Chapter 8: Philosopher or Sorcerer? And what is the difference anyway?

This is an important chapter! 
-First of all, we have now topped 500 views! 
-Secondly, Dr. Poe took a look at the blog and said he really like it!
-Thirdly, I have been told that Sam is using this blog as a resource for her 12 page paper on why Harry Potter isn't evil. (Good luck on that paper Sam!)
-And last but not least, I have spent my entire evening going over the hour of lecture audio and turning the best parts into little videos so that you can hear the best parts of the lectures without listening to the whole thing and so that you can put my notes in better context.


Hope you enjoy what we have in store this chapter and if you haven't already, like the page on Facebook so that you can give me some feedback!


-V. B.

What is a world view? The core beliefs and values of a culture.

What is the Gospel?

1. Creator God (if you don’t accept that, nothing else makes sense)

2. God spoke through the prophets (what makes the Bible 

    difference, is the fact that it has prophecy [and they come true])

3. Jesus is fully human and fully God incarnate.

4. Jesus died for our sins.

5. Jesus rose from the dead.

6. Jesus is exulted to the right hand of God.

7. Gift of the Holy Spirit

8. Second coming

C. S. Lewis works with different parts of the Gospel in each of his book. Generally, if a book uses one part of the Gospel story, that is what makes it a “Christian” book. Rowling does it differently than Lewis, so we will look at that.

Lewis says that the best thing for Christianity is not “more little Christian books,” but rather a bunch of books about anything and everything that just so happen to be written by Christians. The Inklings saw Jane Austen as a wonderful “Christian” writer because Christianity was all through her books even though she wasn’t defending Christianity from anyone nor was Christianity the focus of her books.

Alchemy and Philosophy?

Sir Isaac Newton was obsessed with Alchemy. At the time, his only focus was trying to turn lead into gold. Now we see him as a “scientist” because of all of his other findings he bumped into along the way, but there were no “scientists” in his time, only philosophers. That is to say, there were people who were interested in “Natural Philosophy,” the study of the way things are.

In Harry Potter, Potions class is really nothing more than just a romantic view of Chemistry or Pharmacy. It is a way of talking about science in a Supernaturalist sort of way. This is the difference between Naturalists and Supernaturalists. Naturalists see what is here, where Supernaturalists know that there is something beyond this world. 

Rowling (like Tolkien) acknowledges that there is “something else out there” but doesn’t talk about God directly.

Druids 

When Caesar took over the Western Europe, he came in contact with the Celtic and Germanic people. Caesar loved war and saw himself much like Alexander the Great, and yet he had never come in contact with anything like the Celts every before. And when he did, it wasn’t pretty.

The gods take the Life Force out of those that die. 

If something is going wrong, you must give the gods what they want, so you have to give them Life Force. You don’t want to give them your life force, but children are an easy source of life source. So you would meet the gods usually in a scared grove of trees and then give the baby to the Druid priests (Druids were the gods and spirits) to kill the baby. 

Caesar was appalled by this. He exported some of these Celts to an area in Asia Minor later called Galatia. He also outlawed human sacrifice. As time goes by, Rome falls and the southern parts of Europe becomes Christian. Rome never really got a foothold in the northern regions.

Fairytales

In the Hansel and Gretel the witch is the memory of this old religion. Rumpelstiltskin is very much the embodiment of a druid spirit because he wants the first born child. Rapunzel is a young, virgin priestess being kept by a witch.

Snow White is an allegory of the Gospel. Snow eats the apple (sin) because of temptation (Satan), then because of Charming’s love (God/Christ’s love) she is brought back to life (redemption of the church to everlasting life with Christ). 

The Matrix also has the sacrificial death, even though it is very much a secular story.

St. Patrick

Went into these Celtic regions and into their scared groves and cast the demons out of the groves. When the Irish heard that they must eat the “flesh” and drink the “blood” Christ, the had mass conversions. Typically, the queen of a region would convert and then convince the king to convert. After these mass conversions, there were mass missionary missions to the other Celtic regions.

In the old mythologies, there is a creator God, above the other gods, who will come back one day to judge the world. This ties in well what the already know.

Philosopher or Sorcerer?

In most cultures, science and religion are the one and the same because they both deal with the pursuit of knowledge. This is why Rowling called the book The Philosopher’s Stone, because alchemy was a philosopher’s realm. It is because American culture does not fully understand this view of knowledge and philosophy that the title was changed in America.

The Sword of Gryffindor

The sword in the stone will only yield to the right man. Aragorn’s sword (Narsil) can only be wielded by the right heir. Wagner’s opera has a similar sword story. Where does this come from? The Sword of the Spirit. (Ephesians 6:11-17 and the armor of God) 

Life is precious because God loves the world. Our culture has gotten rid of God, and now we are loosing our regard for life.

Beginning in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, we are introduced to the idea that there is an existence beyond this world. This theme will build with each book.

What points of the Gospel is Rowling dealing with? Lily Potter offers her life in place of Harry’s life. (Substitution) We will deal with this more later.

The Christian apologetics of Harry Potter lie within the fact that Rowling weaves a story that makes sense and is believable, and yet it follows the path of the Gospels. Our culture no longer knows the basic ideas of the Gospel, so Rowling is building a foundation on which to base a very basic knowledge.