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I was already a Harry Potter fan when I discovered John Granger a couple of years ago. I can't remember how I found his (old) site, but I remember devouring his work. I was still a closeted Potter fan at the time, so it was refreshing to see a fellow Christian so open about his appreciation for the books.

I quoted Granger in my weekly Townhall.com column (with SPOILERS), where I reviewed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and briefly discussed Christian themes and symbolism. I'll elaborate on these and other themes in future posts.

Also see "Christian themes abound in Potter," by religion reporter Jeffrey Weiss. He begins:

J.K. Rowling gets the last laugh on the dwindling number of conservative Christians who have attacked her "Harry Potter" saga over the past decade: The most important plot point of the seventh and final book is unambiguously Christian.

Ms. Rowling cleverly scattered so many red herrings amongst the loaves and fishes in the previous books that she made it difficult to see the trail clearly except in retrospect. The Potter story is not a linear Christian allegory, no modern day Pilgrim's Progress. And Harry's World is insistently devoid of explicit religion, right through the final chapter.

It definitely helps to know what "unambiguously Christian" means. As Weiss writes, concepts like loyalty, love, friendship, etc., are common among the world's various religions, but what makes something "Christian"?

Continue reading Deathly Hallows 'unambiguously Christian'

Update: Here's another, way-better-than-mine review of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe over at Biblical Christianity.

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It was excellent! Better than Goblet of Fire.

I've just returned from seeing The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and I loved it from the opening scene to the closing.

The movie added a few scenes that weren't in the book, but it was still enjoyable for a purist like me. In fact, I think the WWII blitzkrieg opening, though not in the book, was very effective in establishing the characters and subsequent action.

All the young actors were good, especially the boy who played Edmund. He was appropriately naughty and heroic. Tilda Swinton as the White Witch gave me chills, and her seduction of and cruelty to Edmund were compelling. The musical score was hauntingly beautiful.

Is anyone here old enough to remember the movie Candleshoe? I think that was the first "English manor" kids movie I ever watched. British children's movies have a certain charm that American movies don't. The English accents, an air of formality, cavernous mansions, and dark and dreary scenery remind me of Agatha Christie’s “cozy” mysteries, some of my favorite books.

The Christian imagery is even more obvious on screen. In fact, you'd have to be completely ignorant of the Bible to miss it.

I give “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” a thumbs-up, and I can’t wait for the inevitable movie adaptations of the rest of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books.

Related posts:

• Temptation, Disobedience, Forgiveness, and Redemption in Narnia
• ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ Premieres on Friday
• Christian Imagery in Narnia

(Disney image)

Addendum: Now this is a review!

Soundtrack review at Infuze Magazine's Narnia Blog.

It's finally up. Part II of "Harry Potter and the Charmed Christians":

Scholars have debated the literary merits of J.K. Rowling’s books, but whether high- or low-brow literature, one thing is certain: Harry Potter is a cultural phenomenon that cannot be dismissed. For Christians concerned about the so-called occult aspects of the books, the Christian themes and symbols cannot be ignored.

As a former skeptic who has read the books, I can attest to the powerful Christian-themed elements. From characters’ names to plot formula, the series is replete with references to the salvation and redemption narratives and the unavoidable choice between what is right and what is wrong.

Read the rest.

Some of you have been sitting on the edge of your seats, waiting for weeks to read my Very Important Review of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

I don’t know what it is exactly about J.K. Rowling's books that have captured the imaginations of millions, including me. I can't remember when I've been so caught up in a series of books or movies. And discussing Harry Potter theories? What's that about?

One of the many reasons I "came out" as a fan was because I simply had to talk and write about these books with other people instead of speculating in my head or writing it down for no one to read but me. I'm not obsessed. Don't get me wrong. It's just fun to talk about what could happen in the final book and the meaning of things that happened in previous books.

Back to the Goblet of Fire. The movie was extremely dark and heavy, visually and metaphorically, to the point of distraction, as it was designed to be. It dragged in places and raced by in others. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is an action-packed book, and movie director Mike Newell's adaptation is certainly a valiant effort to do the book justice. If the movie had followed the book exactly as written, I'd still be in the theater right now.

The difficulty with a franchise as successful as Harry Potter is that a legion of fans have so much to say about what the movies get wrong. Screenwriters and directors must cut. Some cuts I didn't mind, but others I didn't like at all. In fact, some scenes crucial to the plot were inexplicably rejected.

I didn't mind them gutting the scenes before the Quidditch World Cup, but why eliminate the exciting tournament itself? As I watched the opening of the tournament, followed by the campsite scene, I wondered how in the world non-book readers or newcomers to the movies could've understood what was going on. Some fans argue that the movie was made for fanatics fans; others say it was made for non-fans.

Another difficulty in adapting these books to the screen is the lapse between the books and movies. We're on Book 6 in the series but only on Movie 4. Die-hard fans know what’s going to happen. Rowling's richly complex plots aren’t rendered well on the big screen, and there’s too much back story for non-readers to “get” it. Woe to the movie-goer who hasn’t read the books or seen the first three movies.

(In fact, I'd LOVE to hear from people who saw "Goblet of Fire" but haven't seen the other three movies or read any of the books.)

For instance, how will they know or care why Neville was most affected by the Cruciatus Curse demonstration in the classroom scene with Barty Crouch, Jr./Mad-Eye Moody?

How will they know or care why Hermione was so upset with Ron? There was no build-up to his admiration for Viktor Krum or jealousy toward both Viktor and Hermione. And there was no buildup to Hermione and Viktor, either. He'd been spending so much time in the library to get close to Hermione, who didn't seem to notice him at first, unlike in the movie. That's an important subtlety fans appreciate, but it's completely lost in the movie.

Here's a list of scenes from the movie that weren't in the book that I noticed and disliked the most. I tried to keep them in the same order as they appeared in the movie, but some are out of place:

Continue reading Goblet of Fire Review: Differences Between the Book and the Movie

Harry Potter has to be the most loved, hated, revered, frustrated and misunderstood boy who ever lived.

When he was a baby, his parents were killed by a really bad man who also tried to kill him. As a result, Harry has a wicked (pardon the pun) lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. The Dursleys, the aunt and uncle who raised Harry, treat him like a red-headed stepchild. On top of that, his beloved, formerly imprisoned godfather and his protector-headmaster were both killed. Right in front of him. A rather ordinary teenaged boy who happens to be an orphaned wizard, Harry is believed to be the “Chosen One” destined to kill or be killed by the man who hunts him, the evil Lord What’s-his-name.

Can’t the kid just go to his prom and worry about pimples, algebra, and the SATs like other 16-year-olds?

Harry Potter, with the world on his shoulders, has mesmerized the globe. The first six books of British author J.K. Rowling’s seven-book series – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone for us illiterate Americans), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – have been translated into 63 languages and have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.

Continue reading Harry Potter and the Charmed Christians I