Mommy Brain

I know some of you want to click off this post after reading the title. And that’s okay. But I hope you won’t. I hope you’ll hear me out. Most of you know my feelings on the Harry Potter books. Our family loves Harry and his world in the same way we love Narnia, and Kevin and I see no conflict between our Christian beliefs and our enjoyment of all things Harry.

If you are at all in doubt about the Harry Potter books, or you’ve decided against them without reading any of them, or if you love them but aren’t sure why, you should read this book.

Mr. Granger has written a book that explores the Christian themes in Harry Potter and also helps to explain why J. K. Rowling’s series is not harmful to our children, and in fact are books we should be encouraging our children to read because of the central themes of love versus evil, self-sacrifice, and doing the right thing even when it is difficult.

The author didn’t start out as a Harry Potter fan. Quite the contrary. From his introduction:

“I am what reporters without fail call a “traditional Christian.” Given that they use this description for Christian believers ranging from snake handlers in Appalachia to Tridentine Mass Roman Catholics, the phrase is robbed of much meaning. But as I fall somewhere between the ends of that spectrum (near the Mere Christianity of C. S. Lewis), I can accept the tag. My wife and I have seven children, and we consider it our chief responsibility to raise our children in the context of our faith so they can live fully human lives. Without being paranoid or over-sheltering, we have decided that for our family that means church attendance and family prayers, as well as homeschooling and living without television. Mary and I are also pretty careful about what books we choose to read to the children or what titles we allow them to read. Harry Potter, consequently, was not welcome in my home when I first heard about him….

My oldest daughter, then eleven, was given a paperback copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by our pediatrician, who happens to be a thoughtful mother of four children and an evangelical Christian to boot. Now that Harry was in my house, I had to figure out what to do with him. I elected to read the book Hannah had been given, if only to explain to my daughter why she wasn’t allowed to read it. I wanted to be able to point out specific passages so she could see for herself why we don’t read such trash, however popular it may be.

You can guess the rest of the story, I suppose. I read through the night, and ashamed of my judging a book by its readers, bought the other two books then available early the next morning…. I began reading the books to my younger children that night and encouraged - nigh on “required” - that the older kids read them.”

What could make a Bible-believing, cautious, homeschooling father change his mind about the Harry Potter books? It was the content. He took the time to actually read a Harry Potter book, and then make his judgment. I have no quarrel with people who have read one of Rowling’s books and decided they are not for their family, but many of the objections I hear from Christians are based on hearsay and snap judgments, not because of knowledge of the books themselves.

“Despite having forbidden my children to read the Rowling books, reading them myself has convinced me that the magic in Harry Potter is no more likely to encourage real-life witchcraft than time travel in science fiction novels encourages readers to seek passage to previous centuries. Loving families have much to celebrate in these stories and little, if anything, to fear.

I say this without hesitation because the magic in Harry Potter is not “sorcery” or invocational magic. In keeping with a long tradition of English fantasy, the magic practiced in the Potter books, by hero and villain alike, is incantational magic, a magic that shows - in story form - our human thirst for a reality beyond the physical world around us.

The difference between invocational and incantational magic isn’t something we all learned in the womb, so let me explain. Invocational means literally “to call in.” Magic of this sort is usually referred to as sorcery. Scripture warns that “calling in” demonic principalities and powers for personal power and advantage is dangerously stupid. History books, revealed tradition, and fantasy fiction (think Dr. Faustus) that touch on sorcery do so in order to show us that the unbridled pursuit of power and advantage via black magic promises a tragic end. But there is no invocational sorcery in the Harry Potter books. Even the most evil wizards do their nasty magic with their spells; not one character in any of the six books ever calls in evil spirits. Not once….

What about the title of the first book in the Potter series? If there’s no sorcery in these books, how come the first book and movie are titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? Well, because that isn’t the title of the first book. Arthur Levine, under whose imprint the books are published by Scholastic in the United States, changed the title from Philosopher’s Stone to Sorcerer’s Stone because he was sure that no American would buy a book with philosophy in the title.

Granger goes farther than stating that the Harry Potter books aren’t harmful for our children. He firmly believes that these are great books, even classics, in the great tradition of English literature, which predominantly comes from a Christian worldview.

“I hae no evangelical cause or agenda here in discussing the Christian content of these books. My only hope is that readers will come to a greater appreciation of these works via the discussion of Harry Potter as traditional English literature, which, again, is an overwhelmingly Christian subject. William Shakespeare’s plays and James Joyce’s novels are impenetrable outside some appreciation of their spiritual content and the traditions of English literature. Joanne Rowling’s stories are no different.

If readers want an exclusively secular view of the books - that is, a reading of them outside of the context and traditions in which they are written - this is probably not their book. English literature (Harry Potter is undeniably root-and-branch English literature) is as Christian as Tibetan culture is Buddhist and Saudi politics is Islamic.

Denying this is not “having a broad mind” but living in a fantasy. Likewise, refusing to see the Christian elements in Harry Potter and insisting it is demonic is not a greater piety or fidelity to the faith; it is just a reflection of not understanding the place of literature in the spiritual life, of not understanding the Christian tradition of English literature, and of not understanding Harry Potter.”

“The great writers of fiction understand and embrace the fact that their novels act as detailed little worlds that serve a mythological function in a profane culture. In our culture - a culture in which religious worship has been cast as “the opiate of the ignorant” - fiction, sport, and popular entertainment touch us where we live, feeding oru innate hunger for some experience of a gerater existence than our flat, mundane concerns.

This being the case, there must be something about the Potter books that raises them above the great mass of books being sold today, because they are obviously satisfying this need more than their competitors. I believe this “something” is that part of them connects with our desire for Christian content and meaning.

It’s been said that “all souls are Christian souls.” Obviously, this does not mean that everyone is a professing Christian; instead, it points to the doctrine that says all men are made by God’s creative word and designed to receive that same word - because there is a correspondence (amounting to identity) between human intellect or logic and the Logos of God that created man and the world. It is implicit in human design that we long for Christ and the experience of the Great Story.

Even in our post-Christian culture, consequently, it is possible to see two truths in the great success of the Potter stories:

~The great mass of people, despite materialist immunizations and naturalist booster shots, still long for explicitly Christian spiritual experiences.

~The prevalent culture is so profane and bereft of what is good, true, and beautiful that our desire for these things is overwhelming when we are presented with what we crave.

Hence, Potter-mania. There are three reasons, then, why these books are so popular:

~They teach us traditional doctrines we long to hear.
~They give us some vicarious, imaginative experience of the truth of these doctrines.
~They deliver it all inside a wonderfully engaging, entertaining story.

Perhaps it seems like a stretch to say Harry Potter has taken the world by storm because the world wants desperately to experience Christian truths. I really believe that’s the reason, however. We are designed for a relationship with our Creator. The language of this relationship that speaks most directly to the human heart is the imagery and symbols of the Christian church. And since our fallen humanity and culture restrict our ability to seek this relationship directly, we seek to satisfy our spiritual needs in our entertainments. Those entertainments that artfully retell the Christian story with the Christian answers to life’s big questions are often the most popular because they meet the needs of the modern reader most effectively.

It is no accident, consequently, that the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkein, C. S. Lewis, and J. K. Rowling are the best sellers of our time. The books of these writers have more in common than just their popularity with readers of all ages and nationalities. These books all essentially disguise or hide theology within their stories.

“As it is, the Harry Potter books are a gift to the world and especially to the Christian community, a gift that should be celebrated from the housetops. We live in a world of demeaning entertainments and distracting “goodies” that divert our attention from the essentials and diminish our capacity to focus on the means to cheat death. Into this world comes Harry Potter, a delightful story overflowing with magic and laguhter as well as images and meaningful stories that foster our greater life in Christ. Joining in Harry’s adventures in our imaginations, we are trained in the “stock responses,” conditioned to make the hard, right choices for the good, and taught to look to Love himself as the answer to a world enamored of sin and death.

I do not know the details of Rowling’s religious confession besides what is reported in our Muggle media, namely, that she is a member of the Church of Scotland and that she says her faith is key to undertanding the books. I am grateful to her, whatever her intentions or religious beliefs may really be, for the boon she has offered to the world through the Harry Potter novels.

I close by repeating the response C. S. Lewis made to Christian critics who objected to the magic in his Narnia series:

Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid uopn us for nearly a hundred years.

The above quotes come from the first and last sections of Mr. Granger’s excellent book. The middle section is spent dissecting the specific Christian imagery, symbols, and words in the Harry Potter books. Don’t just take my word for it. This book will give you some of the information you need to make an informed decision about the series. And then, hopefully, you’ll pick up one of the books and see for yourself.

Special thanks to my dear friend, Michelle, for loaning me her copy of this book, and for many hours of conversation about our faith, our kids, and books, books, books. Here’s to many more (books and hours of conversation)!