The other day I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie. Like the other seven, it is a lot of fun with dragons, goblins, snakes and adventures aplenty as Harry, Ron and Hermione battle against ‘you-know-who’.
Over the last thirteen years, I have enjoyed Harry Potter, taking the books on summer holidays and then enjoying the films. Whilst some Christian groups have suggested that the exploration of wizardry and magic is dangerous, it strikes me as a fairly harmless yarn exploring good and evil.
In the last book, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ the battle focuses on Harry’s need to find and destroy ‘Horcruxes’. These are valuable objects in which his nemesis, Voldemort, has hidden parts of his soul in an attempt to live forever. Now I don’t want to ruin the story but three characters die, two of them willingly laying down their lives for a greater good. One of them, however, comes back to life- thanks to the Resurrection stone.
Now these books are not aiming to tell a Christian story and Harry Potter is no Jesus Christ but the books do deal with many Christian themes including the need to name that which is evil, the power of self-sacrifice and the nature of eternal life. As Jesus approached his own death he explained to the disciples, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?”
In the world of Harry Potter this is a truth that Harry begins to comprehend but it is one that Voldemort, to his cost, never understood.
No comments:
Post a Comment