Review date: November 2002
Reviewed in: Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology
Reviewed by: David C Meredith, Smithton-Culloden Free Church, Inverness
The Harry Potter phenomenon cannot be ignored. The books have sold 66 million copies and pundits reckon that the tale is up there with Coca Cola in the way it has reached deep into the hearts of local communities.
Plyming attempts to ask the question, 'what is this book about?' He reacts against two mistaken approaches; the first is to view the Harry Potter series as a series of analogies to the Christian faith, seeing Dumbledore as an Aslan-type figure and Hogwarts as Heaven, the second is to view them as some sort of covert occult handbook. He wants us to simply read the books and engage with the issues.
The book identifies four themes raised in the Potter series: 'transformation of character, 'choices', 'good and evil' and 'relationships'. Paul dealt with the Athenians in Acts 17; we use them as a basis for sharing our faith.
This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to relate to contemporary society. It is the best book I have read on the issue. The conclusion of the book is that the Potter series is simply full of allusions which are ideally suited for starting off deeper discussions. The author argues that this is popular apologetics at its best and I wholeheartedly agree with him.
This is a book for the personal evangelist, not for the conspiracy theorist!
Reviewed in: ANVIL Volume 19 No2
Review date: 2002
It can hardly have failed to pass anyone's attention that J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books have taken the book market by storm. With the advent of the recent feature film the hype and marketing opportunities have been immense, yet alongside this there has been, in Christian circles, a great deal of caution and concern expressed about the subject matter and occult influences which the books appear at first glance to encourage. It is against this backdroop that both [Philip Plyming's Grove book and Francis Bridger's 'A Charmed Life'] have been written to help Christians make sense of this phenomena and to make valued judgements as to whether Harry Potter is 'safe'.
Both these books set out to give an overview of the world and ideas behind the Potter books and seek to draw Christian parallels in the stories. The basic premise for both Bridger and Plyming is that we are not living in a Christian society but a post Christian one and that we should not castigate Rowling for writing what are entertaining and well written books. In fact Bridger points out clearly that many books written by authors that Christians trust such as Tolkein and Lewis contain 'dark' ideas and violence which are not necessarily suitable for young children.
Plyming in particular quotes the work of Americal author Richard Abnes who has highlighted the links between the world of Harry Potter and that of the occult. Unfortunately he rather sets Abnes up as an Aunt Sally admitting that he makes a good argument but accusing him of being too literalistic and thus unable to see the good which the stories contain, suggesting that he needs to be more imaginative in his approach. While a Grove book does not give a great deal of space for detailed argument I felt that this was a poor way to deal with a genuine concern held by many Christians of the links to the occult in Rowling's work.
Bridger on the other hand makes a well argued case that while the themes of the books might be perceived as dangerous and ungodly at first glance a more detailed and careful study rather than the usual Chrsitian 'shoot first and ask questions later' is what is required. More importantly he does not suggest at any point that we should be uncritical, quite the opposite, but that our critique should be nuanced and positive: '...our criticism must be the concerned and compassionate criticsm of a friend, not just the spiteful and self-righteous criticism of a foe' (133)
Unlike Plyming he does not dismiss the arguments of those who see danger in the world of Harry Potter as being too literalistic. Instead he calls them to re-examine the text in a more positive light, seeing the books as a doorway to explaining the Christian Gospel if we will take the risk to use what he describes as the '...appropriate elements of Potterworld as a potential resource in our on going efforts to help people understand the Christian faith.' (137)
For many Christians these two books may well raise more questions than they answer but they do lay before us the challenge of how we can reach the present culture with the Gospel. Both Bridger and Plyming believe firmly that the 'good' in these books far outweighs the 'evil' and that Harry Potter offers us a way in to our culture with the Gospel. In some respects I feel they have both dismissed rather too easily the dangers of the elements of the occult that they both admit the books draw on, but at the same time the argument they promote in favour of the books is both wise and persuasive. As Plyming says, 'Harry Potter is not a Christian story, and its message should never be described as Christian, but it has helped us in our reflection on how we can share our Christian faith in relevant ways to a society we want to understand'(23).