Harry Potter Author Reveals Books’ Christian Allegory, Her Struggling Faith
Friday, Oct. 18, 2007 Posted: 9:11:34AM EST
After years of averting questions on whether Christian themes were present in her wildly popular Harry Potter books, author J.K. Rowling finally opened up this week about the Christian allegory in her latest book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
J.K. Rowling speaks at a press conference at the first stop of the J.K. Rowling Open Book Tour at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday, Oct. 15, 2007. Ms. Rowling will be reading from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, answering questions and signing books for 1,600 students from the Los Angeles Unified School District. (Photo: AP Images / Scholastic, Matt Sayles)
During a press conference at the kick-off of her “Open Book Tour” on Monday, the British author told reporters that while religious themes were always present she purposely refrained from referencing any particular religion in order to conceal the ending.
“To me, [the religious parallels have] always been obvious,” Rowling said. “But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.”
And where did the story end up? (Spoiler warning: Read no further if you don't want to find out what happens.)
Apparently, the last installment of the series is about resurrection and life after death.
In “Deathly Hallows,” Harry visits his parents’ graves at Godric’s Hallow and sees two biblical references on his parents’ tombstones, reading: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” and "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
The first refers to 1 Corinthians 15:26 and the second is a direct quote from Jesus in Matthew 6:19.
By the end of the book, Harry becomes the "Master of Death" and “resurrects” from the dead the spirits of his parents, his godfather, Sirius Black and his old teacher Remus Lupin.
"They're very British books, so on a very practical note Harry was going to find biblical quotations on tombstones," Rowling explained. "[But] I think those two particular quotations he finds on the tombstones at Godric's Hollow, they sum up — they almost epitomize the whole series."
The book also begins with two religiously-themed epigraphs – one Christian, the other pagan.
Even though her books contain religious themes, the church-going author revealed that she struggles with believing in a basic Christian tenet of life after death.
"The truth is that, like Graham Greene, my faith is sometimes that my faith will return. It's something I struggle with a lot," Rowling admitted. "On any given moment if you asked me [if] I believe in life after death, I think if you polled me regularly through the week, I think I would come down on the side of yes — that I do believe in life after death. [But] it's something that I wrestle with a lot. It preoccupies me a lot, and I think that's very obvious within the books.”
Rowling was raised Christian in the Anglican Church and currently attends the Church of Scotland.
However, many conservative Christian leaders have strong denounced the author’s books as anything but detrimental to Christians and children, saying that it promotes witchcraft and the occult.
James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, had publicly criticized Harry Potter books.
“[I]t's difficult to ignore the effects such stories (albeit imaginary) might have on young, impressionable minds,” said Dobson in a statement noting the trend toward witchcraft and New Age ideology.
