True confessions time I guess. I thought I had escaped the whole Harry Potter thing. I prefer William Falkner, Ernest Hemingway, et al. I like to be able to drop obscure references to literary greats at coctail parties, impressing people with my literary acumen, and hoping beyond hope they’ll walk away saying, “Um, so intelligent, and a Christian too.” That’s right, hordes of people will come into Christ’s kingdom simply because I allude to Holden Caulfield’s encounter with a prostitute or the importance of viewing Addie Bundren through a feminist lens.
But Harry Potter? Blame it on Steve, and Claire, and Maddie, for that matter. Having left such “literature” lying around open for all to see, and especially where our new reader, Ally Daniels, could get a hold of it, was like laying match to gasoline. One chapter read in a second-story girl’s bedroom on Ulverston Street in Oak Park, and the rest is history. That was 9 January. It’s 27 February today, and I have only a hundred pages left of the Goblet of Fire, book 4, for the uninitiated.
I was about to give up hope for the future of my “evangelization through intellectual prowess” campaign, when a dear friend of mine who is not a Christ-follower spied our bookshelf and told me that we had something in common. “What’s that’,” I asked. “We both love Harry Potter.” “Oh yeah,” I assured her. “We’re hooked.”
“Nicolas and I were going to buy you a copy, but we figured that because you guys are Christians you wouldn’t like books like that.”
Touché.
So, in an addition to amazingly wonderful conversations with Ally about sources and use of benevolent and malevolent supernatural power, about structures of power over and through the human soul, we see once again where by simply being who we are, stereotypes are challenged and overcome.
Now, the only remaining step is to deal with my budding obsession. The moment I start calling friends and colleagues Ron and Hermione and imagining that I am working at Hogwarts on a mission to defeat the evil Lord Voldemort will be the day I hang up my robe and wand. But all my friends at my HP fan group* assure me that what others call “obsession” is simply normal.
(*I’m not really a part of a fan group. It just seemed a funny thing to say… Really.)
Munchin' On Some Z 
You know, I find myself in conflict as a newly new, renewed Christian that I am so fond of Shakespeare. I mean, Hamlet? Falstaff and Iago? Some of my Christian friends crook their eyebrow and curl their lip in my direction as they see me carrying a copy of Henry the Fourth into Starbucks. Earlier that day we were talking about 2 Corinthians or the Sermon on the Mount. I mean, they don’t bring it up or anything. Am I being overly sensitive?
I got to lunch a little late the other day at my Wednesday secular buddy table and I know, in fact, I would swear that I overheard someone talking about nashvilleshakes.org. But, when I got there, “Oh, no… nothing. We weren’t talking about anything, dog. You see that basketball game? Memphis just gave it away, didn’t they?”
Maybe it’s nothing… But maybe I should keep my love of Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn to myself, eh? I don’t want to send the wrong message.
I didn’t see much of my wife last week. Reason: HP Book 6.
No leí los libros, pero en las películas admiro el humor inglés y la desfachatez con que se lo zampan a los niños. Me encanta como recrea el ambiente fascista en los liceos de Uruguay durante la dictadura cuando el Ministerio de Magia interviene la escuela. Los libros: no los quiero ni tocar, porque ya sabemos lo que va a pasar.
Abrazos.
ME
Thanks. I have caught myself feeling guilty for wanting to read a good fiction book instead of history/government/ or a book overtly Christian.
Or, you mean you listen to secular music? I confess, along with my tunes of eternal value I like music!
I’m still unsure why the battle between good and evil as portrayed in Harry Potter is so anti-Christian. Frankly, I just don’t see it. I mean, isn’t that what the Bible is all about? Good Vs. Evil and Moral Lessons 1-10. Just because the use the word ‘wizard’ and ‘magic’ that makes it anti-Christian? Get a grip.
Christ was raising folks from the Dead, or so the Bible would have you believe, and yet isn’t Necromancy forbidden in the Bible too? Ah yes, here we go! The Book of Deuteronomy (XVIII 9–12) explicitly warns the Israelites against the Canaanite practice of divination from the dead. This warning was not always heeded as King Saul has the Witch of Endor invoke the shade of Samuel using a magical amulet, for example. Later Christian writers rejected the idea that humans could bring back the spirits of the dead, and interpreted such shades as disguised demons, thus conflating necromancy with demon-summoning. So, Christ was going directly against this FORBIDDEN PRACTICE , not just raising the Spirit of Lazarus but his whole darn body, and he still got to go to Heaven? Doesn’t seem quite right, but then, we all know he was Daddy’s favorite.
Ah. The non sequitur.
In fact, a non sequitur fallacy within a literary non sequitur. Very compelling.
I think something most evangelical or radical Christians don’t understand is that the bible isn’t supposed to be interpreted as literal word. It’s composed of quirky stories with an important moral. You crazy Evangelicals need to calm down and stop believing anything that you hear. That would defeat the purpose of any theology because in reality, there all philosophies, and following any philosophy blindly “just because” is the worst thing you could possibly do regarding that philosophy.
That paragraph is sort of irrelevant to the topic at hand, but please listen to what I have to say regardless. On the Harry Potter topic, I just want to say that J.K. Rowling (the author of the series) wrote the books without any malicious purposes and wasn’t attempting to dismantle Christianity in any way. They’re just children’s books. There purpose is to entertain, not corrupt and certainly not to threaten. It’s people like those who think that Harry Potter is a threat to Christianity because it glorifies witchcraft that cause wars and spread hatred by filling people with paranoia and make people over analyze things. Seriously. Get a life.
Exucse me, I meant they’re all philosophies.
Did anybody note that Grant Fega didn’t actually read my blog? Grant, who’re you mad at bro? You’re in good company here. Was your alienated parent an “evangelical or radical christian”? Do you want to talk a bit? No offense bro. Down boy. Drop the bone. You are in good company here.
Haha sorry. I wasn’t talking to you guys. I did read your blog actually. I was just speaking in general. I didn’t mean to sound like a jerk.
I AM MATT DANIELS OMGS!
From the age of six Joyce, was educated by Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College, at Clane, and then at Belvedere College in Dublin (1893-97). In 1898 he entered the University College, Dublin. Joyce’s first publication was an essay on Ibsen’s play When We Dead Awaken. It appeared in the Fortnightly Review in 1900. At this time he also began writing lyric poems.
maan deez niggas be trippin harry potter aiint got no legit shit. its dumb fo all yals to think dat dayt muthafukas real dawg. i mean dam n manyou got bitxches up in hur talkin in spanish o sum gay shit. go back to mexio muthfuka seriously god.
MATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTSEX!
heyy grant. nice rant. god. calm down. poop over grant.
HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think that Harry Potter is beautiful. I Hate Harry Potter.
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