What a Git! Time Magazine muggle says God is dead
Posted July 30, 2007
It's risky to review a book before you've read a single word. But that's what a Time Magazine writer did earlier this month. "If you want to know who dies in Harry Potter, the answer is easy: God," wrote Lev Grossman.
Somebody must've struck Grossman with an Imperius curse before he penned his provocative (and inaccurate) article. God, it turns out, is alive and well in Harry Potter's universe.
[Warning: Contains details you won't want to read if you're still reading the book.]
Grossman claims [Time, July 12] that J.K. Rowling has created a "radical" God-free wonderland:
"Harry Potter lives in a world free of any religion or spirituality of any kind. He lives surrounded by ghosts but has no one to pray to, even if he were so inclined, which he isn't. Rowling has more in common with celebrity atheists like Christopher Hitchens than she has with Tolkien and Lewis," writes Grossman.
"What does Harry have instead of God? Rowling's answer, at once glib and profound, is that Harry's power comes from love. This charming notion represents a cultural sea change. In the new millennium, magic comes not from God or nature or anything grander or more mystical than a mere human emotion. In choosing Rowling as the reigning dreamer of our era, we have chosen a writer who dreams of a secular, bureaucratized, all-too-human sorcery, in which psychology and technology have superseded the sacred."
The title of the seventh and final book in the series, you'll recall, is "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Hallow meaning "holy" -- as in "Hallowed be thy name." It's a surprising title for a book that is supposedly "free of any religion or spirituality of any kind."
The book does not mention the word "God." But it quote the Christian scriptures twice:
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:21)
"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." (1 Corinthians 15:26)
One verse memorializes Harry's parents, who died trying to save his life. The other marks the tombstone of Dumbledore's beloved mother and sister. One passage urges people to store up riches in heaven instead of on earth. The other passages promises eternal life.
Harry and Hermione visit the graveyard on Christmas Eve, the light of a church illuminating the markers as they read.
This book, thankfully, is not a sermon. But neither is it atheism with a wand.
Rowling ponders what theologian Paul Tillich called the "ultimate concern." What happens to us when we die. She examines good and evil, love and hate, revenge and mercy.
Rowling's characters have not only bodies, but souls. Her heroes and heroines refuse to return evil for evil. They are willing to lay down their lives for their friends. They believe that love never fails. They hope in the resurrection.
The serpent may bite their heels, but before page 759, we hope, Harry Potter and company will tread on his head.
They are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses as they battle the lord of this world, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Ultimately, Harry is not defeated -- even momentarily -- by the Evil One. He gives up his life, quietly, willingly, as a ransom for others. And by dying, he conquers death. Where does Harry go, moments before rising again? To the cross -- Kings Cross is the title of the chapter which precedes the resurrection.
Once risen, Harry has a glorified body -- still flesh and blood and yet impervious to evil magic.
Harry is motivated by love. So are James and Lilly and Dumbledore and Ron and Hermione.
Grossman calls this emphasis on love a "cultural sea change." But it's hardly a new phenomenon. Jesus taught: "No greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends." St. John wrote: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son." And St. Paul wrote: "Love never fails."