Don’t worry about Harry Potter. It’s actually an incredibly wholesome, Christian book series in its structure, themes, and imagery. There’s not actually anything occult in it, just made-up fantasy magic.
I’m sorry, outside of the themes of good vs evil, someone dying and coming back, and look out for your friends, there’s not much Christian here. The story is secular humanist to the core, and even those three things mentioned above could just as easily be attributed to pagan mythology, etc.
As to there not being anything of the occult in it, yes there is… you just aren’t aware of the proper idea of what the occult is. The occult is the idea that there is a neutral power source other than God’s grace or the demons, and that one can tap into this neutral power source to activate power for onesself. That, at it’s root core, is the falsity of the occult… because there is ONLY God’s grace, or evil. The idea that the hero and the villain both draw from the same power, and it is only how we choose to use that power is objectively wrong because there is no such thing.
This is why I advocate DISCUSSING with children while they read it… so that they understand that there is ONLY grace and nothing else that can righteously afford us anything, and that the idea of magic as a neutral “third source” is fiction.
You recommend The Chronicles of Narnia, yet you say you have a problem with children engaging with ancient mythology in literature? You are aware that Lewis borrows extensively from real pagan mythology in that series, right? For instance, the Pevensie girls engage in a celebration with Bacchus in Prince Caspian; Bacchus is the name of an actual pagan Roman god.
I think mythology is a wonderful thing in literature, so I’m all for Narnia, but I just wondered about your concern “with ancient mythology” in light of your recommendations…
I don’t think that one should let a child read Narnia without discussing it closely as well, and I’m not opposed to them reading pagan mythology or Harry Potter as well, provided that there is discussion and guidance involved.
HOWEVER, if your objection were sound, then we would have a problem with calling the days of the week what we do as well… having a “Bacchus” in Narnia is NOTHING like the pagan presentation of him, because Bacchus’ character is utterly without power unless he relies on Aslan (if you’d read the whole chronicles, you would know this). The only appearance of the ACTUAL occult in the series is on an island, where special warning is given NOT to engage in trying to use “third party powers” and when the child does, the result is bad news for them.
So, recap: Lewis’ use of fanciful names is not wrong, precisely because he portrays these characters as without any sort of “power” of their own. All characters in the book operate because Aslan, who isn’t just a christian allegory, but IS Christ in the story, gives them the ability to operate.
You’ll kindly note that the Pevensies salvation from situations CONSTANTLY relies on the God character in the book… and before you say it, Harry Potter is NOT a christian “God character”
Anyway, this is all off topic, I was merely answering the OP’s question about series I
WOULD recommend AND stating that reading HP is actually okay.
