Harry Potter and Christ Figures

[Mike Gray]

Well, since I've just started this group, I may as well begin with the
question I'm most interested in:

What do you think about Harry Potter's new status as a Christ figure
in Deathly Hallows?

This breaks down into several sub-questions:

- Do you agree that Harry is portrayed as such? I think the textual
evidence and various statements from Rowling make it pretty clear that
this is intentional - still, we could talk about that.

- What do you make of the significant differences between Harry Potter
and classic Christian conceptions of Christ. (I.e., Christ is
sinnless, omnipotent, absolutely unique, has ascended to heaven, will
return to "judge the quick and the dead.")

- Does this just mean that Harry is a Christ-figure only in a limited
sense - or does it amount to a challenge to re-think traditional
theological categories? (It's worth noting that various progressive
strains of theology - such as feminist theology - have proposed Christ-
figures very much of this more "human" sort.)

Mike Gray