Harry Potter and Insights on God

I am currently leading a discussion group/class on the connections between Harry Potter and scripture. The purpose of the class is to look at possible religious themes in Rowling's work as a way of better understanding our faith. I have done a similar class on the C.S. Lewis' book "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." With Lewis it was easy to compare and contrast between fiction and scripture because the connections were much more obvious. As I have been looking at Harry Potter with a similar goal in mind I have struggle with how to read the characters in Harry Potter. The discussion this week centered in part around the question of whether Harry Potter's encounter with Voldemort as a baby should be read as an Easter narrative or as Christmas. If we are to take it as Easter, then Harry living represents the resurrection and the triumph of Good over Evil, of Christ over Sin. The Christmas connections are just as strong however, since now hope is coming into the world, but what that hope is we are not sure of.
All of this pondering lead me to a remarkable insight. The challenge with any attempt to understand Harry Potter's religious significance is that our information is incomplete. Is Harry Potter meant to be seen as the Christ figure? Or is Dumbledore? I suddenly understand how things must have been for the disciples, crowds, and even the priests during Jesus' time, asking the question "who is this man." How could anyone begin to understand Jesus when his story was not yet done. The miracle of his death and resurrection is something almost too impossible to believe would happen even when you know it did, let alone before hand.
Theoretically the questions with Harry Potter have already been answered, copies of the last book are probably already being edited and polished off and ready to print, the mystery of what happens next is in part resolved; but for those of us who have not yet seen the book, we are left to try and ponder who is Harry Potter, what hope does he bring for Hogwarts, and how does he help us to understand the mystery of a man 2,000 years ago who changed the world with his teachings.

Harry Potter, Tolkien, and Scripture

I am preparing a class on Harry Potter for parents and kids at the moment. My hope is to show how Harry Potter retells Biblical stories and messages in a different way. I hope that by studying Harry Potter the kids, and the parents, will have a better understanding of what it means to be a Christian. I do not think I am off base on this, from what I know, Rowling, like Tolkien and Lewis deliberately wove religion into her writings.

As I was beginning to think about how we could find parts of Scripture in fiction it made me begin to wonder if we actually need to be thinking of new ways for people to experience Scripture. For hundreds of years we have read the Bible, or other have read the Bible and told it to us, and WORDS (caps used for emphasis) have been used to convey the meaning of Scripture. I think even for those people who desire to take the Bible to the letter would have to agree that what is truly important is not the literal WORDS on the page, but the IDEAS behind them. I think what is truly sacred, truly inspired by God is the meaning of the Bible, the message of God's continuing love for us that is stretches from Genesis to Revelation. Part of the idea behind "The Message" by Eugene Peterson, is the idea that people today will better grasp Scripture if it is written in a way that captures the heart of the words, and casts them in a way that has meaning for people today. I know for a number of people this is quite true. I also know that some people love and treasure the translations of scripture that they grew up with. The Christmas story is best told to me in the voice of Linus Van Pelt, from "A Charlie Brown Christmas." People learn best in different ways, what seems to be most important to me is not the words we use, but the ideas we convey. Is it possible for people to experience God better through the Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, than it is through the Bible? Does this go against the importance of Scripture? Or, does this actually make Scripture to be something more than the mere object of the Bible, but in fact reinforce that Scripture truly is God to speaking to us, through the Bible, the words of J.K. Rowling, or Ian McKellen as Gandalf?