Magic Unmoored

            I got the impression last class that as varied as our opinions of Harry Potter were there appeared to be a prevailing wonder as to why some parents would not want their children reading this. Why would take issue with it and try to ban it? This will be my attempt to explain one possible reason, and I’ll start by saying that I feel rather unqualified to write this post. I have only read the first book, I don’t have access to the mind of every parent, and I don’t know everything there is to know about real witchcraft and wizardry. But here it goes.

            One of the main complaints about the books that I have come across is its use of magic and sorcery, or more specifically its portrayal of them. In Rowling’s world magic is something for the every day. It is for doing the dishes, getting from one place to another, entertainment and communication. Also it is an inherited casual phenomenon, like eye color or having a dominate side. The characters train to use magic like we are trained to use our bodies to play sports or heads to solve problems. It seems that magic is dangerous only as much as the people who control it are. The same clumsiness that makes Neville blow up his potion would also probably make him something of a scary driver, and it seems like to train Malfoy with a wand is as dumb an idea as train him with a weapon. There seems to be nothing inherently more dangerous in magic than there is in cars (which are plenty dangerous if ill or maliciously handled).

            When looked at from a Christian world view, this is a flawed and problematic representation. If you insist on calling odd or supernatural occurrences “magic” then the Bible is full of “magic” but of only three kinds. One variety is the fake variety, where conmen are pretending to be magicians. Many of the Babylonian wise men and perhaps some Egyptian ones appear to be this kind. Then we have people acting through what is more properly called divine power and events caused by angles. Good examples of this are the prophets God is using to part seas, cause drought and call out plagues. They are acting as directed by God to be a witness to his power and plan. The third kind of “magic” (again such a misused and inadequate word) is also a form of spiritual power but of a sinister nature. These are people who really do have certain power but power that comes from demonic dealings. Examples would be the medium at En Dor that Saul consults (it doesn’t end well), or the masters of a girl possessed by a demon of “divination” in Philippi (lots of money to be made in fortune-telling there). These cases are always tied to very serious eternal and often earthly consequences. This is quietly literally dealing with devils.

            I am only familiar with medieval sorts of “magic,” but even in that there is very specific spiritual implications attached. I am not saying that these are necessary or even correct projections of the Cristian belief, but the basis is still very strongly there. The magic of Merlin and alchemists is really more of what we would think of as science today. Merlin can do all of this because he perfectly understands this physical world and how it relates to the spiritual, and alchemists use planets and seasons in their calculations because they recognize this is a universe is a complex creation that ties to the a spiritual Creation in particular ways. By this definition airplanes are magic because they use knowledge about air to function.

            The objection to Harry Potter then is it makes light of some serious things. Even though they celebrate Christmas, Hogwarts is not a Christian place with ghosts running around with nowhere to go. It has alchemy and mysticism all unmoored from their spiritual basis and consequence. The prophets did not take the power given to them lightly; even though it is from God and their on the right side, it’s not something to play with.

Well this is fast becoming a rant so I’ll end with this thought. While I am by no means condoning witch trials and similar things (nothing aggravates me more than actions like that taken in God’s name), most children have not had this kind of instruction when they start reading Harry Potter and just as I would not want my children to read a book about drug use without knowing what drugs can really do or that this is not something to bring into reality. However, when they’ve got that understanding there may be a lot they can learn about the world they live in through it (though it’s certainly not the highest on that reading list).