I would imagine that he has read the books and, therefore, is able to make an informed opinion about it, based on his expertise as lead exorcist of the Catholic church.
As lead exorcist of the Catholic Church, I would imagine Fr. Amorth has better things to do with his time. Of course, however, we can’t know for sure. Given what he has
apparently said about the series, however, I am confident in my guess that he has
not read the books, for the way in which the Christian worldview explicitly informs the world of Rowling’s series is nearly impossible to miss for anyone who picks it up and reads it.
The spells in the HP books are real spells used by wiccans.
No, this isn’t true in any way. The “spells” in
Harry Potter are entirely fictional; in fact,
the very system of “magic” in the books is entirely fictional and has no resemblance whatsoever to real-world magic. HP “spells” simply consist of Latin phrases that cleverly indicate - to the reader familiar with the language - what the spell does. For example, “
Lumos” makes the user’s spell light up, providing him or her with a light source. “
Petrificus totalus” paralyzes someone temporarily; “
Accio + object]” causes that object to fly to you; etc.
This should not come as a surprise, as Rowling is an enthusiastic classical scholar and an ardent lover of great literature in general.
The Lord of the Rings series promotes Christianity and was deliberately written to do so. Not so with HP.
On the contrary - the plot structures, themes, and symbolism in the Harry Potter series are so demonstrably Christian that I am 100% confident in claiming that it is a
provable fact that the Harry Potter series promotes Christianity just as much as
The Lord of the Rings does.
BUT, to each his own. Let’s just agree to disagree and let God be the judge. God Bless.
Of course.
This is definitely a matter of prudential judgment, and we should all respect that. The facts that one uses to make this particular judgment, however, are clear.
God will judge. I don’t think it will reflect negatively on me when I am judged if I haven’t read Harry Potter so I’m really not too worried about it.
Of course.
No one is claiming otherwise; we are not arguing
that it is bad not to read the books. Rather, we are simply arguing that the world of the Harry Potter series and the
worldview espoused in the books clearly and demonstrably promote Christianity in specific, detailed, well-documented ways.
I’ve heard they are real spells.
Since you haven’t read the books, the misunderstanding is perfectly understandable. Now you know.
Fr. Amorth has spoken out against the books, that’s good enough for me to stay away from them. May God be with you.
I respect Rome’s chief exorcist by default, and nothing can change that. Still, “the argument from authority” is the weakest of all arguments (that’s a maxim of medieval philosophy), and
if an otherwise solid appeal to authority is opposed by legions of data to the contrary, then coming to a conclusion in that case is easy.
That is my argument.
…and criticisms won’t sway me, either. Maybe I DO know what I’m talking about and you’re the one who doesn’t. GOD WILL JUDGE. Enough. Go play with your kids.
I realize this wasn’t directed at me, but I still want to assure you nonetheless that this isn’t personal. I
do respect that this is a matter that individual Catholics can disagree on, and I
do respect your involvement in this discussion. So no hard feelings.
It’s just that I think the hard evidence is quite clear.
God bless you as well.
As JK Rowling is a publicly professed and practicing Presbyterian (Church of Scotland) and especially in the 7th book, the parallels between Harry’s sacrifice and Christ’s are blindingly obvious, I think it would be safe to conclude that Rowling may very well have been not only writing from a Christian viewpoint, but even promoting Christianity and its ideals. She may never have publicly, explicitly said so, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the case. Maybe in the future she will enlighten all of us more on that part of her inspiration. Or she may not. I could be completely wrong… but having read the whole series, it’s hard to conclude that Christianity is not a major, driving force behind the philosophy expressed in the series, and especially by Harry himself.
Well said!
