Can Christians Read Harry Potter?

I’m a fan of the Harry Potter books.

If you were to walk into a room of Christians and say those words, you would be met with anything from blank stares to an open revolt. These books are highly controversial within the Christian community, accused of promoting sorcery, witchcraft, pagan practices, and secular beliefs.

“My little ones have been asking to read Harry Potter,” one mother lamented, “…but I don’t want them turning into little witches!”

She then shared her personal solution: a “Christianized” version of Harry Potter, where the poor ten year old orphan raised by evolutionists, is rescued by fellow believers and taken to the Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles.

Let me start off by saying that while I would never go as far as the above mother, I completely understand these concerns and they should be taken seriously. For years, I was in the common Christian camp of thinking: Harry Potter was a piece of pop-literature to be scorned at best, and a dangerous work of paganism to be abhored at worse. Recently, however, I decided to read these books for myself and see what all the fuss was about.

My conclusion: I loved them. Let’s put it this way: The last three books are all between 600-700 pages long. I finished all three in less than a week. I couldn’t put them down. They were riveting.

Now that I’ve lost half my readers, let’s back up a little and clarify a few things

First, if reading these books violates your conscience, then don’t read them. 

Please. This is not a hill to die on. These books do not possess such great cultural or literary merit that you should ignore all personal conviction and read them anyway (no book does). If you truly believe, based on your reason and knowledge of Scripture that these books would be a sin for you to read, then it would be a sin for you to read them. 

This article is not intended to show you that these books are purely good or Christian (which they aren’t), or even to persuade you to read them. The purpose of this article is only to explain why I have found merit in these books, and to try and address the main concerns I have heard sincere believers bring against them.

Addressing The Witch in the Room

One of the biggest concerns from Christian audiences, is that these books bring readers into a magical world, devoid of a Divine figure or God, where there are all sorts of magical creatures including wizards, trolls, giants, ghosts, and *gasp*  even witches.

Let me begin by saying that Scripture is abundantly clear in its condemnation of witchcraft and sorcery. It’s an abomination before the Lord. (1 Chron. 10:13; Lev. 19:30, 20:6, 20:27; etc.)

However, most of these complaints seem to come from people who have never actually read the books for themselves. The creatures in these books are not the abominations Scripture speaks of, powered by the devil and full of occult and dark divination. There is no encouragement toward occult practices in these books. The magic of the world to which the reader is invited is entirely imaginary, inspired largely by the author’s childhood favorites, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. 

The magic in these stories are simply a part of this fantasy, where creatures are given special abilities and can join a contemporary march in the path paved before them – a path with talking animals, powerful rings, giants, talking scarecrows, and wizards that guard the earth. The magic is not the focus of the story. The magic is a tool to paint another world so we can more clearly perceive and understand our own. The battle between good and evil is played out in characters just removed enough for us to see them clearly, and yet, like ourselves in a way that acts almost as a mirror, revealing ourselves and our world in a way we may not otherwise see.

In other words, those who would be appaled at the idea of a magical creature such as a witch in the Harry Potter series, should, to remain consistent, be equally appalled at the idea of a magical creature like a witch in The Chronicles of Narnia or The Wizard of Oz. 

As Christian author Jason Grey states, “(Rowling) doesn’t necessarily employ magic as an endorsement of the occult, but rather as a literary device that serves to tell a larger story, which (in this case)…is less about wizardry than it is about valor, loyalty, and even faith.”

Why I Like the Harry Potter Books

1. The Harry Potter books are well-written

When I first started to read these books, I was not expecting to admit this. As someone who seldom enjoys the company of a book less than 100 years old, I looked at most contemporary fiction as not worth the reading, targeted mainly for a smart-phone addicted audience with the attention span of a goldfish – people seldom interested in the deeper and higher ideas of life and reality.

While surely much of contemporary fiction could fit into this category, the Harry Potter series certainly does not.

Is it Lewis or Tolkien? No. Is it something every person should read? No, of course not. But is it a book that merits consideration? Yes. After all, it is the most bestselling book series in all of history, changing the world of literature as we know it, and influencing an entire generation from childhood to maturity.

So why would someone in the company of great classics and thinkers of the ages, describe these children fantasies as well written?

They’re enjoyable to read

Not a very profound explanation, I know, but just because it seems obvious doesn’t mean we should disregard it as a criterion to good writing. These books are genuinely enjoyable to read.

They begin with an engaging, almost playful sentence, introducing you immediately to unexpected characters:

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

As the story progresses, the writing matures with the intended audience (and most likely Rowling herself), carefully crafting plot and characters that are next to genius. From the very first sentence, to the very last page, Harry Potter is intricately woven with intrigue, heroics, and realism. It is a gripping story well told.

The intricacies of plot

I haven’t read the books for a second time, but I plan to. The plot is intricate enough to where you wouldn’t get it all in a first read. Rowling was brilliant in the way she planned and orchestrated these books, and from the persepctive of someone who enjoys (and struggles) writing both fiction and nonfiction, the pure genius, organization, and compelling nature of her woven tale is mind-blowing to behold. There are aspects of the first book that become plot twists in the seventh. There are threads of mystery woven all the way through, all tied together in a glorious climax at the end. It is story-crafting at its finest.

The development of the characters

The characters of Harry Potter are unforgetable. Whether its the tormented evil of Draco Malfoy, the unpredictable genius of Luna Lovegood, or the desperate loyalty of Neville Longbottom, there are no two-dimensional side-kicks, only there to fluff the pages and provide some distracting nuance from the main plot. Throughout the seven books, each character becomes a fully rounded person, someone who earns and engages your loyalty or demands your distrust. The characters are crafted as carefully and grippingly as the story itself.

2. The Harry Potter books are immersed in truth

It may seem strange to ascribe this virtue to a fantasy, but the purpose of all good writing, (and conversely, all good fantasy) is the same: to tell what is true.

Stories do this particularly well, which is one of the reasons some of the most powerful messages of Christianity have been told through tales: Christian’s journey to the celestial city in Pilgrim’s Progress, the death and resurrection of Aslan in Narnia, and even the parables of Jesus himself, all display the power of good story telling at its finest.

The Harry Potter books are immersed deep in truth. I’m not claiming that Rowling is a Christian (although her books do contain strong Christian influences), but the worldview from which she writes is a true worldview – a world that reflects the nature of reality in God.

These books are riven with strong messages about the meaning of life, faithfulness, friendship, loyalty, kindness, courage, hope, and redemption. These are lessons children should be taught to embrace and emulate, not to scorn.

As Christian author Andy Naselli writes: (Harry Potter) consistently (includes) the three fundamental themes – echoes of Eden – that can be found as a subtext in almost all good literature: the beauty of creation, the appalling reality of evil, and the universal human longing for redemption and a better world.”

3. The Harry Potter books clearly portray good and evil

The characters of Harry Potter are realistic, which means they are flawed. This is what makes them human, interesting, and relatable. It is also what makes them impactful, teaching us clear messages about ourselves and our world. Neither the heroes nor the villians are one-dimensional sketches plopped solely into righteousness or evil. (A book that does that, doesn’t tell a true story). However, good and evil are clearly portrayed in the story. The battle between the two is raw, riveting and epic, but, like Another Story, good will triumph in the end.

4. Finally, the Harry Potter books tell a redemptive story

Scripture tells us never to scorn the truth even if it falls from the lips of pagans. We are to celebrate all that is good, beautiful, and noble, and whether or not these things come from a Christian, they are reflections of our created world and the fact that we are made in God’s image. This is why Paul quoted the pagan poets, Augustine encouraged believers to “pillage the Egyptians”, and John Calvin entreated his Church to read the great writers of Greece and Rome. We are to celebrate truth wherever we find it, and Harry Potter is filled with true and redemptive themes.

Andrew Peterson writes: “I was swept into the story in a way that very few books have ever done to me…We are free to enjoy the good and beautiful, even from the most unlikely places. We are free (and this is huge), to look for the light in people (and things!), to give them the benefit of the doubt, to laud their beauty, to outlove unloveliness, in short, to love as Christ loves us.”

Perhaps the book where these themes are most clearly portrayed is the last of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (*spoilers below*). This book gives the glorious climax to the grand battle at center stage – good and evil are thrown together in a last, desperate asualt, driven by the promise to which Harry clings: The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Naselli writes: “Self sacrifice is a central theme in all the books…Harry wins his battles not by wisdom and not by strength, but by things thought foolish and powerless by the world…Above all, he wins his battles by self-sacrificing love. At the climax of the book he walks calmly to his death, and his enemies laugh at his folly. He does not draw his wand; he does not fight; he simply gives himself up and Voldemort curses him with the curse of death. Precisely because he offers himself up to death and to defeat – just as does Christ – he conquers death, for it cannot hold him.”

Even more remarkable is the parallel that Harry’s ultimate sacrifice is what brings about the ruin of his great enemy. In striking Harry through the heart, Voldemort strikes his own, pushing himself to the very destruction he intended for Harry. Except Harry comes back again in triumph, and Voldemort is destroyed forever.

There were times when the parallels were so striking, so real, so intimately close that I found myself weeping in grief and joy. The reflection was riveting. It was a reflection of a Story better told.

Soli Deo Gloria,

 

 

 

 

*All photos are the property of the Warner Brothers, J.K. Rowling, and IMDB