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Harry Potter is Jesus Christ

We recently finished listening to the audiobook of the last Harry Potter book. There seemed to be quite a few supposal elements in the story that gave me the same vague kind of disappointment I got from reading the Narnia Chronicles as a youth. I can’t believe that these are original observations (edit: they are not), but you can tell me what you think after the jump.

COMPULSORY SPOILER ALERT

A lot of Christians seem to take exception to the Harry Potter series. But there seem to be some pretty obvious analogies between the narratives of Harry Potter and Jesus that are worth pointing out.

The three Deathly Hallows seem to be analogs to the holy trinity:

  • The wand is God the All-Father, the vengeful, wrathful deity of the Old Testament.
  • The stone is Jesus Christ, the healer, the one as what brings folks back from the dead.
  • The cloak is the Holy Spirit, eternal, inviolate, invisible and protecting.

Also, Harry sort of dies in the end, but comes back to life.

H-A-R-R-Y P-O-T-T-E-R
1-2-3-4-5 1-2-3-4-5-6
J-E-S-U-S C-H-R-I-S-T

Five letters in the first name. Six letters in the last.

Potter. Carpenter. Both work with their hands.

Honestly, I don’t know anything about Rowling’s theological disposition. This could all be bupkis. They are just obvious correlations that occur to me. Of course, even though the hero may have a thousand faces, the stories he tells are all pretty much the same. Let me know what you think.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 8:06 pm and is filed under Amusing, Books, Literature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Harry Potter is Jesus Christ”

  1. Jessica Marie Says:
    August 26th, 2007 at 8:32 pm

    I’m pretty sure that Rowling intentionally put those likenesses in there. Then again, I’m a Christian, and I see God everywhere; perhaps I’m biased. But I’m also into literature, and I know a thing or two about good religious literature and literature itself, so….I suppose everyone thinks their own opinion is valid.

  2. Stephen Says:
    August 27th, 2007 at 9:10 pm

    Nostradamus predicted WWIII.

  3. benny p Says:
    October 7th, 2007 at 4:16 pm

    Hmmm. I am NOT a christian and I think the comparison is a bit over reaching. The similarities to the Grail myth cycle are far more convincing (granted; the Grail myth is heavy on the Christ symbolism in its way- with early Saxon influences- arguably integrated into the Christ myth as it expanded north into Europe).

    As far as letter counting and numerology… save it for Boggle!

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