I'm going to like this book. It's just what I needed and I can tell that he and I are on the same wavelength of understanding.
What am I talking about? Read here first.
First off, I think it's hard to criticize a book you haven't read. Read the Harry Potter books or read this book. John Granger will help you to see what they really are about.
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I really appreciated Mr. Granger's personal story about how he came to read and love these books. He is a devout Christian. He and his wife home school 7 children. He knows all about literary "stuff" in a way that I so do not. He read the first book overnight (b/c of course you can't put them down), loved it, had his mind completely changed about the books and went out to buy the other 2 (there are 7 total now).
This is my favorite quote out of the introduction: "Of course people everywhere love these books, I thought. These stories resonate with the Great Story for which we all are designed." That is exactly why I love these HP and Lord of the Rings. B/c God designed me to love stories similar to His.
Furthermore:
"My thesis is essentially this: As images of God designed for life in Christ, all humans naturally resonate with stories that reflect the greatest story ever told - the story of God who became man. The Harry Potter novels, the best-selling books in publishing history, touch our hearts because they contain themes, imagery, and engaging stories that echo the Great Story we are wired to receive and respond to. Looking for God in Harry Potter is a step-by-step walk through these images, themes, and stories to reveal the core of the Harry Potter books and why they are so popular: they address the need (really an innate need akin to our need for physical nourishment) that we have for spiritual nourishment in the form of edifying, imaginative experience of life in Christ.
Because the Harry Potter books serve this purpose, they are excellent vehicles for parents wanting to share the Christian messages of love's victory over death, our relationship to God the Father through Christ, even of Christ's two natures and singular essence. Based on our reading of Harry Potter, I have had conversations with my children about heaven and hell, the work of the devil in the world, and our hope in Christ.
C.S. Lewis said that the best books 'instruct while delighting.'"
"Because of all the sound and fury in the popular media and coming from many pulpits, it many seem incredible to you that harry Potter is not contrary to Christian faith but a series of books nurturing faith, especially when their Christian and literary antecedents are understood."
Well said Mr. Granger! I can't wait to read more!
hey eva- did you buy this book or get it from the library? just wanted to mention that this first edition is incomplete- written i think before book 5 came out. he took that book and wrote a fuller, complete version after book 7 was published, and it was published under a new title (but it is the first book, but expanded) found here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/How-Harry-Cast-His-Spell/dp/1414321880/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1303318810&sr=8-1
just thought i'd mention it!
Megan