AN ORTHODOX VIEW OF HARRY POTTER

[OrthodoxyOrDeath]

Yes, Nicholas, demonic activity is all in your mind.

In the 1941 preface of his book, Lewis revealed two of the greatest mistakes in humanity's beliefs about demons:

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased with both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

An even greater error, and the one most valued by Lewis' demonic characters, is the fusion of the two errors

[CGW]

Yes, Nicholas, demonic activity is all in your mind.

Lewis, after all, was writing fiction about real devils, not fact about fictional ones. And especially not fact about fictional ones that aren't even there in fiction, much less in fact.

[Theodora Elizabeth]

Nothing like coming to a conversation more than six months late...

Reading through this thread tonight has really made me rethink my books. I've been into fantasy for years (and also Star Trek for part of it), ever since I read The Hobbit in high school English class my junior year.

In addition to Tolkien and Harry Potter, I also have two multiple-books series - by Robert Jordan and Mercedes Lackey. Both involve magic of the "genetic" sort. The Jordan books are filled with rather mild sexual innuendo, and the Lackey books have several with a homosexual (portrayed very sympathetically) as the hero. The Jordan books have a young man as the "hero" that has the same overtones of Christ that Potter does (even down to "prophecies" that he will break the people before saving them). I have several other fantasy series that have more or less the same sort of thing.

Five or so years ago I pitched the trashy "bodice-ribber" women's romance novels (soft core porn really). I thought the fantasy was "harmless" - definitely not. I want to have children someday (after I find a husband, first of all) and I would definitely NOT want them to read this stuff. Potter has some very scary parts, as do the others.

Just my two cents...

Off to weed out my books (I would ordinarily give them to the library or sell them on Amazon, but I'm just going to pitch these, I believe.)

Theodora Elizabeth

[Christopher]

Hey folks:

I thought I would throw in my two cents here. I think that major dilemma in letting children read HP is similar to dressing up for Halloween. I mean, a child has innocence and does not know the history of nor the significance of either. We, as adults do. A child certainly does no evil but whether we do right by letting children engage in these activities remains to be seen.

As for HP, having studied the occult somewhat, very little in those books is invented-- it is almost ALL based off of real witch coven activity in the U.K. The symbolism in the HP books can be found in any occult activity. Make no mistake-- the author, Rowling, knows a lot more about the occult than she would let in on.

The patriarchate of Jerusalem has the best set of web pages on magic that I've ever seen. Check it out-- there are about five. See if you can't find some parallels in the HP books.

I have also read that that the flying in the HP books is the analogy to what is known as "astral projection" in occult circles and that the types of "spells" cast in the HP books parallel that which real life witches try to do. As for the reality of spellcasting and the paranormal, we see very little of this in the United States but it is extremely common in societies and regions (i.e. Africa and Asia) that are primitive. Read the book, "Blessed Ephraim of Zaire" (I think that's the title) for some pretty graphic examples of this. Or get in touch with some orthodox folks in Indonesia-- I met some while in seminary and the stories of what they tell are unbelievable. Seraphim Rose also has written some on this issue.

--Chris

[Theodora Elizabeth]

It's ironic, I got off the computer last night and started weeding through my books...I can't seem to get rid of them just yet. I'm in the process of boxing them up, to sit in my storage space for a while. I just hate throwing out books.

Theodora Elizabeth

[Theodora Elizabeth]

I broke down and ended up posting the books I didn't want anymore for sale on Amazon. I'm not so rich I can pass money up, and anyway, the sale of the rejects are paying for new Orthodox books!

Theodora Elizabeth

[Anastasios]

Orthodox Tradition, which is simply the best traditional Orthodox periodical published in English these days, had an article this year about Harry Potter that was fairly positive.

anastasios