Galen Crew

Harry Potter is a profoundly Christian story, but most people don't realize. J.K. Rowling even included scripture directly in the book, and she explained why in an interview… First notice the deep parallels: a "chosen one" saves the world from evil through love and sacrifice. Christ came from the forgotten backwater of Nazareth ("Can anything good come from there?"), and we first meet Harry in the cupboard under the stairs. Both die and resurrect to save the world, and even Harry's moniker "the Chosen One" recalls the word Christ, "the anointed one." Humanity's redemption begins with a parent's decision to sacrifice her / himself out of love for her child / his children, and Voldemort / death is only defeated after what first seems like a resounding victory for evil. In Rowling's world, magic is real and active, but hidden. Reality is larger than it appears, and there is a dimension to the world that most people never see. Just as wizards live in the same physical world as muggles, believers live alongside the non-religious, yet they perceive a different order of meaning, danger, beauty, and possibility. Some muggles simply cannot see magic, but others endeavor to actively suppress it. At Godric's Hollow, on the grave of Harry's parents, we read a line from Paul to the Corinthians: "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." On another grave, a line from the Sermon on the Mount: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Rowling confirmed why in an interview: "They're very British books. So on a very practical note Harry was going to find biblical quotations on tombstones…I think those two particular quotations he finds on the tombstones at Godric's Hollow, they almost epitomize the whole series."