“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” based on the fourth book of J.K. Rowling’s seven-book series, was released on November 18. Described as the darkest of the four movies, “Goblet of Fire” has grossed $244 million in North America since its weekend debut. As Harry Potter readers know, the books become progressively darker. One can only imagine what the movie version of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, will look like.

Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) ended with the apparent death of Sirius Black, Harry’s godfather. An enraged Harry explodes with anger and grief when he realizes that his own impulsiveness contributed to Sirius’s death, an impulsiveness born of not knowing the whole truth about his fate with Voldemort. He turns his rage on Hogwarts headmaster and mentor, Albus Dumbledore, breaking several objects in his office. Dumbledore tells Harry about a prophecy, which seems to indicate that Harry has the power to destroy Voldemort and must do so to survive.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince begins two weeks after the events in Book 5. Having learned from his mistakes, Dumbledore takes Harry under his tutelage and tells him practically everything, including what dangers lie ahead. Dumbledore knows time is short and the work is great. Heavy foreshadowing at the beginning of the story signifies the inevitable end.

The first two-thirds of the 652-page book focuses on a surprising mix of situations: teenage romance, Tom Riddle’s (Voldemort) family history, and Harry’s suspicion of nemeses Draco Malfoy and Professor Severus Snape. It appears Voldemort ordered Draco to murder Dumbledore and Snape made an Unbreakable Vow to perform the task should he fail. The boy wizard is convinced that Snape is still loyal to Voldemort.

Are Harry’s suspicions justified? In the first five books he was usually wrong, and readers have been conditioned not to rely too much on his sometimes hormone-addled judgment. In Half-Blood Prince, however, Harry seems to be closer to the truth than he ever realized. Or is he? The final chapters of Half-Blood Prince reinforce J.K. Rowling’s reputation as a master storyteller who’ll keep readers guessing and theorizing until the last chapter of the last book.

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.

Christians have debated religious doctrine like predestination versus man’s free will for centuries, and no doubt Christian Harry Potter fans recognize these ideas throughout the books. For example, after learning of the prophecy in Book 5, Harry is told he has the choice to fulfill it, yet he seems destined to fulfill it. He can walk away, leaving Voldemort to reign and terrorize, or he can embrace it, which will lead to Voldemort’s destruction – or his own.

Christians know the death of Christ served many purposes, the most important being his triumph over death. In an ultimate act of love for those he came to save, Christ sacrificed himself and suffered horribly for our sins. But in that act, Satan was defeated forever. Will the same be said of Lord Voldemort?

Once a mortal human named Tom Riddle, Voldemort chose the dark side and began a doomed quest for immortality. In Half-Blood Prince we’re introduced to the horcrux, a magical object used to conceal part of the soul to prevent death. To create a horcrux, a wizard must commit the ultimate act of evil — murder. Voldemort has created several. Harry’s task in the final book will be to find and destroy them all.

John Granger, an Orthodox Christian, college professor, and author of Looking for God in Harry Potter, has explored Christian themes in the series. In “Baptism into a Sacrificial Death,” he writes:

“Hor-crux” from the Latin would be “frightening or horrible” (horreo) and “cross” (crux) inviting the interpretation as a cross, in contrast to the way to immortality found in the life-saving sacrifice of Christ, founded on murdering others rather than one’s own ego concerns. The English reading from assonance (“whore cross”) suggests the meaning of the Latin.

Lord Voldemort, the arch villain, pursues an individual immortality apart from God and His means to our salvation (the Cross) by means of a pouring of his soul into physical objects apart from his body.

Voldemort represents man’s innate urge to avoid death, and Harry represents the power of sacrificial love to defeat it. At the end of each book, for example, he descends into the abyss, dies a figurative death, and is rescued/resurrected by a Christ-like figure.

The entire series is much more than a good-over-evil story, and I believe Rowling is saving the best for last. I predict “evil” Snape will emerge as a savior who’ll sacrifice himself to save Harry and everyone else from a dark world ruled by a Dark Lord. But the gravest of choices lies with Harry. In the words of Dumbledore, “Dark and difficult times lie ahead…Soon we must all face the choice between what is right…and what is easy.”

See Part I of this review.

Originally published December 21, 2005, on Townhall.com