religion in Harry Potter?

[javasaurus]

Does Harry Potter go to church? They celebrate Halloween and Christmas (not Yule), Harry has a godfather, there is an afterlife, as demonstrated by the existence of Peeves and Nearly-Headless Nick and Moaning Murtle. It has been suggested online that Harry was raised Protestant, Ron is from a large Catholic family (stereotyping?), and that Hermione is Jewish (though she does send Harry a Christmas present). I don't remember if the graveyard scene in Goblet had a cross (movie or book). The Dursleys tell neighbors and relatives that Harry goes to a school called Saint Brutus'.

So I think church and God exist in the world of Harry Potter, but we are seeing the world through Harry's eyes, not an objective lens. If the Dursleys went to church it was to meet societal expectations, not to pray, and they would not have taken Harry, so there was really no religion in the Dursley house. And without a religious upbringing, Harry (and thus the audience) may be oblivious to the religious inclinations of those around him.

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

As I said, it's only a curious omission to Americans. In Britain, it really isn't talked about at all. It's not just her, it's the entire British culture.

My knee-jerk response is that you cannot disconnect the two, as each provides a code of conduct and thus must intermesh well to avoid hideous internal conflict within a society

But they already did, 400 years ago. That's the point and a reason religion is on the decline in the UK. England embraced Enlightenment philosophy almost as strongly as the American founding fathers did, but it happened across the board: the Anglican religion changed with the times (as it always has) to the point where Anglicans generally agree that the government fits their moral values. You really have to understand Anglicanism and how its different from other sects. There really is not the driving need for them to impose their morality from a faith standpoint into the political system.

If anything, they (well, we, including the American Episcopal Church) feel that society can decide a basic set of norms and as long as they're not hurt by it, what happens happens. Individual Anglicans are only responsible for themselves - the idea that permitting someone else to "sin" is itself a sin is something we've rejected for over a century.

That is not the Catholic view, nor is it the (typical) evangelical view, but it is the main reason England hasn't needed a revolution in centuries. It also fits the English temperament very well.

You have to remember that until very recently, England and Britain didn't really have such divergent cultures trying to live in the same place the way America does. The religion isn't a driving force between cultural differences or a deep source of cultural identity the way it's become in rural and urban America.

America, btw, didn't used to be this way - it was only in how the rural states reacted to the rapid change of culture in the cities through the 60s and 70s, AND more specifically, how influential church leaders used (abused) the media to gain power and money, that created the mindset that's destroying us today. Britain simply doesn't have that mindset, and really they can't understand it.

"Jesus he knows me" by Genesis, a satirical look at our televangelism, really didn't catch on in the UK - they just didn't understand how we could permit such people to get away with it without being laughed out of the country.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

ok, 340 years ago, in the restoration. they did try and let religion dominate the political sphere and all it got them was corruption, abuse, economic recession, executions galore, and the exile of a large part of the population to the colonies.

yes, they did have anti-dissension laws in place that punished many non-anglicans even as late as the early 19th century, but that was actually a political thing in that loyalty to the crown required acknowledging the crown as head of the church, remnants of Henry VIII (even though it was already a political non-entity). it was simply an easy form of political control, and in the end it backfired because it was the dissenters who, in order to survive and thrive in spite of the reduced rights, created the industrial revolution that eventually overthrew the power of the House of Lords.