Why I Enjoy Harry Potter

I just finished an email to a friend who had asked why so many Christians my age (and younger) enjoy the Harry Potter books and films. The Harry Potter stories have, ever since they came out, been something that the Christian church has divided over. Point in fact, my parents don't like me bringing the books home or watching the movies, because of the part magic plays in the stories. I know my parents are not the only ones that have reservations and questions about the Harry Potter films.

I'm going tonight to see the new one, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which has gotten great reviews from both secular and Christian movie reviewers. I thought, in light of that, I would post the email I just sent to this friend, in case anyone else might have the same question: Why would I spend time watching the movies and reading the books?

Note: Two things to be aware of: (1) this was originally an email, so it reads like an email and (2) the question was why Christian's enjoy the books, so my comments look at how the Harry Potter books reconcile with a Biblical worldview - not that they 'are Christian books' - but rather, how does the message, themes, story agree with and/or conflict with the message of Scripture. Please, if you're not a Christian, don't take this as a, "He's making them Christian books when they're just stories." :-)

Worth reading: World Magazine's Review and New Testament Pauline Scholar Ben Witherington III's review.

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[SPOILER ALERT: This was written to an audience that won't likely ever read the books, so it talks about the storyline of all of them - right up to the last book.]

On the most basic level, we enjoy them for the same reason anyone enjoys them - Christian or non-Christian. They're well written. They're fun stories that weave the reality of life, friendships, and tragedies into the life of the characters. They're fantastic, in that they carry the imagination like few books do these days. It's the same reasons that Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' and Lewis 'Chronicles of Narnia' still captivate the imagination and mind of both adults and children. They are stories of good fighting evil, of loyalty in friendship, of growing up, of making mistakes and learning from them.

Which, is also why, as a Christian, I really enjoy them. The very foundations of the Harry Potter stories are things that reflect a Biblical worldview. In a post-modern world, where nothing is right and we hate to speak of Sadam Hussein as evil or terrorists as evil, the Harry Potter stories declare, strongly and boldly, that the Potter world is a world of good & evil. There's no vagueness in it. And it is clear that the good side has won before and will win in the end, but only if good people choose to do something about it. Very much like Paul, who calls us to fight the good fight, to push boldly forward in this battle against the dark powers of this world.

Even more so, the stories are founded on the premise that the greatest power, greater than any magic, strength, or ability, is the power of sacrificial love. I'm assuming you likely won't read the books anytime soon, so I won't be giving away anything. But the premise of the book is that Harry Potter's mother died, sacrificing herself, to protect him. That love then, throughout Harry's life as an orphan, is what protects him - it 'seals' him. And it's that sacrifice and that love that Voldemort, the bad guy, spends the entire series battling against - to no avail. The last book (which the movies haven't come out yet), ends in Harry sacrificing his life for his friends, for his school, for his family. And, once again, it is what breaks the powers of Voldemort and evil. It's the one thing that Voldemort can't get his head around - because he can't imagine a world in which his life and his ambitions aren't the most important - and it ruins him. And yet, the answer of the Harry Potter series is that the greatest power, the greatest act, the greatest thing we can ever do is lay down our lives for others - even to the point of death (it echoes so strongly Christ's words to his disciples, 'greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends).

And that's why I, and I think why many of my friends, really enjoy the books. They're fun, they're exciting - but above all, the values they uphold and that they show to be worthwhile are values of friendship, loyalty, sacrifice, and love. Often Harry Potter disobeys someone or fails to trust others, but it almost always ends up with him paying the consequences - someone else is hurt or put in danger.

Now, as for the place of magic in the stories. The reality is, and any Christian I know who's read the books seems to agree, that the magic is the stage for the story, it's not the story. There's sure to be better analogies, but it's like kids playing cops & robbers. We let them shoot each other, 'rob' things, etc. - because we know it's them using their imagination to have fun, to wrestle with the ideas - as small as they are - that there are good guys and bad guys in the world. But, they know that growing up being a robber isn't an okay thing and that shooting people or stealing things isn't okay. It's similar in these stories. The magic is part of the story telling, but a small part. The themes that come behind the magic are themes of faith - in ourselves and others - of serving others through our abilities (the 'magic'), and of growing up and developing confidence in who we are. At the same time, in the books, there's a very clear delineation between what's appropriate and what's not - in other words, what's okay magic (magic that serves and protects others) vs. evil magic (that harms, injures, or kills others).

J.K. Rowling, an Anglican Christian, has created a world - using the same literary methods of Tolkien and Lewis - where there is good and evil. Where there are choices we make and we pay the consequences for them. And, ultimately, that the greatest choice that has ever been made for us - or we can make for others - is to lay down one's life for another.