XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien, alt.fan.harry-potter
From: giles@poetic.com
On 10/18/2010 2:38 AM, Dirk Thierbach wrote:
> Troels Forchhammer wrote:
>> In message richard e white
>> spoke these staves:
>
>>> If a spiritual vision is the center of the idea, then JKR's books
>>> don't fit.
>
>> Right, I quite agree.
>
> I'm actually not so sure. Critics thought for a long time that
> the LotR was completely devoid of any reference to Christian themes.
>
>> And Rowling's books also doesn't have the same fundamental Christian
>> basis to them that do Tolkien's books and the Narnia books -- there
>> is, in my honest opinion, no sense of providence in Rowling's work,
>
> Just because Tolkien worked in the "providence" theme doesn't
> mean that Rowling should, too.
>
>> none of the 'trust in God' that I get both in Lewis' Narnia books
>
> Well, Narnia is in many places a very thinly veiled Christian
> allegory. If Lewis just built in the "trust of God" theme, the Narnia
> books would be a lot less annoying in this respect.
>
>> and, far more subtly, in Tolkien's work. In both the Narnia books and
>> the Middle-earth books, the Christianity of the author is worked into
>> the causal basis of their sub-created world:
>
> But Harry Potter is also about the fight of Good against Evil, and
> about the fact that power corrupts, and that sometimes people have to
> make sacrifices to be able to save others.
>
> I have not read the HP books often enough to be able to draw a clear
> parallel to Christian ideas, but I wouldn't rule out that some
> closer inspection would find the one thing or the other.
>
> Maybe I should do a re-reading :-)
>
> - Dirk
The idea of Good vs. Evil is not peculiar to the Christian tradition.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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