I doubt she sat down and said - I'm going to write a Christian allegory. CS Lewis did, but nobody said that JKR did. She sat down to write a story about a magical world where love conquered all and whose major conflict was Good vs. Evil.

All Good vs. Evil have both a God and a Satan character. It's the formula of the theme.



Each of those stories is classical Good vs. Evil. Each of those mentors are God characters. None of them were written to spread Christianity like The Chronicles of Narnia, but they are Good vs. Evil stories. The good is always supremely wise, always (at least mostly) pure and knows things one can't figure out how s/he knows. The evil is usually very wise, nearly all-knowing, not pure, and has a major weak-spot that the Good doesn't, that the Good can exploit. They are "God characters" and "Satan characters" without actually representing God and Lucifer...

Nobody is saying that JKR decided to tell the story of Christ. Just that she followed the formula of the Good vs. Evil theme.

Why wouldn't she follow the good vs. evil theme? The best stories ever were written like that. I can't think of a single good book that didn't have an antagonist and protagonist.

I believe that is the definition of reading a hidden meaning into something, Arabella. For many people, evil is just that, evil. It is not representative of Satan, especially to someone who does not believe in Satan.
The only point I was trying to make, and perhaps I did not articulate well enough, is that ascribing the actions of fictional characters as being god-like or satan-like, is implying a meaning that the author did not necessarily intend. I believe that Harry Potter should be taken at face value; it's just a fun book to read.
Good vs. Evil is a very popular theme, psychoticinferno. Lots of great stories use that formula, but just as many don't. Alone Against the Atlantic is a great example.

I didn't say it was representative of Satan.

By definition, the wise, good, mentor character is the "God" character. He is not God, nor does he represent any sort of Christian myth. He is the "commander" of the good characters.

By definition, the leader of the evil is the "Satan" character. Evil is just evil. I agree. But when there is a leader of evil, he becomes the "Satan" character by being the leader of EVIL.

They aren't representations of those "people", but if the story has a leader of good and a leader of evil (which by formula, pretty much all Good vs. Evil stories do) they are the "God" and the "Satan".

That's all I've been trying to say. That in the formula of a Good vs. Evil story there is usually a supreme example of Good who commands the agents of good (Dumbledore who I'd been calling "God") and a supreme example of Evil who commands the agents of evil (Voldemort who I'd been calling "Satan.")

In other words, "God" and "Satan" could be replaced with "Supreme example and leader of Good" and "Supreme example and leader of Evil."

Hey.....brother,First of all thank you for the topic.
But you mustn't say that,it's nonesense.How comes that harry is Jesus??!!:huh:
you can say that Voldemort is the devil and Malfoy's family are the romans but you can niether say that harry is the Jesus nor Dumbledor is god!!!!!!!:huh:
and I see that the series has nothing to do with bible or any religious belief.

yours sincerely:Ginny Weasely

People associate devil with an evil character. However, in Hebrew, which, to me, holds more water than Christianity, as it has been around for thousands more years, simply means adversary, or slanderer. So, to me, Voldemort is not the devil character, that "title" goes to the Ministry of Magic. There is more than one side. There is the "Good" the "Bad" and the "So good it's bad" The MoM falls into the last category, as they care so much about catching and imprisoning death eaters that they would actually much rather kill them than gain immensely useful information from them. as was shown in Goblet of Fire where Fudge destroyed Bartemius Crouch with use of the dementor. I think that in situations like this, the last category would be more deadly than the simply "bad" category.

Arabella, I think you may be missing the point slightly. If you want to use the words satan and god as epithet's of good and evil... Ok, but saying that all good is autimatically god-like, and all evil is autimatically satan-like, seems to be getting things round the wrong way.
You could say that 'satan' is always evil, but not that evil is always like satan, just as you could say that 'god' is always good (of course it does all depend on your perception of good and evil) but not that good is always like God.
To say what you said would be like taking 'god' and 'satan' as two -extreme- facts, and that everything can be compared to them, in reality, the ideas of good and evil can be compared to the ideas of a god and a devil, but these comparisions cant be taken as facts.

In Harry Potter, you can see similarities to many different works of fiction, many legends and many facts. Its interesting to see these and to search for them..uncover similarities that you dont think that anybody else knows... but i dont think that JK wrote Harry Potter to show these, definetly not, thats just there- most fictions are based on the same basic ideas, as has been said, but thats it. although the books are universal now, its not like say... art, which were often used in the place of an ambassador, and often had layers of hidden meaning, but Harry Potter? not exactly international relations kind of stuff... Its fun, to read and to read into, but thats not the sole purpose of the books.

Clara}~

In the Chronicles of Narnia there are many different references to the bible.The Harry Potter series is mostly just good vs. evil.

i actually wrote a report on this . harry potter & biblical symbolisms.
apologies to anyone that doesnt think that there arent any symbols , i mean no harry is not christ & dumbledore is not God. but think about the small stuff, the unicorn, phoenix, snake . the number 12 . what peter pettigrew stood as. and i personally think that are many symbols. JKR even says that shes religious so if there are some relations she wouldnt be suprised [i think she said something like that along the lines correct me if im wrong]

I don't think that Jo meant Harry to be like any biblical or religious figure.

I think her hidden meanings aren't so hidden: that love conquers all and is the single greatest force that has ever and will ever exist. I agree with her.
Also, I think she used the death eaters and Voldemort as symbolism for the evils that we have in our own world. Again, very obvious but also very significant.

A lot of biblical stories follow common story lines. So for me, there isn't a surprise that HP could match up with the bible in some way. I seriously doubt, though, that JK sat down and decided to write a book with hidden religious meaning. I think that she did what all authors do, she wrote her story for others to enjoy and interpret in their own way. Religion is close to some people's hearts, so that is what they're going to find in the series. Even if JK is religous, I don't think she was trying to create religious books.

I find this entire thread somewhat baffling. Considering that some Christians find witchcraft disconcerting at best, I can't imagine drawing such strong parallels deliberately. Of course JKR provided us with a young inexperienced protagonist in Harry, the series really is about him coming to himself. Jesus was young. The Dark Lord certainly appears to be a strong antagonist but the series starts with him attempting a rebirth...this is a strikingly different. Satan never lost power (I don't believe being cast into hell is lost power only exile) and had to attempt to regain it, the struggles in the series aren't really tied to anything biblical. As acidpop stated above, I doubt that JK sat down and decided to write a book with hidden religious meaning as well. Common problems and desires of humankind just don't change. It is inevitable that stories are going to carry messages that people interpret as parables. I'd be more apt to imagine JK as inspired by Greek and Roman myths than Christianity.


oh and the whole Slytherins as Romans thing, well that just hurts