Christianity in the books of J.K. Rowling JONATHAN TULLOCH


God and the trouble with Harry


The Harry Potter stories have dominated the bookshelves and cinemas of a generation of children, and quite a few adults. But are his critics, including the Pope and George W. Bush, right to warn against them as an anti-Christian influence? One Benedictine monk thinks not


chess set costing £300, and to date six films accruing revenue of US$5.5 billion, with the latest, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, being the current no. 1 box office hit in Britain. Given J.K. Rowling’s staggering success, it can sometimes be forgotten that Harry Potter was conceived on a Manchester train, developed in an Edinburgh cafe with a table- side pram, and birthed through a manual typewriter. In other words, the product Harry Potter, a brand now valued at £15bn, began as any other work of literature, in the bustling mind and yearning fingers of an author. And no matter how good the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, might have been, the publisher advised its writer to get a day job as there wasn’t much money to be made in this line of business, a prophecy that nearly became self-fulfilling as the first


T


hese are the numbers: 400 million copies sold in 67 languages, first editions worth £25,000, a £160m theme park spread over 20 acres, a


print run was only 1,000 copies. Then came the US auction, and the magic began. In his journey to the heart of our culture,


Harry and his friends (and enemies) have fallen in with some strange companions. Fundamentalist Christians, taking exception to the central role of magic in the books, have objected, and in at least one publicised event, copies were burnt. Persistent rumours from the White House asserted that J.K. Rowling was turned down for a Presidential Medal of Freedom by the George W. Bush era because of the unease felt by many of his administra- tion at the anti-Christian nature of the books. In 2003, when he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was quoted in L’Osservatore Romanoas warning that Harry Potter created an inverted and confused spir- ituality in the way it “subtly seduces young readers and distorts Christianity in the soul before it can develop”. Now a new voice has joined the debate, in the unlikely person of a Benedictine monk,


Fr Luke Bell of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight, and author of Baptising Harry Potter: a Christian reading of J.K. Rowling. In between the usual occupations of his prayer life, showing visitors around the abbey and running its bookshop, Fr Luke has written a compelling work on the subject. What makes his book unusual, however, is that it highlights the Christian values inherent in the novels. Fr Luke, a former English teacher, discov-


ered Harry Potter in an unlikely atmosphere for a monk – the palaver of a wedding morn- ing. Due to be his friend’s best man, Fr Luke retreated from the bustle of last-minute preparation, and taking sanctuary in the book shelf plucked down a volume at random. Instantly, he was immersed in the world of J.K. Rowling. Whether he eventually made it to the ceremony is unrecorded, but since his book is dedicated to his godson Aelred, his friend’s second son, one presumes he must have done. For Fr Luke, the criticisms of fundamen- talist Christians are easily dismissed. He


12 | THE TABLET | 1 January 2011


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