.3). Through this part of the story arc, we learn about the cost of love, about courage and loyalty, and the complete dedication of self to protect others.

There is a powerful spiritual journey throughout the series within which love is triumphant and evil cast down, despite the cost.

There is no doubt that Harry is a flawed human being like all of us. In the first book he is a child who understands nothing, but as the series develops, we see him as a teenager with often uncontrolled emotions and impetuous and unwise actions. By the end of the series he is an adult with huge responsibilities worried about the state of his world and the threat to his friends and those he loves. But the Harry Potter stories clearly show the value and importance of friendship and how the intelligence, learning and sheer common sense of his friend Hermione, the cleverest witch in the school, stops Harry going off the rails completely. Together with Ron, the bonds of love and care between these three show the fruits of relationship and the way to confront and overcome danger and evil. Harry is not a superhero; but his shortcomings are overcome by the gifts, trust and loyalty of his friends, teachers and companions.

Yes, the Harry Potter stories use the framework of witches and wizards as so many children’s stories do. But like other children’s stories there are also centaurs, pixies, giants, dragons, hippogriffs, and scary vegetables. J K Rowling drew on a huge amount of folklore, myth and fairytale; it is not an ‘occult’ story. There are flying broomsticks and invisibility cloaks, cats and toads. But these elements are pegs on which the overarching narrative of good, evil and overwhelming, unstoppable sacrificial love exists, which Christians learn from the story of Jesus. There is a powerful spiritual journey throughout the series within which love is triumphant and evil cast down, despite the cost. Many people, who call themselves ‘spiritual’ rather than ‘religious’ have found pathways to faith through Harry’s story, because his pilgrim’s journey to understanding, and his struggle to make sense of what really matters, has echoes in us all.