Prompt – A book you meant to read in 2019.
Medium – Book
About the Book – Written by a monk, ‘Baptizing Harry Potter’ offers a Christian take on Harry Potter. Moving away from the idea that anything with magic, witches or wizards must be inherently evil, Luke Bell suggests that the stories of Harry Potter have a deep mysticism to them, alongside a real understanding of the good and evil in the world. He draws parallels between Biblical events, things that happen in Harry Potter and other cultural references, such as Shakespeare and Greek mythology. He investigates themes such as forgiveness, sacrifice and resurrection which are as profound and meaningful in Harry Potter as they are in the Bible, and demonstrates the values of peace, unity and love which are present in the halls of Hogwarts.
My Rating – 7/10. Baptizing Harry Potter demonstrates a real understanding of the ways in which popular culture can mirror the teachings of Christianity and Jesus. As a young teenager, I adored Harry Potter, but was told by members of my church that it was Satanic. Luckily, my father was as much of a fan of Harry Potter as I was, and was able to demonstrate to me how Harry Potter could be used as an extended metaphor for things that happened in the Bible and for values such as resurrection, goodness and love. His arguments, and those of Luke Bell, marry up well in the book and give a real, learned and thorough demonstration of how the stories of Harry Potter can be seen to mirror those in the Bible.
Bell sets out the book in themes, investigating the ideas of sacrifice, humility, love and compassion. He looks not just at Harry, but at other characters in the stories as well, demonstrating instances where Biblical teachings and values are most on display. I particularly liked his depiction of Voldemort – and the ways in which Voldemort shows the complete absence of God, goodness, unity and in the last book, strength. I think the only reasons that I marked this book down were due to some slightly more spurious links between the Bible and Harry Potter, and the slightly off-beat humour used by the author which I don’t think added to the text! But otherwise, eminently readable and a book I will recommend!
Would I read it again? It will go on our Christian book shelf and we’ll see. I am now slightly desperate to re-read Harry Potter though!
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