Articles criticizing Harry Potter novels

[Contarini]

Being sorcerers, they ARE evil.

Books are sorcerers? This is weird.

I’m not going to argue the point of whether the magic in Harry Potter is “sorcery” in the Biblical sense. Other people, such as Alan Jacobs, have dealt with this.

O’Brien claims to have other reasons for condemning HP.

Edwin

 

[beckers]

http://bestsmileys.com/oneofakind/1.gif

No offense Silvername, but your one trick pony is getting old. You’re not convincing anyone, and destroying your credibility in the process.

Those who have read the books know better, so I’m not sure who you’re trying to convince at this point.

I was about to say the same thing since it seems three of the negative threads in the media fourm about HP have been started by silvername.

 

[Sabda]

Alright, which book?

The last one, The Deathly Hallows.

 

[holly_potter]

Is that report available online anywhere for people to read? It sounds like it would be very helpful. I would sure like to read it anyway!

I posted it on my blog for you It’s kinda long, and lost a bit of the formatting, but I hope you enjoy it. I will take it down eventually, so other people don’t plagaraize.

bookwritegirl.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/harry-potter-good-or-evil/

 

[Mirdath]

I was about to say the same thing since it seems three of the negative threads in the media fourm about HP have been started by silvername.

Huh, my mistake – I thought Silvername didn’t post anything but links to extreme-right-wing articles about homosexuals. There’re two dead horses, it seems.

On topic, I too had heard about Benedict condemning Harry Potter; and since I just don’t like the books, I hadn’t bothered to look into it at all. Thanks for posting those links, Joe

 

[holly_potter]

http://bestsmileys.com/oneofakind/1.gif

I LOVE your smiley! That’s exactly what I was thinking when silvername posted yet another anti-HP book.

In case you’re interested, Silvername, know thy enemy. Also read my expository (a thorough examination of the pros and cons of an issue) report on Harry Potter at my blog.

bookwritegirl.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/harry-potter-good-or-evil/

I’m going to leave it up only for a little while, to avoid plagerizers.

 

[adstrinity]

The last one, The Deathly Hallows.

American version?

sigh Alright. Earlier on, one of the first two books, said the general quote I gave, but, I guess a lot can happen in the few years between 1 & 7 or 2 & 7. Thank you.

 

[Sabda]

American version?

sigh Alright. Earlier on, one of the first two books, said the general quote I gave, but, I guess a lot can happen in the few years between 1 & 7 or 2 & 7. Thank you.

Yes, American version. I have friends that likes to order directly from England. They like the English covers. And your welcome.

 

[adstrinity]

^^ I have a friend who does the same thing for…well, I am sure that that is one of the reasons.

In the excerps we have read, though, I cannot find the difference.

 

[drafdog]

“The Death of God” movement in theology has been over for a long time. No one takes it seriously anymore. What I want to see is what O’Brien has written on horoscopes. After all, the Harry Potter series is only a transient phenomenon in literature for young adults and is relatively unimportant in comparison.

Matthew

 

[holly_potter]

Definitely don’t get started on horoscopes I used to beleive they had a grain of truth, but that was when I was young and stupid, until I learned of the implications it had.

Now I just read the daily saints!

 

[colliric]

Oh please, this person has obviously not even read the book! Like many smarter people have said, witch craft is a supporting charactor in the book.** And it does not take a genius to spot the Christian symbolism. **One of the guys that my brother works for was complaining about all the christian symbolism (the guy isn’t very religious). He was saying that J. K. Rowling should have left it asjust a fantasy novel.
These HP bashers are doing nothing but grasping at air, trying to find lame excuses to bash the HP books. They need to just drop it, and realize they’ve been defeated already!

No it certainly doesn’t!

I just read the “Godric’s Hollow” chapter of Deathly Hallows… I knew I was right! If you haven’t spotted it before in the series by the time you reach the end of this chapter, it’s blatantly and deliberately obvious as if the author has slowly and carefully unveiled it over the course of her 7 books.

I really practically noticed it from the Film version of HP1, the flashback scene with his mother has two shots which evoke deliberate strong memories of the Virgin Mary holding and protecting Christ and the whole “Love saves you from evil” theme, also Dumbledorr’s line in book 4 “No wizard has ever come back from death” was pretty twiggy to me too, not to mention the Exorcism that occurs at the end of Book 5.

 

[Transformer]

Nice, but they don’t have souls. They’ve sold them to satan for demonic power.

Another person who has clearly not read the book.

I’m thinking that one was a joke, Sabda.

Granger is right; O’Brien doesn’t actually offer any arguments for his conclusions. He never puts forth a single piece of textual evidence supporting the conclusion that Harry Potter is a secularized world-without-God rather than a world-without-God in the same literary sense as Tolkien’s world. He totally ignores the overwhelming evdience commentators like Granger put forth that the books parallel Christian spiritual journeys, sacraments, and things like medieval passion plays in a number of places, and he totally ignores the numerous and prominent Christ figures which play a crucial role throughout the series.

God bless.

 

[VincentO]

My only comment would be that throughout the books Dumbledore makes it clear that LOVE is the most important thing - that love is EVERYTHING! - what could be more Christian than that?

 

[colliric]

Warning, major Spoilers in this Post… so don’t read it if you haven’t read the seventh book yet…

I’m thinking that one was a joke, Sabda.

Granger is right; O’Brien doesn’t actually offer any arguments for his conclusions. He never puts forth a single piece of textual evidence supporting the conclusion that Harry Potter is a secularized world-without-God rather than a world-without-God in the same literary sense as Tolkien’s world. He totally ignores the overwhelming evdience commentators like Granger put forth that the books parallel Christian spiritual journeys, sacraments, and things like medieval passion plays in a number of places, and he totally ignores the numerous and prominent Christ figures which play a crucial role throughout the series.

God bless.

There is also quite strong evidence within the 7th book, that the Wizzards understand the fact that God does exist.
Even perhaps in the christian sense, in fact highly likely given the nature of the reference, it’s not one, but two quotes from the Bible, first Jesus himself word for word “wherever your treasure lies, there your heart will be.”!

Secondly 1 Corinthians 15:26…“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”!

Harry spends the rest of the book contemplating their meaning! Any christian reading that who had objections to Potter probably ate their words!

Also the books really go through the positive nature of god’s gift of “Freewill”, it’s one of the strongest themes of the series right from book 1 and the scene with the Sorting Hat. Harry had the freedom to change his destiny, to choose his own path, the path of Selfless love for his friends, family and the surrounding world. He wasn’t locked in to his connection with his nemesis and had the freedom to choose.

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
Dumbledore, Chamber of Secrets.

 

[Tim_Kirchoff]

I don’t understand why people get so worked up about HP when there are so many worse things out there…

If you denounce HP because it exists “in a world w/o God” then every work of fiction should be denounced for distorting the truth

HP, like every other fiction book, is completely harmless as long as it’s understood as fiction. Even the Da Vinci Code is essentially harmless- the only problems come when people begin to think of fiction as fact.

 

[colliric]

I don’t understand why people get so worked up about HP when there are so many worse things out there…

If you denounce HP because it exists “in a world w/o God” then every work of fiction should be denounced for distorting the truth

HP, like every other fiction book, is completely harmless as long as it’s understood as fiction. Even the Da Vinci Code is essentially harmless- the only problems come when people begin to think of fiction as fact.

There is strong direct evidence from Book 7 that it is in fact a world with God!

 

[Tim_Kirchoff]

And I don’t deny that.

People just take HP far too seriously.

 

[colliric]

And I don’t deny that.

People just take HP far too seriously.

I know, it was just a nice delightful shock to read and have something I suspected from the beginning, to be directly confirmed. It’s christian metaphor in the same veign as Tolkien’s work, only Rowling slowly reveals it, it’s not directly obvious at the start, but it will be by the time you reach the end of the series…

 

[SILVERNAME]

Posted: September 1, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Ted Baehr and Tom Snyder

Some pundits and critics are snidely noting that the seventh Harry Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, contains some positive, redemptive references to Jesus Christ, Christianity and the Bible.

For example, Harry finally visits the gravesite of his murdered parents. Marking the gravesite is a New Testament Bible verse from 1 Cor. 15:26, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Also, an important scene near the end of the book takes place in King’s Cross Station, a reference to Jesus Christ’s vicarious atonement on the cross. Finally, in the end, it becomes clear that it is sacrifice and love that actually defeats Lord Voldemort, the evil villain in the book. Harry thus becomes a kind of Christ figure who is willing to passively surrender his life in order to effectively accomplish this task.

These references are indeed laudable, and they help make the seventh book the most exciting, poignant and profound in the whole series. The references are vague, however, and lack any solid context. In fact, the hero, Harry Potter, doesn’t even understand the marking on his parents’ grave since there is no Bible verse cited. Also, the fact remains that, in the epilogue to the book, the remaining main characters are still taking their children to the Hogwarts school to learn about witchcraft, sorcery, divination, and other occult practices. Thus, at best, the “Harry Potter” series has a syncretistic, confused pagan worldview encouraging witchcraft and the occult.

wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57425