Harry Potter 7 and Faith (Spoilers)

[Sailor_Kenshin]

That was some of my favorite stuff in the whole series!

“He was the bravest man I knew.”

 

[Dtmccameron]

Much of book 7 centers on Harry’s faith in Dumbledore and whether or not he should trust him.

More than once he is told to just choose what he wants to believe about Dumbledore, which Harry finds very frustrating. He doesn’t want to pick for himself what to believe, he wants to know the TRUTH.

In this age of “believe whatever works for you”, I found that very refreshing.

Eventually, he has to make a choice, to trust or not to trust (“Hallows or Horcruxes”).

Although he still doesn’t know the answers to all of his questions, he makes his choice to trust (while digging Dobby’s grave). He still has doubts but makes a decision to act on his faith in Dumbledore which he follows through to the end.

Anyone else see parallels to our faith in God?

What makes faith and trust a Christian thing? No-one else has a claim?

Tis an inkblot, see what you will. If anything, it was to espouse the virtue of the human creature, which is as real as the magic of the books.

 

[alessandro]

Anyone else see parallels to our faith in God?

Not really.

Harry’s dilemma is rooted in the natural order. It has nothing to do with the supernatural moral order, such as true virtue.

When you remove God from the plot, all you get is insipid verbosity.

 

[estesbob]

Not really.

Harry’s dilemma is rooted in the natural order. It has nothing to do with the supernatural moral order, such as true virtue.

When you remove God from the plot, all you get is insipid verbosity.

I see knocks on her writing style all the time. Mainly from so called critics but lots of times in posts like this and of course everyones is entitled to their own taste. But when on one hand we have the best selling book series in history and the other hand we have critics who dismiss it as insipid verbosity we have to wonder just how enlightened the critics are?

 

[Orthodox_Guy]

I can think of one in the Narnia series. In the book A Horse and His Boy, remember the princess was sort of punished towards the end of the book for allowing her servant to be whipped. Aslan scatches her on the back to show her what happened to her servant. In the Tolkien books there are characters with major flaws. In The Silmarillion a lot of the elves were very selfish.

Also, both Tolkien and Lewis both said their books are not “Christian allegories”.

though I don’t know what Rowling’s religious affiliation (if any) is

She’s Church of Scotland which is a Calvinist/Presbyterian church.

 

[hopelessrom_grl]

I’m glad I found a place where they are really using Christian ways to explain the good of Harry

God bless

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Much of book 7 centers on Harry’s faith in Dumbledore and whether or not he should trust him.

More than once he is told to just choose what he wants to believe about Dumbledore, which Harry finds very frustrating. He doesn’t want to pick for himself what to believe, he wants to know the TRUTH.

In this age of “believe whatever works for you”, I found that very refreshing.

Eventually, he has to make a choice, to trust or not to trust (“Hallows or Horcruxes”).

Although he still doesn’t know the answers to all of his questions, he makes his choice to trust (while digging Dobby’s grave). He still has doubts but makes a decision to act on his faith in Dumbledore which he follows through to the end.

Anyone else see parallels to our faith in God?

Yes—and also in Harry’s determination to sacrifice himself to save others.