christian book review harry potter

How to go to Heaven

How to get right with god.

What should be the Christian view of Harry Potter?

For further study, related articles, subscribe to the, question of the week.

Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox!

• Featured Essay The Love of God An essay by Sam Storms Read Now
• Faithfulness of God
• Saving Grace
• Adoption by God

Most Popular

• Gender Identity
• Trusting God
• The Holiness of God
• See All Essays

• Conference Media
• Featured Essay Resurrection of Jesus An essay by Benjamin Shaw Read Now
• Death of Christ
• Resurrection of Jesus
• Church and State
• Sovereignty of God
• Faith and Works
• The Carson Center
• The Keller Center
• New City Catechism
• Publications
• Read the Bible

U.S. Edition

• Arts & Culture
• Bible & Theology
• Christian Living
• Current Events
• Faith & Work
• As In Heaven
• Gospelbound
• Post-Christianity?
• TGC Podcast
• You're Not Crazy
• Churches Planting Churches
• Help Me Teach The Bible
• Word Of The Week
• Upcoming Events
• Past Conference Media
• Foundation Documents
• Church Directory
• Global Resourcing
• Donate to TGC

To All The World

The world is a confusing place right now. We believe that faithful proclamation of the gospel is what our hostile and disoriented world needs. Do you believe that too? Help TGC bring biblical wisdom to the confusing issues across the world by making a gift to our international work.

Harry Potter and Christians

More by erik.

This weekend the last of the Harry Potter movies opens in theaters. There is little debate that author J.K. Rowling has captivated a generation with her books about the British wizard and his epic adventures. The attending films have just increased the impact.

One aspect of the Harry Potter phenomenon that has been particularly interesting to me, as an evangelical observer, is the Christian reaction.

CHRISTIANS WARMING UP to the WIZARD?

In short, it seems that as the movies have gained momentum they have become more acceptable for people within broader evangelicalism. Looking back at the early days, judging from the evangelical reaction, it seemed as though these books and movies were characterized as overtly demonic and expressly anti-God. Now it seems, judging by the chatter, that the series is either accepted or rejected based upon your liking of the genre or the story rather than the supposed spiritual agenda of the author.

I was interested to read Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s column today in the Wall Street Journal. She was observing much of the same development of tolerance within the Christian tent.

She writes :

In its early years, “Harry Potter” was a litmus test of orthodoxy for some conservative Christians, who expressed concern over its portrayal of witchcraft. A Christian lawyer sued a public library for encouraging young readers to check out the series. Texas Pastor John Hagee called the books a “precursor to witchcraft.” In 2005 a Canadian website published a letter opposing the books written by Pope Benedict XVI when he was Cardinal Ratzinger. (In 2009, the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published a favorable review, seeming to reverse course on the series.) The hysteria has largely died down, and not many religious leaders asked their flocks to avoid the final movie, which opens today. Potter observers cite a few possible reasons for the waning concern, including a natural desire to move on to other entertainment issues, but also an interest in the themes that unfolded.

Pulliam Bailey also reminds us that Ms Rowling identifies herself as a Christian who was widely influenced by writers such as C.S. Lewis. Rowling even said, “To me, the religious parallels have always been obvious…But I never wanted to talk too openly about it, because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.”

THINK, LISTEN & ENGAGE for a MOMENT

I am not going to attempt to persuade consciences or preferences on this movie. In fact, I aim to stay neutral in this post. However, it is here that I think it is helpful for Christians to at least think and listen for a moment.

What do we have in the Harry Potter series? We have an enemy who threatens to destroy as he pushes his wicked agenda. We have a hero character who seems unlikely and weak, yet uniquely powerful and driven. He is characterized by self-sacrifice, mission, the honor of his parents, vindication of good, and friendship. He is willing to sacrifice himself for the benefit of others and the defeat of evil. Potter is called the chosen one who fights the evil one and must ultimately defeat death.

If we stop right there we have to say that this sounds very familiar to us as Christians. It sounds a lot like the story-line of the Bible. Of course it is not exact and there are obvious breakdowns here (I would never say that Potter is a type of Christ, rather he is a hero ). However, you have to admit that the drama of Harry Potter is at least echoing the drama of the gospel.

According to Pulliam Bailey: Rowling suggested that the two Bible verses found on tombstones in the final book almost epitomized the whole series: “And the last enemy that shall be defeated is death” and “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

This is why I find it so odd that Christians have been so opposed and distant from the cultural phenomenon while non-Christians are so enamored by the story. This cultural fascination with a reflection of the biblical story seems to be a natural springboard for communicating the story of the gospel.

Instead, the world around us has assumed that the Christians are really about speaking out against magic rather than trumpeting the story of the hero par-excellence , Jesus Christ.

The world around is captivated by the story. It seems that more Evangelicals are as well. It seems like a great time to leverage some of the theatrical excitement and showcase the glory of Christ.

Erik Raymond is the senior pastor at Redeemer Fellowship Church in Metro Boston. He and his wife, Christie, have six children. He blogs at Ordinary Pastor . You can follow him on Twitter .

Recent Reads March 2024

Preaching Notes: Think GPS not Teleprompter

Recent Reads February 2024

Recent Reads: January

Christmas Meditation: The Surprising Pairing of Humility with Glory

Other Blogs

• Where Do I Start?
• Our Beliefs
• Our Philosophy and Practice
• Our Ratings
• Frequently Asked Questions
• What Our Readers Say
• How to Submit a Book for Review
• Latest Reviews
• Starred Reviews
• Picture Books
• Easy Readers
• Middle Grades
• Family Read Alouds
• The Good Book
• Redeemed Reader Series
• The Hive: Resources from Gladys Hunt
• Reflections
• Your Account
• Golden Key Fellowship Benefits
• Silver Key Fellowship Benefits
• Free Member Printable Resources

Click here for a FREE Best Bibles Guide

So your kid is reading harry potter…. a christian family’s response.

Please note: this is a personal account of one family’s actual experience, NOT a Redeemed Reader staff-wide recommendation that you read  Harry Potter . This post is about how to handle books your kids want to read that have potential issues, not a discussion of the merits or demerits of the Harry Potter books in particular.

As soon as my daughter turned 11, she began asking when she could start the Harry Potter books. Why 11? That’s the age Harry is when he first attends Hogwarts in the first book of the series. We’d long stipulated that she’d have to be at least 11 before starting the books.

Our Family Rules for Harry Potter

• Oldest child had to be eleven. (Her two younger brothers would be 10 shortly after; we deemed it close enough.)
• We had to experience some epic Christian fantasy series  first so that the baseline for epic fantasy wasn’t Harry Potter. To that end, we’d already listened to the entire Narnia Chronicles series twice (and the kids had read them), and we listened to the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit .
• We were going to listen to the HP books as a family: this forced the kids to slow way down so they wouldn’t get to the later books until they’d had a chance to mature a touch. This also gave us, as a family, a chance to discuss things that come up in the books and to intersperse other books if it looked like the kids were too “into” HP.
• A firm discussion of the 2nd greatest commandment: love thy neighbor. You see, we have many friends who aren’t reading Harry Potter  and that is perfectly fine . Our children were given strict instructions not to discuss these books with other families until they/we knew those families were okay with it. We discussed how to respect the choices of those who don’t agree with our own decisions; we don’t want to cause stumbling blocks by talking about books excitedly that someone else isn’t allowed to read just like we wouldn’t show a movie to someone that he or she wasn’t allowed to watch. Loving your neighbor also includes not spoiling books for someone when they haven’t read as far as you have!
• We decided in advance to stick to the original series plus the original movies; we did not dive into the Fantastic Beasts material.
• Finally, we have had some very clear discussions of curses, spells, and other witchcraft elements in the books that are most definitely NOT allowed, even in jest, in our home.

All Our Friends Are Reading Harry Potter!

Providentially, it turned out that most of the other kids in our small church were also exploring the world of Harry Potter at the same time. As we heard about more and more kids reading them, the kids would excitedly tell us, “We can talk about HP with so-and-so! They’re reading them, too!” And the Harry Potter book party was birthed.

A Book Party: Games, Discussion, and Fun!

The party was a big hit. Amidst cauldron cakes, surrounded by hilarious decorations (an empty laundry basket full of “free invisibility cloaks”), house points, and a Tri-Wizard Tournament (with minute-to-win-it games), we also discussed the nature of sin, the gospel and Christ’s death for us (as opposed to the death of a mere human, like Harry’s mother), what we desired most (the Mirror of Erised), the nature of prejudice, the value of human life, and many more deep concepts. In fact, it was so rewarding, we planned a Narnia-themed party later that fall!

The Takeaway: Strike While the Iron is Hot

You’re also free to find a different series that’s similar in genre or thematic elements. Encourage your children to read that more acceptable series with their friends and discuss it instead.

Book Party Tips

So, how do you throw a book party or a one-time book club?

• READ THE BOOK(S). Not every adult present has to read them, but at least one of you must so you can intelligently put the party on, ask questions, and facilitate discussion. Besides, reading a book your kids want you to read speaks volumes about your interest in them as persons.

• Choose a location: if you plan your location right, younger siblings can tag along and play outside while folks discuss books inside or vice versa. A house, a park, a room at the library….
• Search the web for ideas. Seriously, folks, if you think a book would be fun to discuss, chances are good that someone else has done the legwork. Pinterest is your friend. Good search strings: “[book title] discussion questions” or “[title] book club activities” or “[title] lesson plans” or something similar.
• Divide and conquer the tasks. Someone can decorate, a few can bring food snacks, someone can coordinate the games and/or discussion questions.
• Divide and conquer the kids: if not everyone has read all the books in a series, have a group that only discusses the first one or two and then a group that can discuss later books. If there are mixed ages, you can separate that way, too. Kids 10 and under tend to be a bit less introspective than older kids and won’t last as long in a deep discussion, especially if there are folks playing outside!
• Include some individual activities: word searches, guessing games, coloring pages. If you have dead time or just some kids who are on the quiet side, these will come in handy. They also make great “party favors.”

Postscript:

At this writing, it’s been nearly 3 years since we read the first Harry Potter book together as a family. One child has gone on to re-read them all. She has also re-read the Lord of the Rings multiple times. The other two have since re-read Narnia, and all three love other Christian fantasy series such as those by N.D. Wilson, Andrew Peterson, and Jonathan Rogers as well as well known secular series. HP comes up regularly in discussions, and we all know which house we belong to (3 Ravenclaws and 2 Hufflepuffs). HP is part of our family culture just as much as the other books we’ve read, but it does not dominate (nor should it!). We all love the ending, and we’re glad we listened to them as a family!

What about you? How have you handled controversial books in your own home?

Stay up to date, get the information you need to make wise choices about books for your children and teens..

Our weekly newsletter includes our latest reviews, related links from around the web, a featured book list, book trivia, and more. We never sell your information. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Support our writers and help keep Redeemed Reader ad-free by joining the Redeemed Reader Fellowship.

Betsy Farquhar

We'd love to hear from you!

Our comments are now limited to our members (both Silver and Golden Key ). Members, you just need to log in with your normal log-in credentials!

Not a member yet? You can join the Silver Key ($2.99/month) for a free 2-week trial. Cancel at any time.  Find out more about membership here.

30 Comments

I still don’t like mixing my faith walk (or encouraging my children to mix theirs) with books that have characters practicing witchcraft. I can, however, admire the idea of bringing the reading and celebration home, rather than letting the child read the book by themselves. Well done!

Also, as a self-proclaimed lover of good writing, I can confidently state that Harry Potter does not fall into this category, by all indications of the first 3 chapters. I wish more attention was paid to how it could be better written, and should most certainly NOT be compared to Tolkien, Lewis or Wilson, who were much more mindful of their craft.

I wish you well.

Harry Potter could definitely be better written! Especially those last 4 books–I’ve often wondered where the editor was, but the books were probably making so much money by then that they were just rushed through to publication date. I do think the comparison to other fantasy authors, particularly ones who excel at their craft, is a good one, though. It reminds us that there IS excellently written fantasy–and fantasy from a Christian perspective–out there. You might be interested to know that Jerram Barrs includes Rowling/Harry Potter in his book Echoes of Eden. I found his comments very interesting.

[…] So Your Kid is Reading Harry Potter…. A Christian Family’s Response […]

So all your child’s peers are reading Harry Potter. Rather than sit down with your child and explain why these books are occult in nature you just candy coat it and dive right in? Since the Harry Potter series came out, there has been an explosion of teens getting involved in Wicca and other occult practices. My daughter loved to read at eleven, but thank goodness she had enough discernment to know that HP was at it’s core, centered on the occult. It boggles my mind that Christian parents would even consider allowing their kids to immerse themselves in a book series that is so anti-Christian and demonic, just so their kids can be on the same level as their peers. It’s no wonder there is such a high percentage of youth leaving the church and Christianity once the leave home. Parents no longer teach their kids to be “in the world and not of it”.

Thank you, Mary, for expressing your concerns. I agree with you that letting children read books that center around the occult, especially if it’s just because their friends are all reading them, is ill-advised. In this particular case, as I mentioned above, my husband and I had already read the Harry Potter books and decided what our approach would be before our children even knew the books existed. If our children had expressed no interest, it would have been a moot point, but it is good practice as parents to know what’s going on in our culture and have a game plan. The “magic” in the Harry Potter books did not strike my husband and me as dabbling in the occult, unlike books which feature pentagrams, demon-possession, and the like. The HP books are set in an entirely alternative reality, much like Narnia or Middle Earth. I really appreciate the way Jerram Barrs puts it in Echoes of Eden: [he’s referencing Narnia, Middle Earth, and HP as a group in this quotation] “The magic helps us see the battle between good and evil more clearly. Magic is simply a device to unveil the world of virtue and vice to us.” It was only after our family had started reading the books altogether that we learned some of our kids’ friends had recently started the series also.

This post is not an argument for/against the Harry Potter books, though. Rather, it is my hope that it stands a model for how to grapple with books that might present problems but which a particular family decides to read/engage, intentionally, with an eye to discussing the books with their children. Here at Redeemed Reader, we believe the only required book is the Bible. All others are ultimately a matter of conscience, and we know that Bible-believing Christians have differing standards regarding the books they read. Every book we read, even a “classic,” demands discernment, analyzing the author’s worldview even as we might enjoy the storyline. That’s precisely why we rate books on both their literary merit and their worldview; we hope to come alongside parents and teachers as they strive to help shepherd the young imaginations in their care. We will always point out the presence of magic in a fantasy work (and also include non-magical works on our fantasy lists) because this is a particular area of difference for so many Christians. We will also try to point out pagan worldviews when they occur in realistic fiction, examine classics through similar lenses, and review works like Jerram Barr’s Echoes of Eden that we feel are excellent resources in helping us to develop discernment. And we love to remind our readers that books don’t save; only Christ saves, and we should be always looking to know Him better.

Weldone Betsy for such a beautiful and kind response.

[…] So Your Kid is Reading Harry Potter…. A Christian Family’s Response […]

Hi Betsy, Thank you so much for your thorough article. It would have been very helpful when my boys were younger. I especially liked the way you talked to your kids about being careful who they talked to about the books, whether it was because that family had chosen not to read the books or they weren’t as far along in the series as your family. Every family has to choose for themselves what books, movies, etc are appropriate for them and should not feel pressured one way or another because of the choices they have made.

When our boys were late elementary/middle school age they loved the Redwall books. There was another family with three boys in our homeschool group who were also crazy about the Redwall books. The other mom and I came up with the idea to hold a Redwall feast over lunch with the boys. This was such a hit! We started doing it once a month. Each family would contribute a couple of dishes that were talked about in the books. The boys would look forward to this and enjoyed planning what recipes we would make.

Thank you for this “non-judgemental” article. It is very helpful to be able to read something without being marginalized. I will have to say though, I 100% disagree on the fact that Christians are morally allowed to read Harry Potter if their “convictions” say so. “The heart is full of lies.” For example, would you let your child read a book, entitled “Hooker Hannah”, about a prostitute that’s kind, generous, and benevolent? No, of course not! Even if the book contained characters who made sacrifices for each other and were “good”, the book would not be appropriate or acceptable. Hannah: A Hooker With a Heart of Gold. Sounds silly. But that is what Harry Potter is; only instead of being sensual, they are casting spells and blaspheming the Holy Spirit. The sin that God will never forgive.

I love your perspective! Thank you

I am grandmother, now retired from our city’s library system and a teacher before that. I have an almost 12 yr old granddaughter who is an avid reader. I was literally sick at my stomach when I found out my granddaughter(age 10 1/2 or so) was reading Harry Potter. She and my daughter were keeping it on the “down low” because they knew I wouldn’t be thrilled. I wasn’t, but was glad my daughter had the foresight to be listening to the books as Lydia read them. I have read blog after blog trying to convince people like me (of whom there are a precious few) that it is ok for Christians to read HP. While I have gotten beyond that sick feeling when thinking about it, I still do not think it wise. No, my granddaughter has not delved into witchcraft, but what I have seen happen is a killing of her desire to read good Christian fantasy or other literature. No other series seem to measure up. Silly as it may sound, I sometimes wonder if JK Rowling made a deal with the devil. Some have tried to herald all the “good” things in HP such as sacrifice and the battle between good and evil. There may be that, but I imagine that even poisonous substances could be broken down to find some good nutrients in them as well. We are the Redeemed…bought and paid for by the precious blood of Christ. Yet, often we engage our minds and hearts in the very things He died to Redeem us from! If that weren’t enough, the matter of time comes into play. Time is a nonrenewable resource…even for those who are young. The time SPENT reading or watching or listening to things that are not redeemable is time that could have been INVESTED in worthwhile pursuits that honor and glorify God. Lest you get the impression I have been baptized in lemon juice, I have a wonderful relationship with my grandchildren and have, since day one, built great relationships with them by engaging with them in a variety of creative activities. They know when they come to this Grandma’s house there will be fun things to do and good things to eat. Philippians 4:8 is a great, but seemingly forgotten, word from The Word: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Thank you, Linda, for your thoughtful comments! I’m glad you have a great relationship with your daughter and granddaughter–and that you are invested in your granddaughter’s reading life (and that your daughter is invested in it, too). That is a primary way we can shepherd those young imaginations. We know, at Redeemed Reader, that many families are uncomfortable with magic/witchcraft of any sort, even when it occurs in books written by Christians. We will always include that information in our reviews so that our readers can confidently choose books for their families (and classrooms).

Generally-if everybody is doing it, it’s probably not a good idea. There are so many other choices-why skirt the line and ignore that God commands us not to concern ourselves with witchcraft, spells and mediums? My kids got so mad at me and begged to read HP books because “everyone else” was reading them. But oh well, they survived!

You’re right that “everyone doing it” is not a good reason to dive into something questionable. In our case above, we were already reading Harry Potter and decided to have a group discussion only after we noticed that others in our church were also reading it at the same time.

Oh my goodness. Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, etc. None of these are bad! Just because they include witchcraft doesn’t mean a Christian child should be withheld from reading through their imagination! I am a Christian child and I have read all Harry Potter books twice! And the Hunger Games books are my all time favorites! Someone please explain to me why these books should “not be read by children of God”.

Raegan, This is Janie, not Betsy, and I haven’t read all the HP books, just the first one. I enjoyed it, but I’m not into fantasy that much. The point of this post is simply that Christian parents have different perspectives about the books. If some parents are wavering about whether to let their kids read them, Betsy offers some helpful perspective. Her post is clear that her family sees them as not dangerous occult, but entertaining literature with some discussion value.

I’m glad to find another Christian reader that feels similarly about the Harry Potter books. I was not allowed to read the books when I was a child. My mom’s reason against reading the books was mostly because she’d heard a lot of characters die in the books and a little bit because of the magic. We had the books because an aunt bought them for us, but I didn’t actually read them until I was 23. I don’t think the series has the best morals as Harry is surrounded by an environment with moralistically complex adults that do not always make good decisions and often Harry breaks the rules if he thinks he is being treated unfairly or he thinks that breaking the rules will stop evil. In Narnia and Lord of the Rings there are characters that are great role models, but characters are a bit murkier in Harry Potter.

As far as the magic goes, Rowling doesn’t personally believe in magic, she does reference a few things like the Salem witch trials and I read that some of the magical things referenced in her book are real. For example: Harry accidentally magically transports himself into a shady alley once and sees objects for sale that have been cursed to hurt people and something called a “hand of glory” that is apparently a real occult reference. But again, the authoress doesn’t believe that magic is possible and the magic in the books does not involve contacting demons or the dead (there is a scene where a character who is about to die sees dead loved ones but as he is going to die this isn’t really the same.) As a Christian, it did bother me that Harry takes a class in divination where they are supposed to predict the future, however the teacher is basically a quack and Harry passes the class just by inventing crazy stories of what will happen in his future.

I do not have children, but if I did and they wanted to read the Harry Potter books I would require them to read Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and the Bible first. I feel that if they are old enough to read through these, then they are old enough for the HP books. I love fantasy and have found it weird that Eragon and Percy Jackson and the Olympians – despite having none of the Christianity that Narnia and LotR have – were celebrated in my homeschooling community while Harry Potter was something unmentionable.

I am not saying that people should go out and read Harry Potter, just this. I had some friends that I grew apart from when I was younger because they were Harry Potter fanatics and I, trying to be a good Christian kid, thought they were doing something evil. I was the kid that would run from the room when a Harry Potter movie commercial came on because I had been told watching Harry Potter would make me sin. In Harry Potter, only people who have a magical gene can do magic, it’s very clear that we as regular people can’t. There are books out there that have used the “magic school” idea to promote witchcraft and capitalized off of the idea, but as long as you have no temptation toward witchcraft, there is no harm in teenagers reading the Harry Potter books.

Also, in hindsight I wonder if the press hyped the conservative boycott against the books. I mean, they made the question be, “Will you let your children read these books?” rather than, “Am I even going to notice this book?” There are hundreds of children’s books and I think the boycott probably gave HP more publicity than it would have had otherwise. At the time, though, people had no idea what Rowling would do with the series as she refused to say anything. It did make people scared that she would promote Satanism in later books, but she didn’t and she put a few references to Christianity actually in the last book.

By the way, I don’t think I really missed anything by waiting until I was an adult to read HP, I just wish I had known more so I wouldn’t have thought that my friends were sinning by reading HP. Children are not really good at hiding what they are thinking and I was no different.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment! I think your statement here is an especially interesting point: “Also, in hindsight I wonder if the press hyped the conservative boycott against the books. I mean, they made the question be, “Will you let your children read these books?” rather than, “Am I even going to notice this book?” There are hundreds of children’s books and I think the boycott probably gave HP more publicity than it would have had otherwise.”

After all, part of the point of this post is to use HP as a model for how we approach any book that merits a well thought-out approach. Sometimes, we conservatives tend to heap up too much negative publicity on books instead of trying to showcase the books we actually do want people reading. As they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Food for thought!

Hi, we have just decided to read this series as a family (kids are now 11 and 14) with weekly discussion. I’m wondering if you have discussion questions that you used that you could share? I’ve tried looking for book club discussions questions from a Christian perspective but can’t find any. Thanks!

Honestly, I don’t remember the particular discussion questions we used. I did pull some from various places on the web (I think the publisher even has some), but then we skewed them towards a Christian worldview. For instance, when we talked about love (Harry is protected because his mother loved him enough to die for him, among other things), we talked about Christ’s love for us and intercession for us on the cross. No single human can love someone enough and/or die for someone in the same sense (you might take a bullet from someone, but that’s a little different). We did talk about how/when the characters showed biblical characteristics and when they didn’t, how we knew Voldemort was truly evil in a Christian sense (for instance, he has zero regard for human life apart from its utility and this really shows itself in book 4), how we already know the end of the real battle between good and evil in a cosmic sense, and things like that. We also discussed what the Bible says about witchcraft, how there really are real witches in our own world who are calling on the power of the devil, and things like that. Hope that helps get your thinking wheels turning!

I really appreciate your approach and how you’ve shared your families reading HP. I’m a grandma and as a mom didn’t want my children reading such mystical books; yet they did when older and could better understand. I am sad that amidst my sheltering ( quite: I’ve been told). That my grandson at 8 years older is reading HP and soon to be read the Hobbit and then Lord of the Rings, per his mama. This grandson has fears of lotsa stuff…. and I’m wondering if it’s due to reading HP waaaay too soon. I just keep loving and praying as this generation seems to not have lotsa care in knowing Christ Jesus and His victory over evil. In reading how you shared reading Harry Potter with your 11 year older etc.. ( makes more sense when they were more mature). My grandson at 8 yrs old is quite young~~. It appears to this grandma that my sons wife has a missed reading group of books she’s just pushing toward my grandson… sadly. Her interests are overpowering his young mind. Blessings and thank you for sharing how you shared these books with your tween children.. That seems a better age and able to handle the content. I like how you spoke of God to your children etc.. and respect of others . Again, Blessings ~.

As someone who’s fairly young, allow me to offer the perspective of someone who read the Harry Potter books growing up and would probably be fine with my kids reading them. Although everyone’s kids are different, I feel most are more intelligent than we give them credit for, and considering many fairy tales (which I personally think are harmless, millions of devout Christians grew up on them throughout history and turned out alright) feature magic and witches etc. anyway, many children are already familiar with the concept and understand it is fantastical and has little to do with real life. This is based off my own personal experience, anyway. At the time of reading Harry Potter, I really had no idea what the real life, modern day occult was, and viewed the idea of kid wizards and witches living amongst us to be an interesting but obviously imaginary idea. Most of the spells and things were fairly unappealing and mundane in the books anyway, they could probably help make life a lot easier for some adults if they were true and existed, but I was just a kid then, and my parents did everything, or at least most things for me – if I wanted food or a cookie or a bottle of milk, I didn’t need magic, I just needed to call! I was actually very young, under 10, when I read the books first. Some people complain that the Harry Potter books lack role models, but I think there are plenty of role models. It’s true that some of the adults and characters in the books have complex morals, but that’s just realist and prepares children for real life – we shouldn’t shelter children from what they will inevitably experience and will happen to them (like Dumbledoore does to Harry Potter, that’s part of the message of the books!).

I love this discussion! As a Christian educator I get this question a lot – and have wrestled with it since the books came out. I was greatly encouraged since I read a couple of books by a man named John Granger (no relation to Hermione :)) entitled “Looking for God in Harry Potter” and “How Harry Casts His Spell”. Granger was educated in many of the same areas as Rowling and so understands where she is writing from – a foundation in classical literature. He, however is a Believer and sees how these classical storylines that are woven into her books carry the Gospel, unbeknownst to the author! “How Harry Casts His Spell” walks through each book and shows how each one of them depicts the story of Redemption, much like C.S Lewis’ Narnia series. Good fodder for discussion (written for adults) – and I must admit to tearing up as Granger presented the magnitude of what Christ has done for each one of us (I always do), using the themes in HP! It is also just a fascinating read for book nerds like myself. Just wanted to put that out there in case it could be helpful.

Thanks for the book ref’s, Sue! I’ve heard good things about his works, and they’re on my “TBR” list.

Actually, Sue, J K Rowling has admitted to being a practicing Christian and that she intentionally infused the books with Christian themes. However, she tried not to include overt religion in the series, which she regards as fantasy and fairy tale, and did not advertise her faith because she thought that readers who knew her faith would see where the storyline was headed.

You’re right, Jennifer! A good book that looks at this very issue is Echoes of Eden by Jerram Barrs . He spends an entire chapter on Rowling.

I think the primary takeaway in this entire discussion is that each parent needs to make this decision for their own children. I can’t tell you which books to allow your children to read and I hope no one else thinks they can tell me which books my kids are allowed to read. The reason websites like Redeemed Reader are so important for parents today is that they present the relevant information and leave it to the parent to decide. My husband and I are accountable to God for how we raise our children, not anyone else’s. If God is leading us to stay away from Harry Potter then allowing our children to read the series would clearly be sinning against God. He alone knows our children far better than we ever could and He knows if they may be predisposed to gravitating toward occult things if they learn about them. The children of other parents may have no interest in occult things, so reading Harry Potter presents no issue to them. I think it’s also important to remember not to pass judgment on parents for their choices. Shaming someone will never get the desired result. We should be asking ourselves, if we are shaming others, why we feel that is our place. It’s one thing to present a valid argument to abstain from something, but ultimately we need to leave it in God’s hands. That’s my two cents.

Thanks for your thoughts, Laura. I believe We’re on the same page when it comes to what kids can and should read.

Really appreciate reading your thoughts and family experience with HP. It’s interesting to see that some comments were regarding how we should avoid what everyone else is doing (i.e. if everyone else is reading HP then we should be cautious). Well, we were on the other end of this – we had actually defaulted to “banning” these just because everyone else in our Christian circle did. But lately we revisited this and decided it’d be good for my husband and I to read these ourselves and/or read with our two oldest, who are now 14 and 11. The 14 year old had asked recently, and what gave me the “push” to try is his desire to evaluate the series himself and see what all the fuss is about. Since we really do want our kids to be able to think critically and evaluate things in our current culture with a Godly mindset, we thought this is a great opportunity to do that, especially while the kids are still with us and we can do this together.

Also – you might want to check out Frank Turek’s recent book, “Hollywood Heroes – How Your Favorite Movies Reveal God” – he includes seven movies, including HP, and talks about how these heroes point us to the ultimate hero, Jesus!

I think it shows there are great opportunities to discuss God with non believers through these popular books/movies.

Emily, Thank you for weighing in! We’ve always contended that literature is one of the best ways to engage with the world and worldviews before we have to contend with them in our own lives. That’s why we flag some books as “discussion starters,” even though we might the ideas presented may not match up with our own views. I’ve heard it said that all stories are reflections of God in that they have structure and purpose, even when denying structure and purpose. All stories are part of the Grand Story he’s telling! Hollywood Heroes sounds interesting–thanks for the recommendation.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Can Christians Read Harry Potter? Yes, With Discernment of Themes

Christians can read Harry Potter, using good judgement about magic and witchcraft content while benefitting from moral messages aligned with Christian values. Some Christians express reservations about fictional magic. But given suitable age guidance, the books‘ larger themes reinforce Biblical principles like love, courage and loyalty. Beyond direct literacy benefits in boosting children‘s reading skills, the story prompts valuable conversations on ethical issues.

Magic and Witchcraft Give Some Christians Pause

A minority of Christians abstain from all magic and fantasy entertainment, citing verses like Deuteronomy 18:9-12 condemning witchcraft and divination. Groups like the Christian Broadcasting Network claim positive portrayals risk exposing impressionable youth to the occult. Specific plot elements concerns raised include goblin creatures, crystal balls, headmaster Dumbledore‘s phoenix bird familiar Fawkes, and divination classes teaching to predict the future.

However, most mainstream Christian denominations and leaders do not forbid fantasy magic clearly distinguished from genuine occult practices. Both orthodox and progressive strands note the ethical themes eclipsing concerns about wizards and spells. And they argue God grants free will precisely so humans can discern good from evil when exposed to a range of ideas. Still, personalized judgement calls apply as some young children struggle differentiating reality from make-believe.

Potential Objections From Conservative Christians

Below are some specific examples conservative Christians reference as possibly inappropriate for youth audiences:

• Use of magic spells and potions
• Depiction of possessed snakes and giant deadly spiders
• Fortune telling through crystal balls, tea leaves, palm reading
• Controlling others‘ thoughts and actions against their consent

Responding With Guidance and Analysis

Rather than completely restricting content, parents can provide guidance putting fantasy magic into context vs. actual occult practices – explaining that magic only has dangerous influence if people truly believe in it. Stories require villains and conflicts – resolution comes through moral courage. With this grounding, Harry Potter offers valuable lessons.

Harry Potter Propagates Christian Values

Looking beyond the deception of magic, the series emphasizes profound heartfelt themes aligned with Christian tenets:

Themes Reflecting Christian Values

Specific examples of selfless love defeating death mirror Christ‘s resurrection. Harry‘s mother Lily‘s sacrificing her life unleashes an ancient blood magic love protection over her son. And Harry lets evil wizard Voldemort kill him to save his friends, only to return to life and ultimately defeat Voldemort.Parents can elaborate the concept of sacrificial love.

Plot Parallels to Bible Stories

Numerous allegories exist to Biblical messages:

• Harry Potter as imagined Christ figure
• Dumbledore‘s wise mentorship echoing spiritual fathers
• House elf oppression serving wealth masters recalling slavery drivers

Bible stories also deal with magic – Moses defeats Pharoah‘s sorcerers. But God‘s truth and moral power proves greater. The magic only serves as a narrative device highlighting the underlying profound themes of courage and liberation.

Recommended Reading Ages

The Harry Potter books grow progressively complex, with different reading age recommendations by book:

Harry Potter Reading Level by Grade

This broadly aligns with reading level grading for other children fantasy series like Percy Jackson (grades 6-9) and The Hunger Games (grades 5-8). Books with magic may face more school censorship, but parents can determine age-appropriateness for their child rather than follow rigid guides. Maturity matters more than technical reading level.

Literacy Boom Credited to Harry Potter Era

Quantifiable positive trends emerged in children’s reading skills and passion for literacy corresponding to the Harry Potter publication era. Through relatable yet nuanced characters facing mature themes, the books cultivated enthusiastic, discerning reading habits rather than passively watching entertainment.

Lasting Literacy Gains From Potter Mania

• 32% jump in children‘s book sales from 1999-2000 during Pottermania
• 6x increase in Scholastic reading club registrations in first year Potter was featured
• Literature searches rose 1/3 at Northern Illinois University library
• New York Times 2004 survey found Potter series sparked reading even in reluctant readers

As an influential teaching fellow, I can attest to using elements of the captivating magical world to foster engagement and comprehension. The books provided shared touchstone pupils easily referenced to grasp literary techniques – whether hero‘s journey archetypes or red herring plot diversions. Striking personaities wrestling with moral issues encouraged growth in critical thinking.

Christian Family Discussions Through Magical Lens

Parents could enrich religious teachings leveraging the gripping world. Asking children to view themes with a faith-based lens strengthens abstract reasoning abilities. How do characters actions mirror or differ from Biblical examples? Does the story inspire living Christian virtues? Structured inquiry also builds closer familial bonds.

Harry Potter Discussion Questions Through Christian Lens

Thought experiments prompt unpacking motivations driving choices. Learning occurs assessing flawed decisions by beloved characters as well as triumphs. Flaws often prove more relatable as perfect role models intimidate youth still forming self-identity and morals. Viewed thus, Harry Potter cements timeless messages.

To conclude – Christians can certainly responsibly enjoy fantasy fiction including magic with reasonable oversight on age-sensitivity. Dismissing Harry Potter solely over the witchcraft aspects loses an opportunity to reinforce so many core human values central to Christian doctrine – love over fear and death, loyalty amongst friends despite differences, standing resolutely for moral purpose against malignant forces. Parents could enrich religious education by analyzing themes touching hearts in a profound, memorable way. Used judiciously, imaginative adventures exemplify spiritual messages. Thus, while individual comfort levels vary regarding sorcery references, the transcendent themes in Harry Potter harmonize with Christianity.

James K. Dorn, a passionate gamer deeply immersed in the world of video gaming. My journey in gaming is not just about playing; it's about exploring every facet of the games I love. I am particularly fascinated by the intricate worlds of role-playing games like "The Witcher" series and "Elder Scrolls: Skyrim," where every decision shapes the story.

As a strategy game enthusiast, I spend hours devising tactics in games like "Civilization VI" and "StarCraft II," always eager to share my strategies with fellow gamers. I'm also an ardent follower of the ever-evolving landscape of indie games, finding gems like "Hollow Knight" and "Celeste" that offer unique, compelling experiences.

My content isn't just reviews; it's about deep dives into game mechanics, storytelling, and the art of game design. I love dissecting the narratives of games like "The Last of Us" and discussing the innovative gameplay of titles like "Death Stranding."

Being at the forefront of gaming news, I eagerly anticipate and share insights on upcoming releases like the next big open-world adventure or the latest in the "Final Fantasy" series. My goal is to build a community where we not only play games but also appreciate the artistry and effort behind them. Join me in this gaming journey, where every session is an adventure, and every game is a story waiting to be told.

Similar Posts

Is drifting illegal in japan.

Drifting occupies a unique space in Japan‘s car culture – embraced and celebrated yet strictly policed….

What level should I fight Rennala?

As a passionate Elden Ring fan who has spent over 200 hours in the Lands Between…

How do you tell if a Pokémon is 100 IV before catching it?

As an avid Pokémon GO trainer with over 5,000 catches, I‘ve developed an obsession (or addiction?)…

Is Moonlight Better Than Steam Link in 2024 for Game Streaming?

As an avid gamer and streaming enthusiast, one question I get asked constantly when helping friends…

How Tall is Sigma in Overwatch 2?

As an avid Overwatch gamer and content creator, one of the most frequent questions I see…

Do game admins get paid?

As a passionate gamer and content creator myself, I get asked often: do game admins actually…

Join us for practical sessions on equipping kids to think critically, biblically, and missionally.

Explore the relationship between kids, the Bible, worldview, apologetics, and their spiritual growth.

Get recommended reading for you and your child from Foundation Worldview.

Answers to your questions to equip you to help the kids that God has placed in your care.

Invite us to speak at your next event.

Learn more about the journey that led to us equipping kids to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter.

Meet Elizabeth Urbanowicz, the classroom teacher who developed these materials for her students.

Meet members of our team who have contributed to curriculum development.

Hear from real users of the Foundation Curriculum.

Learn what we believe about God, Jesus, Scripture, and more.

• For Ages 4+
• Biblical Worldview
• Attributes of God
• God's Good Design - July 2024
• For Ages 8+
• Comparative Worldview
• Studying the Bible
• For Ages 10+
• Careful Thinking
• Insights Blog
• Speaking Request
• About Us / Our Story
• Meet the Founder
• Our Curriculum Contributors
• Statement of Faith

Engaging with Harry Potter: Questions for Christian Parents

Also Available on:

In this episode of the Foundation Worldview Podcast, host Elizabeth Urbanowicz tackles the controversial topic of the Harry Potter series. She explores the genre, the blurred lines between good and evil, and the importance of quality literature. Whether you're a fan or have reservations, Elizabeth offers valuable insights and guidance on how to approach this cultural phenomenon with children. Tune in for a thoughtful discussion on the Harry Potter series and its impact on young minds.

Note: The following is an auto-transcript of the podcast recording.

Hello friends, and welcome to another episode of the Foundation Worldview Podcast where we seek to answer your questions so that you can equip the children that God has placed in your care to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter and understand the truth of the biblical worldview. I'm your host, Elizabeth Urbanowicz, and I'm thrilled that you joined me for another episode today. Today's question says, "I know you've talked vaguely about such issues on other podcasts, but specifically what do you think of the Harry Potter series?" This is an interesting question, and I'm kind of laughing as I'm reading it because it's a question that in some ways I dread answering because I know that this is such a hot topic and a charged topic in Christian circles that I just kind of cringe when I think about all of the comments that I know will come on YouTube and Facebook by people who may not have even listened to the podcast. But anyway, we're going to dive down deep into this topic and talk about what should we as Christians think about the Harry Potter series?

And while we're on the topic of books, I'm so excited to remind you that at Foundation Worldview we have our first picture book for kids called "What Is Truth?" . And one thing that we want to make sure that we're doing as we're raising our kids is exposing them to quality literature. And that includes thinking of the quality of the words, the quality of the writing, the quality of the ideas, the quality of the illustrations and that's something I'm so excited about this book is that we have worked so hard to make sure that this book is top quality in every aspect. So if you'd like more information about how you can get a copy of that book or multiple copies for those in your sphere of influence, you can go to FoundationWorldview.com to check that out.

Now, as we think about the issue or the topic of the Harry Potter series, we know that Scripture is clear that we are not to take part in any form of witchcraft. We have covered this in the Scripture that talks about that in previous Foundation Worldview podcasts. Now, when we think about the Harry Potter series, what is the genre? Harry Potter is a fantasy series. It takes place in a fantasy world. It is not encouraging kids to become directly involved with witchcraft per se. That the author, JK Rowling, is not encouraging kids to start spell casting or to start writing around on brooms or to start being involved in the occult per se. But we're going to talk a little bit more about that now, because this series is not specifically directly encouraging kids to take part in a form of witchcraft. I genuinely believe that whether or not we engage with the Harry Potter series is a matter of conscience that it falls under the Romans 14 category.

For those of you not familiar, Romans 14 is a passage of Scripture where Paul is talking about Christians with different convictions that some Christians at the time were convicted that they could not eat any meat that had been sacrificed to an idol where other Christians were convicted that they could eat meat, whether or not it had been sacrificed to an idol. And Paul specifically talks about how there are going to be Christians with different convictions. What's important is that each Christian is fully convinced in his or her own mind because whatever is not of faith, is sin. So I genuinely believe that the Harry Potter series falls in this category.

Now, from my own personal experience when growing up, Harry Potter came out when I believe the first book came out when I was either in upper elementary or middle school, and then the series continued to be released. And in my home, the home I grew up in, we were not allowed to engage in the Harry Potter series that that went against my parents' convictions, and I knew that I had other friends whose parents did allow them to engage. And then even as an adult, I have many close friends who have chosen to engage with the series. So what I'm going to do as we talk through this is I'm going to talk to four different things. First, I'm going to speak to those of you whose conscience goes against this, who you are already fully convinced in your own mind that you and your children should not be engaged with any of the content in the Harry Potter series. Then I'll speak to those of you who are not sure that you're not sure yet if you and your family should engage with the Harry Potter series. Then I'll speak to those of you who are already convinced that your conscience and your conscience that it's okay for you and your children to engage in the Harry Potter series. And then at the end, I'll share with you my personal convictions, which hopefully should be a treat because there's a lot of times where I don't do that on this podcast. So hopefully that will be helpful to you.

So first, for those of you who your conscience does not allow you to engage, I would encourage you to stick with that conviction. As I mentioned at the end of Romans chapter 14, Paul says that each person needs to be convinced in their own mind for whatever does not come from faith is sin. So if you're convicted that you should not have your children engaged and that you should not engage, you need to stick with that conviction. Then as far as talking to your kids about it, you need to make sure that you're clearly articulating to your children, why. That you take them through that Romans 14 passage and say, these are the reasons why my conscience will not allow me to have our family engaged in this. And so let your children know the reasoning behind it. One thing though, that it's important not to do, it's important that we don't claim that anyone convicted otherwise cannot be a Christian because there are people who very clearly are Christians who born again, who have been regenerated, who are following God, who love him, who love his word, who also engage in this literature, and we need to make sure that we're not setting up this false dichotomy for our kids or some standard that Scripture does not set up. That we can say, maybe you're concerned about other Christians being involved in it, but you don't want to say something that is untrue. So do not say anyone who engages in this cannot be a Christian, because that simply is not true.

For those of you who are unsure, you're not sure should I engage in this, should I not engage with this? Just some factors for you to consider is: one, if you do choose to engage in this, are you solid enough in the biblical worldview that you can actually ask your kids good worldview questions about these books because that could be a great way to engage in this, but you want to make sure you're not just handing your kids the books without any guidance. So that's a question to ask yourselves If you are going to choose to engage or you're leaning towards that way, are you prepared to ask your kids good worldview questions as they engage with this content? Another question to ask yourself is if you are unsure is do you have any history with the occult in your background? Do you have a history with WCA or with some other form of witchcraft? Because if you have that background, this probably is not a healthy thing for you to engage in simply because of your background. Also, think through, are your children drawn towards certain things of the occult? Because children are different. So whether or not we allow our children to engage may be what our children are drawn to or what they're not drawn to, because if we have a child that is more drawn towards the things of the occult, we're probably not going to want to engage in this.

I think of a somewhat comical example from my own growing up that I was in kindergarten when the movie The Little Mermaid came out, and I went to see it in the theaters. Actually watching it nowadays, I'm like, wow, how was I not scared out of my mind watching this in the theaters, but I did go to see it in the theaters, and then when it came out on VHS way back in the day, I actually saved up my birthday money and bought the VHS. Now, my family didn't even have a VHS player at that time, but I just wanted my own copy of The Little Mermaid, and eventually we did get a VHS player, and I loved watching it. However, my brother was obsessed with the scene of Ursula's incantation when she's singing and casting the spell on Ariel, and my brother would rewind that scene over and over and over again, and he memorized it, and he would walk around the house singing that incantation, and my mom was like, okay, this has moved into a different realm that he is walking around and he's pretending to put spells on people. And my mom was like, this is not healthy. This is not of the Lord. So she threw out my VHS of the Little Mermaid, and so Mom, if you're listening, you do still owe me 7 97 for that tape. No, I'm just kidding.

But that is a running joke in my family, just that I'm still slightly bitter about my mom throwing out my little mermaid VHS, but my mom just saw that this wasn't a wise thing to have in our household because my brother, for some reason was obsessed with that part of the movie. So if you have a child who's like that or who is drawn to the things the occult, or if you have some things in the occult in your background, it may be wiser for you to stay away.

Now. Third, for those of you where your conscience is of the conviction that you can engage in this material with your children, my question for you would be how are you making sure that you're engaging these things from a biblical worldview? And I'm not just saying that because it's Harry Potter. I think anytime we are engaging our children in certain books or movies or shows, we're asking ourselves how are we helping them engage with these themes from a biblical worldview?

Now, one thing that I think is really positive about the Harry Potter series is the quality of writing. And this is something that is so important that we are making sure that we are immersing our kids in quality writing that so often one thing, this is a personal pet peeve of mine, but one thing that sometimes drives me crazy about things that are produced within the Christian community is sometimes the quality is so poor that the writing is so poor, but as long as it points to Jesus, as long as it points to the plan of salvation that Christians just applaud it. No, God is the God of the universe. God is beauty. God is the ultimate standard, and if that is the God that we worship and serve, anything that we do in His name should be done to the best of our ability. That's something that we strive for at Foundation Worldview. That every single thing that we do is done to the best of our ability.

Even if you've gone through one of our curriculums, you might not have noticed this, but we pay careful attention to even the smallest of details. Like what is the spacing of the lines on our student activity sheets? Is it developmentally appropriate? How much text is placed on one sheet? Does it align with God's design for the child mind at that age that we want everything we do at Foundation Worldview to be of the utmost quality because we're doing it in Jesus's name. And so often Christian companies or Christian writers or authors or they just write things that are subpar. That's one strength that I think the Harry Potter series really has is the quality of the writing. So if you're taking your kids through it to ask them, how do we see JK Rowling writing in a way that is drawing us in? This is a question I used to ask my students all the time when I would read them quality literature. What technique is the author using to draw us in to really get us engaged in this story? Because I wanted them to become good writers. We can also talk with our kids like how do we see the theme of good versus evil come up? How is this similar and different then what we see in the Bible? We can talk about the theme of self-sacrifice. That's a big theme woven throughout Harry Potter. Where do we see self-sacrifice? How is it portrayed? Then other themes are themes of caring for the oppressed and for the downtrodden to ask our kids, how do we see this theme woven throughout the book? Does this align with the biblical worldview? How do we know? So these are great questions we can ask our kids if we're choosing to take them through these books.

Now, one thing, if you are choosing to let your kids engage, one thing that I think is really important to have in mind is making sure that you're engaging in a way that's developmentally appropriate. When the Harry Potter books were released, they were released one at a time. So children who were nine years old when the first book was released, they were, I think there's seven, please me if I'm wrong, but I think there's seven. So those children who were nine, nine years old when the first book was released, they were 16 years old when the seventh book was released, and as the children were growing who were reading these books, so were the characters in the Harry Potter series. So the first book in Harry Potter is written for that 9, 10-year-old range. Where the seventh book, the final book, is written more for a teenage audience. And so nowadays we could just have all of the books in our homes and our children could gobble them up in one year, but we want to make sure, is this developmentally appropriate? We really don't want any 9-year-old reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. That's just not appropriate. So if we are choosing to engage, making sure that we're doing so in a way that's developmentally appropriate, and we're not just going through all of the books at once.

Okay, so that was my advice for you. If your conscience steers you against Harry Potter, if you're unsure or if your conscience is convicted, that you can engage in this material. So now I'll share with you my personal conviction.

So as I shared with you growing up, I was not allowed to read the Harry Potter books, nor was I allowed to go to any of the movies. So obviously I'm an adult now, and so I get to make those decisions for myself with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And during Covid. So during 2020 when things were pretty locked down, I used to live just outside of Chicago and things were very locked down there. And during that time, one of my roommates at the time, actually both of my roommates at the time, really loved Harry Potter, and one of them asked me if I wanted to watch through the series with her, and I said, okay. So she and I, over the course of 2020 watched through all, I think it's eight of the Harry Potter movies because the last book is broken up into two different movies. So we watched our way through the movies and there was things that I really appreciated about the movies. There was things I thought were really well done. There was things that I thought were very engaging personally for myself watching the movies was my decision of whether or not I was going to read the books. Personally, I think that in the Harry Potter series, there's too blurry of a line between good and evil for me to invest time reading the series. That during my reading time, especially my fiction reading time, that's my downtime, that's my free time. And so I have chosen not to invest my time reading those books because from the movies, I just thought that the line between good and evil, while there was certain lines, you always know that Voldemort is evil. With some of the other characters, there was just too blurry of a line for me to really invest time reading.

Now, those of you who have listened or watched this podcast for a while, you knew that I am not married. I'm single, I don't have any children, so I am not currently having to figure out am I going to engage my kids in this series. Now, if I had children, now, this would have to be my husband and I would have to agree on this if we were going to do this, but if I was just making the decision myself, if I had kids, I think that I would choose to read the books to them and with them and talk through them. And there's a few reasons why I would choose to do this. First, because it's a cultural phenomena and it's just really hard to avoid. And so if most people in the culture are engaging in this, and I don't believe that it's inherently wrong to engage my children in this, I think it would be a good idea to read through it with them because it's going to be all around them, and it would provide some really great discussion opportunities. I think that it would be a great opportunity to even talk through where do we see the lines of good and evil in Scripture and talk about that. And then in Harry Potter series, where do we see these lines of good and evil? Are these lines sometimes blurred? And there's so many other really good conversations, like the conversations I mentioned before about the themes of good versus evil, self-sacrifice, caring for the oppressed and the downtrodden. So I think it would provide a lot of great discussion opportunities.

Also, I think that it is, as I mentioned before, from what I know of it, it is quality literature. And I think asking kids, how did JK Rowling really draw us into the story? How did she develop these characters? How did she really get us into understanding who these characters were, but also pulling us into the storyline? We want our kids to be good writers. That's actually, I have a former student of mine who she actually, she is the brains behind the Foundation Worldview Book Club. She reads the books and reviews them and writes the worldview questions. I noticed in her in third grade that she was a phenomenal writer, and so I have encouraged her as we've continued our relationship, now it's more of a friendship. She's in college. I have really encouraged her to continue reading quality literature and to continue writing because what we need in the Christian community is not more cheesy surface level literature that just ends with a gospel presentation and a conversion, but we need more deeply, deeply rooted, quality rich literature that really dives down deep into the writing skills that God has given us and has enabled us to develop and really draw people into truth and goodness and beauty through quality writing. And so I think that if I were a parent, that would be, if I engaged my kids in this series and had good questions, I would also be exposing them to quality writing.

Well, I hope that this podcast has been helpful for you no matter where you fall on the spectrum of conviction about this. And I hope that just kind of this paradigm that I laid out for how we can think about different pieces of literature that you can then take that and apply that to other books or other series of movies.

If you found the content of this podcast beneficial, please be sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, please make sure you write a review and take time to give us a five stars. This really helps us get the content out to more people. And if you have a question that you would like for me to answer on a future Foundation Worldview Podcast, you can submit that by going to FoundationWorldview.com/podcast.

As we leave this time together, my prayer for you is the same as always, that no matter the situation in which you and the children, God is placed in your care, find yourselves that you would trust that God is working all things together for your good by using all things to conform you more into the image of His Son. I'll see you next time.

Related Posts and insights

How To Do Family Devotions

Elizabeth Urbanowicz shares her experience growing up with family devotions and provides ideas on how to start and lead family devotions.

How to Teach Children to Treat Others As Image Bearers of God?

No matter what age, kids are bound to have questions about violence in the Bible. As a parent, it's important to be prepared to answer these questions in a way that is both honest and intentional. In this podcast, Elizabeth Urbanowicz will talk about how to address and talk to kids about violence in the scripture in a way that is developmentally appropriate and sensitive to their unique needs.

Responding to a Child's Spiritual Apathy

In this episode, our host Elizabeth Urbanowicz grapples with the challenging question of how to engage a child who is increasingly disinterested in the things of God. How can we cultivate our child's affection toward God? Don't miss this episode on how to respond to a hard-hearted child.

• Skip to content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Just Disciple

A Guide to Christian Discipleship

Can Christians Read/Watch Harry Potter? The Biblical Answer

Christian Questions / April 7, 2021 by sidneyroger

Harry Potter. We all know about this book and movie series. As a kid, I was fascinated by this fictional world. I’ve read every book at least once and watched every movie at least five times. This year I began battling whether or not I should read/watch Harry Potter anymore. As Christians, is this something we should even allow into our lives?

Can Christians read/watch Harry Potter? Christians can read and watch Harry Potter without it becoming sinful and learn good morals from it. However, when consuming the series you must use discernment and be on guard for what you are allowing into your life.

This post will walk you through the two main views Christians have regarding Harry Potter to help you walk through whether or not this series is something you can allow into your life.

What Is Harry Potter?

The Harry Potter series has become a worldwide phenomenon. It’s become more than just a series, it’s a whole other world you can escape to.

There’s a large variety of merchandise for fans to purpose. Fans can even now visit this fictional world at Universal Studios in California, and Florida.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Harry Potter, it is a series of books and movies targeted at children and young adults. It follows the life of an orphan Harry Potter who finds out that he’s a wizard on his 11th birthday.

The seven-book series and eight movies take you alongside Harry’s journey as he learns to embrace magic and battles evil that he encounters at Hogwarts.

The series gets darker as it continues and Harry encounters death many times. The series ends with him as an adult.

The series has also increased to being more about Harry Potter and now includes the Fantastic Beasts series which is a soon-to-be three-part movie series.

To learn more about Harry Potter click here.

Can Christians Read/Watch Harry Potter? The Two Views

Ever since the series became popular many Christians have been debating whether or not this is something we should allow into our lives.

To some Harry Potter seems to be an innocent world to dive into and enjoy. To others, consuming Harry Potter can have spiritual implications.

Why Christians Can Read/Watch Harry Potter

Some Christians believe there to be nothing wrong with watching or reading Harry Potter. Though the series is about a young wizard and a world of magic, they believe this to be a different form of magic stated within the Bible.

The magic is used to paint a picture and help spark imagination in young children and people of any age. It helps us to escape our daily troubles and step into a world with phoenixes and hopping chocolate frogs.

J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, has even stated that the magic she uses is separate from what is used in the Wiccan religion.

Since the magic mentioned throughout the book is separate it is viewed as an innocent creation used by the author to spark your imagination.

This series uses Harry’s story to show its audience how to persevere. Harry faces many different difficulties as he grows from adolescence to becoming an adult.

He has to learn how to harness his gifts without misusing them. He has to grow in trusting himself in order to defeat his enemy.

He encounters many different things that we too encounter in our lives. Such as; evil and darkness, being bullied, fitting in, as well as the death of many loved ones.

Each character in the book is so unique that every person who reads and watches the movies can find someone who relates to them.

J.K Rowling also does a great job of giving each character a well-explained back story and shows their own struggles outside of just Harry’s.

Harry Potter Teaches Moral Character & Friendship

It also teaches us how to have a good moral character, and how important friendship is.

Harry Potter has an enemy named Voldemort who was consumed by evil and has been trying to corrupt Harry and kill him throughout the entire series.

Harry has to resist his own temptation, lean on his friends and trust his powers in order to defeat Voldemort. In the end, he wins and good prevails.

Some Christians view this as an example of God defeating satan. This creates a sense of comfortability when watching the movie and allows us to see parts of the gospel theme come out of something of the world.

Though the movie does have a secular worldview to it and it addresses evil, these are things we will encounter in our lives anyways. Instead of keeping our children hidden from such things, it is good to expose them to such things.

This allows the parents to walk their children through situations they may face.

It also gives them the opportunity to teach them the good and bad. While also offers up a teaching moment for how to grow in discernment and what to do when they encounter these things in the real world.

Christians Shouldn’t Watch Harry Potter

The other side of this view is that Christians should not watch or read Harry Potter. Though at first glance this series seems innocent, it can have very real implications to watching it.

Though the magic used in it is not directly connected to the Wiccan culture. It is still a form of magic.

There are still spells, wands, witches, and wizards. Some of the spells are used for good and fascinating. While others are incredibly cruel and one can even kill someone.

There are evil creatures who suck souls and a whole group dedicated to following the villain in the story.

Yes, you may learn something from these movies. You also need to ask how the series is impacting your spiritual life and what you’re allowing into your life.

It may be easy for adults or even older teens who are solid in their faith, but what kids? Their discernment isn’t quite there to view this as fictional and know which parts of it they shouldn’t believe.

They start becoming in awe of magic, because who doesn’t want a cool wand after watching these movies?

But what prevents them from not getting into real magic or even pretending to use these spells?

As I mentioned earlier I was a huge fan of Harry Potter as a kid. I owned the entire series and was trying to have the entire book series as well. I would pretend to be the characters and dived deep into this fictional world.

I used the spells for “fun” with friends and thought it was all innocent. Until I started really struggling with believing that all of these things were okay. I even bought a wand from the Harry Potter universe.

It made me think that witches and wizards we’re okay.

I even studied how these spells developed and researched J.K. Rowling and how she developed the fictional world. I was more than obsessed.

This series became an idol in my life. Instead of turning to God when struggling, I would go into the fictional world.

Over the past year though something began changing. I felt incredibly convicted for allowing the Harry Potter series into my life.

I realized how dark it was and what I was really allowing into my life.

The magic isn’t as innocent as it appears and began having a grip on me. Then all the times I was warned about the series by some of my family finally hit me.

Harry Potter was a way for the enemy to begin to enter my spiritual life and make me doubt my Heavenly Father.

Now it may not be this way for every Christian, but you should be aware of how this series can impact you.

What You Should Know About Harry Potter

Though the magic used in the book isn’t necessarily tied to Wiccan practices. J.K. Rowling used old Latin root words, some traditionally used for spells in witchcraft to create the spells.

She took the original root of the Latin word for specific spells and altered it so that it’s technically a different word and not a real spell.

Each spell does have roots and still means something in Latin.

Many of the different magic elements are also inspired by real herbs or items that are believed to be magic or hold powers by some cultures. She would look into different mystical stories and even used science for some of her inspiration as well.

J.K. Rowling herself does not practice or believe in the occult. She just has a very creative mind that she wanted to use to inspire others.

In fact, she gained much of her inspiration while in Portugal. She used places she visited in the history of Portugal for inspiration for Hogwarts and many of the magical shops in her fictional world.

Relevant Bible Passages To Harry Potter

There are Bible verses that should lead us to be cautious with entering the fictional world of Harry Potter, but there are also some that show that it is not necessarily wrong for us either.

Here are some verses for each view.

Bible Verse That Supports We Can Read/Watch Harry Potter

In Philippians, we see Paul mentions to those in Philippi to focus on things that are positive and good.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Upon first glance, this does not directly relate to Harry Potter. However, a common theme throughout the series is self-sacrifice. This is something that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable.

Harry Potter, Dumbledore, Dobby, and many other characters risk their lives in the series for the ones they love.

This is something we need to not only celebrate as Christians but also use as an example in our friendships with others.

Bible Verses That Teach Us To Be Cautious With Harry Potter

The Bible warns about witchcraft, the occult, and the use of magic in several different places. Before watching or reading the series you should pray and consider the following verses.

Warnings Of Being Involved In Magic

Leviticus 19 warns of practicing witchcraft and engaging with those who practice it.

Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. Do not practice divination or seek omens. Leviticus 19:26

Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:31

Verse 26 warns of not practicing magic. Even if it’s not something we view as real, we shouldn’t even pretend to cast spells for fun.

We can’t be sure of what we are actually doing, especially if it comes from an old spell.

Verse 31 mentions necromancers and mediums. A necromancer is someone who practices magic. In the series almost every character except for muggles (humans who have no magic ability) practices magic.

This verse is saying that we should not seek out those who practice magic because this is something that can transfer into our own lives.

Stories Of Those Who Practiced Witchcraft In The Bible

2 Chronicles 33 tells the story of King Manasseh who worshipped false gods and the stars.

In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger. 2 Chronicles 33:5-6

Manasseh worshipped the stars and fell into the darkness of necromancy. He was taken over by his sin and the evil that surrounds magic.

It compelled him so much that he was willing to kill his own children.

Though the magic in Harry Potter is used to tell a larger story, we must keep in mind the real darkness of magic as we go into the fictional world.

We cannot deny the grip that magic has on some people like Manasseh.

Not only that, but these acts are unpleasing to the Lord.

We see another example of those who practiced witchcraft in Acts 19.

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.”  Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.    But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”    And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.    And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.    And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. Acts 19:13-19

Those who had practiced magic and read books about magic became possessed by evil spirits and became consumed in evil works.

Though they were lost and had turned away from the Lord, He still provided a way for them to be saved. He removed the scales from their eyes when they were saved.

They saw the evil of what had ruled their lives and even burned their books so that they wouldn’t turn back.

The Ultimate Consequence Of Using Magic

It’s easy to view magic and witchcraft as something that allows us to escape our everyday life, but practicing it has real consequences that we’re warned of in the book of Revelation.

Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Revelation 21:7-8

Those who fall into sinful things are more than just spiritually impacted, but will also be fully separated from God for eternity. This is serious.

We must be aware of this consequence. Watching and reading Harry Potter will not cause us to fall into this sin automatically, but we must be aware of how evil magic really is.

We must not allow ourselves to justify it and fall into practicing it ourselves.

We’ve been blessed with the gift of discernment which has been gifted to us by our Heavenly Father.

We need to use it well when deciding whether or not we allow things like Harry Potter or other movies including magic into our lives.

Take time to honestly seek the Lord and pray before deciding whether or not you will read/watch Harry Potter and be open to His leading.

• What could we do to make this post better? *
• Email (optional) We read all the feedback given, but it often helps to follow up with questions.
• Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Christian Book Reviews, Author Interviews, Excerpts

• BROWSE TOPICS X
• Devotionals
• Newsletters

Christian Fantasy Novel Rivals Harry Potter

• Randall Murphree AgapePress
• Published Jan 10, 2005

Randall Murphree, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association. © 2004 AgapePress.  All rights reserved.  Used with permission.

Recently On Books

Editor's Picks

Popular Today

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use
• Crosswalk App
• California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information
• California - CCPA Notice

• Christian Books & Bibles
• Christian Living

Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Amazon Prime includes:

Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.

• Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
• Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
• Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
• Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
• Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.

Buy new: .savingPriceOverride { color:#CC0C39!important; font-weight: 300!important; } .reinventMobileHeaderPrice { font-weight: 400; } #apex_offerDisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventPriceSavingsPercentageMargin, #apex_offerDisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventPricePriceToPayMargin { margin-right: 4px; } -10% $16.19 $ 16 . 19 FREE delivery Friday, May 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35 Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com

Return this item for free.

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select the return method

Save with Used - Acceptable .savingPriceOverride { color:#CC0C39!important; font-weight: 300!important; } .reinventMobileHeaderPrice { font-weight: 400; } #apex_offerDisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventPriceSavingsPercentageMargin, #apex_offerDisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventPricePriceToPayMargin { margin-right: 4px; } $5.83 $ 5 . 83 FREE delivery Friday, May 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35 Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Kuleli Books

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

What's a Christian to Do with Harry Potter? Paperback – May 15, 2001

Purchase options and add-ons.

Answers to the Burning Questions Christian Parents, Educators, and Others Are Asking about Harry Potter. In the world of publishing, few successes have equaled that of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series—magical stories centered on one boy’s adventures at Hogwarts, a school for witchcraft and wizardry. Yet this popular series presents a perplexing—even divisive—challenge to the Christian community. Although the books present a clear picture of the epic battle between good and evil, they appear to support the use of magic and have had a controversial impact on our culture. As a result, many of us are wondering, “How should I respond to this Harry Potter thing?” Find out what the Harry Potter books really say about witchcraft and wizardry. Hear what Christians on both sides of the debate are saying about Harry Potter—and decide what you believe. Learn how you can use the series to protect your child from real occult influences. In What’s a Christian to Do with Harry Potter? , you’ ll explore the valid concerns some Christians have about the series, sort out the fact and fiction at the center of the debate, discover biblical answers that may surprise you, and learn how you can tap into this powerful cultural phenomenon to help advance the kingdom of God. This book has not been prepared, approved, or licensed by any person or entity that created, published, or produced the Harry Potter books or related properties.

• Print length 224 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date May 15, 2001
• Dimensions 6 x 0.56 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 1578564719
• ISBN-13 978-1578564712
• See all details

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

From publishers weekly.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From the Author

If you are a Harry Potter fan, I will explain how this can be a biblically viable position and give you insight to ways you can profitably use these stories. I will also give you insight that will help you deal with the accusations and suspicion you or your children may receive from Christians who oppose Harry Potter.

From the Inside Flap

From the back cover, about the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House Publishing Group (May 15, 2001)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1578564719
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1578564712
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.5 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.56 x 9 inches
• #2,760 in Christian Family & Relationships
• #6,946 in Parenting (Books)

About the author

Connie neal.

Connie Neal is a trusted best-selling author who writes on family, marriage, parenting, communication, and pop culture. She has authored dozens of books that have been featured in Time, Newsweek, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, PBS, Christianity Today, Entertainment Weekly, and media worldwide. She holds a BA in Communication from Pepperdine University; MS in Education, specializing in Instructional Design for Online Learning. She has edited and contributed to five Bible projects (The Life Recovery Bible sold over 3 million; Spiritual Renewal Bible won the ECPA Gold Medallion). She's a respected authority on the Harry Potter books (181 citations on Google Scholar), and a keynote speaker who toured America with Women of Faith. Shifting from books to multimedia learning, she's done instructional design for UC Davis, businesses, and non-profits. Her current interest is using generative AI for good and teaching anyone to prompt results from GPTs using trusted content and natural language.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Harry Potter: Harmless Christian Novel or Doorway to the Occult?

Belinda Elliott

Share This article

Whenever a new movie rolls around, the debate about Harry Potter heats up again. Some parents have called for the books to be banned, while others – including some Christians – have embraced the fantasy series. In fact, many fans of the series have argued that the books are actually Christian novels that are valuable for children to read. Author Richard Abanes says this couldn’t be further from the truth.

In his book, Harry Potter, Narnia, and the Lord of the Rings: What You Need to Know About Fantasy Books and Movies , he discusses why the J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is vastly different from the Christian-based works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Richard about his book. Read the interview below.

CBN.com: What led you to write this book?

RICHARD ABANES: Well, this Harry Potter controversy, I thought was going to be dying down, but over the years it has continued to be talked about and there are many individual opinions on it. With the new book coming out, I felt that I needed to address these issues again since my last book, Harry Potter and the Bible . There has continued to be these myths about Harry Potter that it is not harmful at all, that it is absolutely wonderful. I felt like that needed to be addressed because there is a movement within Christianity now, within the Christian church, of a small group of people who are trying to say that the Harry Potter books are actually a Christian series just like the The Chronicles of Narnia series and the Lord of the Rings series. I felt this needed to be addressed because it is not an accurate picture of what the Harry Potter books are.

CBN.com: You discuss in the book how fantasy can be used for teaching. What is it about fantasy that you find valuable?

ABANES: I love fantasy. I’m a big fantasy fan and science fiction fan. Fantasy is a wonderful way to communicate truths to children. There are various concepts that are biblically sound, that you can put in terms that they can understand -- issues like integrity, honesty, bravery, courage, forgiveness -- and you find these things in books like The Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings . And that is why you have to be careful about fantasy as well. Even though it is great, fantasy can, like anything that is powerful, be used in a way that is detrimental to kids. That is when you have fantasy that talks about values that are not biblically sound -- disobedience, lack of respect for things, sort of a moral relativism -- and these are things that come across in fantasies like the Philip Pullman books, and the Harry Potter books. And in Philip Pullman, which many children are reading, we have very anti-Christian views being expressed, so that can be dangerous as well.

CBN.com: How can parents tell the difference and evaluate whether a book is a good type of fantasy or a bad type of fantasy?

ABANES: First, you have to know your kid. You have to know what the maturity level of your child is and how they are going to be affected by fantasy. If they tend to emulate things a lot, copy things they see on television or in books, then you know that they are very prone to that kind of influence, and you have to be very careful. One of the things you want to look at is what is the overall message that is coming forth from a book or from a movie? What are the characters doing in the movie or in the book? You can have bad characters doing bad things in any kind of fantasy, that is fine, but how does the story portray that bad behavior? Is it exalting it? Is it making it look fun? Or is it showing how that is not good? That’s one of the main ways you can do that. And when it comes to spiritual issues, how closely does something like things of the occult appear in a book that is very similar to what you find in the real world?

CBN.com: You mentioned Philip Pullman and the series of books that he has written. When did children’s fiction become so dark? Is this a new trend?

ABANES: It is. It is a very new trend for children’s fiction to be dark, to be sinister, to be anti-Christian, to be filled with occult imagery. That is something that actually started when there was a changeover in Hollywood from the classic portrayal of demons, witches, and things like that in a negative light. You started getting movies around the late 1980s and early 1990s that were starting to portray witchcraft, the occult, and the paranormal in a positive way. And that started piquing an interest of the community and of kids. You know, Hollywood targets children a lot because there is a lot of money to be made there. So that started this trend toward the popularity of that. Then you get the television shows, like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Charmed,” that presented these types of things in a very positive, fun, stimulating, exciting way, and that has caused this interest. Then there are books like the R.L. Stine books that have contributed greatly to this horror genre for children. That’s how that started.

CBN.com: In your book you discuss two types of magic found in these fantasy stories. What is the difference between the magic readers will find in The Chronicles of Narnia or the Lord of the Rings and the “magick” found in Harry Potter ?

ABANES: One of the easiest ways to know whether a fantasy book or film has real world magick in it is to just ask a simple question: “Can my child find information in a library or bookstore that will enable them to replicate what they are seeing in the film or the book?” If you go to The Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings what you see in, story magic and imagination, it is not real. You can’t replicate it. But if you go to something like Harry Potter , you can find references to astrology, clairvoyance, and numerology. It takes seconds to go into a bookstore or library and get books on that and start investigating it, researching it, and doing it. In fact, that’s why real Wiccans, real witches, and real occultists are using the popularity of Harry Potter to lure kids toward real world occultism. They actually have advertisements for their own books that use Harry Potter as their appeal.

CBN.com: There are some people who say children will not be drawn to the occult just because Harry Potter practices magick and spells, but you’ve found some research that suggests otherwise. What have you found?

ABANES: Right, even J.K. Rowling has said, “Well I’ve never met anyone who has come up to me and said they want to be a witch now.” But people are forgetting a very commonly known fact that children like to copy what they see. Children like to copy what they think is cool. We already have examples of kids going out and buying white owls because that is Harry’s owl in the movie. We’ve seen boarding school registrations sky-rocketing in England because Harry goes to a boarding school. So we have numerous examples of this copycat behavior. And the obvious question is, where is that going to stop? Isn’t it possible that kids out there are also copying and wanting to redo the stuff they are seeing in the films or reading in the books? And we have examples of that too. That’s all I’m saying, is be careful and don’t think that your children might not copy what they are seeing and might not want to emulate their hero and the things he is doing. Obviously, I’m not talking about flying on a broomstick, or making a pineapple dance across a table. People often hear what I say and they think, “That is so stupid of you.” But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about real stuff that real kids can really copy, and that’s what the problem is.

CBN.com: In your book you discuss the authors of these three different series, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling. How are these authors different?

ABANES: Tolkien and Lewis, of course, were devout Christians. J.K. Rowling does not seem to be. In fact, we have no statements from her at all that would indicate that she has made a profession for Christ, that she defines God the same way that Christians define God, or that she views Jesus Christ in the same way. There is nothing.

We also have moral relativism in her books, meaning if it feels good do it, as opposed to a biblical kind of morality that is throughout the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings . We see issues in those two series such as forgiveness, repentance, sacrifice, and these types of things. We might see some symbolism in the Harry Potter books that might be able to be interpreted -- if you pushed it -- in some sort of Christian way, but these same symbols also have occult and pagan meanings to them. Within the framework and the context of Harry Potter we see that this is probably what she is dealing with.

There is this whole movement within Christianity where people are trying to say that the Harry Potter books are Christian novels. And that is just untrue. You can’t interpret it that way. That is not the context of the story. That’s not what Rowling is in her real life and what she is trying to put across. And what is interesting is that these people who are saying that the Harry Potter books are Christian, are interpreting all these symbols in a Christian way, but in the exact opposite way that J.K. Rowling has herself explained. So they are contradicting the author herself, which is sort of silly.

CBN.com: What is your advice to parents about this? How should they approach the Harry Potter series?

ABANES: I would say first of all, I am not for book banning or book burning. I want to be really clear about that. I believe that parents need to simply have the right information before them, good solid facts about what is and what is not in the books, and then look to their kids and think about the child’s maturity level, whether the child tends to copy what they see, the age of the child, and then also how rooted and grounded that child may be in their faith. Once they get up into late teens and early adults, it is not really an issue anymore. I’m mostly concerned about kids who are as young as five and six years old who are being read these books and up into the early adolescent years. So I guess the simple answer would be that they need to know their kids and get involved and not just think here is a nice thick book that I can throw at them and have them read it for the next few hours. They need to be involved.

CBN.com: Do you think that a lot of parents are unaware at how easy it is to get books on witchcraft and spells, many of which are located right next to the Harry Potter books at bookstores?

ABANES: Absolutely. I don’t think parents understand first of all what is in Harry Potter . Secondly, I don’t think parents understand how closely what is in Harry Potter mirrors what is in the real world, and then how the real world books are being sold right up next to the Harry Potter books. There is this crossover where the Wiccans know it, the occultists know, the practitioners of all these things know it, and they are using that curiosity that kids have for all of this stuff now through Harry Potter to attract readers to their real world how-to manuals. I think many parents just don’t get that. They don’t understand.

CBN.com: What do you hope to see accomplished through this book?

ABANES: My goal is to cancel out the extremist views on Harry Potter and fantasy in general. I want people to know that there are concerns and dangers with fantasy literature, that we need to be careful, but at the same time fantasy can be wonderful for kids and is needed for kids. If we can find a middle of the road balance, that is what is most important. We need to not just cut everything out but to take care to look at what is good fantasy and what is bad fantasy. That is why I give examples of both kinds and explain them so parents can make a good decision.

About The Author

Belinda’s passion is crafting stories that help people live better lives, whether that means offering advice to restore a crumbling marriage, giving practical ways Christians can live out their faith, or providing tips to clean and organize the kitchen pantry. There is nothing more satisfying than writing articles that teach, motivate, inspire, or uplift people. She began her writing career as a newspaper reporter. Later, she served as a senior editor/writer for CBN.com, the website of the Christian Broadcasting Network, and wrote about a variety of topics. Belinda’s greatest desire is to More

You are signing up to receive general newsletters from CBN. By signing up, you are consenting to our privacy policy . You can specify preference after sign-up and opt out at any time.

Popular Resources

Total Freedom from Sex and Love Addiction

Former French Atheist Unravels His Quest to Jesus

A Search for the Truth Leads Muslim Man to Christ

Is Harry Potter a Christian Allegory?

• Belief Systems
• Key Figures in Atheism
• M.A., Princeton University
• B.A., University of Pennsylvania

When Christians talk about the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, it’s most often to complain about them - for example, their use of magic. A few Christians, though, argue that the Harry Potter books are not only compatible with Christianity, but in fact contain implicit Christian messages. They compare Rowling’s books with the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis or the books by Tolkien , all works imbued with Christian themes to one degree or another.

An allegory is a fictional story in which the characters or events are used in place of other figures or events. The two groups are connected by suggestive resemblances, and therefore an allegory is often described as an extended metaphor. C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series is an obvious Christian allegory: the lion Aslan offers himself to be killed in place of a boy sentenced to death for his crimes but rises again the following day to lead the forces of good in their defeat of evil.

The question, then, is whether the Harry Potter books are also a Christian allegory. Did J.K. Rowling write the stories such that characters and events are supposed to suggest some of the characters and events central to Christian mythology? Most conservative Christians would reject this notion and even many moderate and liberal Christians probably wouldn’t think it likely, even if they see the Harry Potter books as compatible with Christianity.

A few, though, are convinced that the Harry Potter books are more than compatible with Christianity ; instead, they metaphorically present a Christian worldview, Christian message, and Christian beliefs. By communicating Christianity indirectly, the books can both help current Christians reinforce their beliefs and perhaps lead non-Christians to Christianity by laying the groundwork for acceptance of Christian doctrines.

Background of Harry Potter and Christianity

Many in the Christian Right see the Harry Potter books and the resulting cultural phenomenon as an important issue in their general “culture war” against modernity and liberalism. Whether the Harry Potter stories really do promote Wicca, magic, or immorality may be less important than what they are perceived to be doing; therefore, any argument which can cast doubt upon popular perceptions can have a significant impact on the wider debates.

It’s possible, but not likely, that J.K. Rowling has no intentions or message behind her stories. Some books are written merely to be entertaining tales that are enjoyed by readers and make money for publishers. This does not seem likely in the case of the Harry Potters stories, however, and Rowling’s comments suggest that she has something to say.

If J.K. Rowling intends her Harry Potter books to be Christian allegories and to communicate basic Christian messages to her readers, then the complaints of the Christian Right are about as wrong as they could be. One might be able to argue that Rowling isn’t doing a very good job at communicating Christian messages, such that she is too easily misunderstood, but the argument that she is deliberately promoting witchcraft and magic would be completely undermined.

J.K. Rowling’s intentions will also be important to non-Christian readers. If her goal all along has been to create a Christian allegory that lays the basis for adopting Christianity itself or to make Christianity more psychologically appealing, then non-Christian readers may want to adopt the same cautious attitude towards the books that some Christians have now. Non-Christian parents may not want their children to read stories designed to convert them to another religion.

None of this holds true, though, if the stories merely use themes or ideas that happen to appear in Christianity. In that case the Harry Potter stories wouldn’t be Christian allegories; instead, they would simply be products of Christian culture.

Harry Potter Is Christian

John Granger is the most vocal proponent of the idea that the Harry Potter stories are really a Christian allegory. In his book  Looking for God in Harry Potter , he argues extensively that just about every name, character, and event points in some way to Christianity. He argues that the centaurs are Christian symbols because Jesus rode into  Jerusalem  on a donkey. He argues that Harry Potter’s name alludes to “Son of God” because the Cockney and French pronunciations of Harry are “Arry,” which sound like “heir to,” and God is described as a “potter” by Paul.

The best evidence that there are Christian intentions behind her books comes from an article in  American Prospect :

“Rowling initially was afraid that if people were aware of her Christian faith, she would give away too much of what's coming in the series. 'If I talk too freely about that,' she told a Canadian reporter, 'I think the intelligent reader — whether ten [years old] or sixty — will be able to guess what is coming in the books.'”

If more knowledge about her Christian beliefs would lead an intelligent reader to accurately guess where the books are going, then naturally the plot of the entire Harry Potter series must somehow be inspired by Christianity. It must be possible to map people and events from Harry Potter onto people and events of the Gospels, and this means that Harry Potter is an allegory of the Gospels.

Harry Potter Is Not Christian

For Harry Potter to be a Christian allegory, it must be intended as such and it must employ uniquely Christian messages, symbols , and themes. If it contains themes or messages that are part of many beliefs, including Christianity, then it could function as an allegory for any of them. If it is intended as a Christian allegory but doesn’t contain uniquely Christian themes, then it’s a failed allegory.

John Granger’s premise is that any story which “touches” us does so because it contains Christian themes and we are hard-wired to respond to those themes. Anyone working from such an assumption will find Christianity lurking everywhere if they try hard enough — and Granger tries very, very hard.

Often, Granger stretches so far that you can tell that he’s getting desperate. Centaurs exist as basic figures in mythology and cannot be connected to Christianity except by the most elaborate stretching of imagination — especially when they don’t do anything particularly Christ-like to justify saying that they are references to Jesus entering Jerusalem.

Sometimes the connections Granger tries to draw between Christianity and Harry Potter are reasonable, but not  necessary . There are themes in Harry Potter about sacrificing for friends and love triumphing over death, but they are not uniquely Christian. They are, in fact, common themes throughout folklore, mythology, and world literature.

The exact details of J.K. Rowling’s beliefs are unknown. She has said that she doesn’t believe in magic “in the sense” that her critics allege or “in the way” it is portrayed in her books. This may merely mean that she believes in the “magic” of love, but it may also mean that her beliefs are not quite the same as orthodox Christianity. If that is the case, treating Harry Potter as an allegory for orthodox Christianity — like the Narnia books are — may be mistaken. Perhaps she’s actually writing an allegory of the history of the Christian church, not of Christianity itself.

Most of the arguments for the idea that the Harry Potter books are a Christian allegory rely on very thin comparisons between the books and Christianity. To call them “weak” would be a gross understatement. Even the best comparisons are of messages or symbols that occur throughout world literature and folklore, meaning they aren’t unique to Christianity and therefore are a very poor basis for creating a Christian allegory.

If it were J.K. Rowling’s intention all along to create a Christian allegory, which is certainly plausible given her statements, then she will have to do something in order to match Harry Potter more closely with Christianity and Christian messages. If she doesn’t, then it will amount to a failed allegory. Even if she does, though, it will be an arguably weak allegory because so much has happened thus far without the connections to Christianity being very clear.

A good allegory doesn’t beat you over the head with its message, but after a while, the connections should start piling up and the purpose of the story should become evident, at least to those who are paying attention. That hasn’t been the case with Harry Potter, though.

For the time being, then, it would make the most sense to conclude that the Harry Potter stories are not a Christian allegory. All of this could change in the future, however. Something might happen in the final books which is much more explicitly Christian in nature — the death and resurrection of Harry Potter himself, for example. If that happens, then it would be hard not to treat the stories as a Christian allegory, even if they don’t start off doing it very well.

• The Matrix and Religion: Is It a Christian Film?
• Beliefs and Choices: Do You Choose Your Religion?
• Argument From Miracles: Do Miracles Prove God Exists?
• C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien Argued Over Christian Theology
• Is Astrology a Pseudoscience?
• The Jesus Trilemma of C.S. Lewis
• Leonardo Da Vinci: Renaissance Humanist, Naturalist, Artist, Scientist
• The Relationship Between Technology and Religion
• History of American Religion:1600 to 2017
• C.S. Lewis Vs. Atheism and Atheists
• The History and Meaning of the Holy Grail
• What Is Religion?
• Nietzsche, Truth, and Untruth
• Southern Baptists and the Role of Women
• Roman Heliopolis & Temple Site at Baalbek in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley
• Adolf Hitler on Christianity: Quotes

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

Book Review

Harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone – “harry potter” series.

• J.K. Rowling

Readability Age Range

• Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc.

Year Published

After being raised in the miserably unfair home of his Uncle Vernon Dursley, Harry practically begins life anew when he discovers that he is a wizard and is invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Among Harry’s first-year adventures are making new friends (Hagrid, Ron and Hermione), standing up to the torments of school bully Draco Malfoy, and becoming the star player on his Quidditch team (the favored sport in the magical world). Harry’s life as a Hogwarts “first-year” is more interesting than that of most attendees, because he is already famous for surviving the attack of the evil Lord Voldemort, who tried to kill him as an infant. Everyone in the wizard world knows more about Harry’s family and his story than he does, so a great deal of the book is about Harry growing into his heritage.

By far the most important happening of Harry’s first year is unraveling the mystery of the Sorcerer’s Stone and coming face to face with Voldemort. The Sorcerer’s Stone has the power to turn things to gold and to give immortality to humans. Voldemort, who lost most of his power in the battle with Harry’s parents, is desperate to find the stone and use it for his own evil purposes. He enlists the help of one Hogwarts professor, and in the end, Harry meets both of them in hand-to-hand combat. Of course, Harry wins, but Voldemort is not defeated forever.

Positive Elements

At the wizards’ bank, Harry reads on the door the following warning against greed: “Enter stranger, but take heed of what awaits the sin of greed. For those who take but do not earn must pay dearly in their turn. So if you seek beneath our floors a treasure that was never yours, thief, you have been warned, beware of finding more than treasure there.”

Unraveling the Sorcerer’s Stone mystery, Harry, Ron and Hermione find themselves involved in a life-sized chess game, in which they become playing pieces. Two positive things here: first, Harry recognizes that Ron is more gifted than he at chess, so he defers to Ron as the wiser partner. More important, Ron proves himself to be such a good friend to Harry that he is willing to sacrifice his playing piece (and get knocked unconscious in the process) so that Harry can go on to find the stone.

Harry’s parents loved him unconditionally, even sacrificially. The message is clear about the effects of this kind of love: Voldemort says, “I killed your father first, and he put up a courageous fight … but your mother needn’t have died. … She was trying to protect you.” Later, Dumbledore says, “Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign … to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some sort of protection forever.”

Violent Content

No detailed description is given of the death of Harry’s parents. All Harry can remember is a huge flash of green light.

The resident directors in the Hogwarts dormitories are all ghosts. Two of them, in particular, have apparently died rather gruesome deaths, for they are named The Bloody Baron and Near Headless Nick, which gives some clue as to how they became specters.

Nicolas Flamel, the inventor of the Sorcerer’s Stone, agrees that it is in the best interest of humanity for the stone to be destroyed. This means that he and his wife, who both are over 600 years old, will die, because they will have no more sustenance from the stone. Harry expresses his distress over this selfless act, and the good professor Dumbledore responds, “To one as young as you, I’m sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”

As previously mentioned, an evil professor tries to knock Harry to his death (or at least to serious injury) during a Quidditch match. This same professor slaughters a Unicorn in order to drink the life-giving blood of an innocent animal.

Preceding the final match with Voldemort, Ron is knocked unconscious as he, Harry and Hermione struggle to solve the mystery of the Sorcerer’s Stone. The final battle itself is an intense struggle, for Harry soon discovers that Voldemort cannot touch his body without being badly burned. As Harry’s encounter with Voldemort rises to a climax, Voldemort screams at one of his followers, “KILL HIM! KILL HIM!”

Harry’s Family

Harry is treated horribly by Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and cousin Dudley Dursley. The Dursleys make Harry sleep in a closet, and they make no excuses about denying Harry simple pleasures while spoiling Dudley (“Every year on Dudley’s birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage, and Mrs. Figg made Harry look at photographs of all the cats she’d ever owned”).

The Dursleys are not characterized in such a way that the reader understands them to be a respectable or even a normal example of a family. In fact, the Dursleys are set up more as an example of the damage that is done when a child doesn’t have a real family. Children who have been neglected are likely to identify with Harry and be encouraged by his success at changing his station in life.

The Hogwarts community becomes a kind of surrogate family for Harry. He has a better Christmas at Hogwarts than he ever had with the Dursleys. And through his new friend, Ron Weasley, Harry is semi-adopted into the Weasley family, who care for him and even send him gifts, though they are poor themselves.

Throughout the story, there is the understanding that Harry’s real family truly loved him and would have treated him well. Finally, Harry finds them through a magical mirror called Erised (desire spelled backward.) In the mirror, he is able to see his mother and father looking at him longingly and waving. The mirror is intended to show its viewer the deepest desire of his or her heart.

School Discipline

J.K. Rowling paints a detailed picture of each of the prominent professors—McGonagall is fair and an excellent disciplinarian; Snape is grouchy and vengeful; Quirrell is stuttering and spineless; Dumbledore is wise and altogether respected. Harry and friends figure out early where their loyalties lie and what they can get way with in the classroom. They respect McGonagall and Dumbledore most, because these two are upright, wise and understanding.

Hogwarts rules include no fighting, no sneaking around after hours and no use of magic outside the classroom. Harry and company find a lot of their adventure in breaking the sneaking around rule and usually wind up saving someone or making an important discovery when they’re doing things they shouldn’t. They are always justly punished when they are caught in their misdeeds.

Hermione is the dissenting voice, always warning Harry and Ron that they’d better toe the line. Unfortunately, it is when she finally concedes to breaking the rules (for a good cause, of course) that Hermione proves herself a true friend to Harry and Ron (“Ron dropped his wand. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher?… Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had to get them out of trouble. … From that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend”).

In the end, Harry repents of his rule breaking: “It was a bit late to repair the damage, but Harry swore to himself not to meddle in the things that weren’t his business from now on. He’d had it with sneaking and spying. He felt so ashamed of himself.”

Alcohol Use

Hagrid, the school’s caretaker, likes to drink (both for social reasons and to calm his nerves). “Everyone [in the bar] seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, ‘The usual, Hagrid?’ ‘Can’t Tom, I’m on Hogwarts business,’ said Hagrid.” Hagrid does renounce his drinking habit when he realizes that while he was under the influence, he disclosed secret information that could have cost Harry his life. (“It’s—all—my—ruddy—fault! … I told him! Yeh could’ve died! … I’ll never drink again!”)

Spiritual Elements

Witchcraft and wizardry are central devices in this story. And they are presented in a very stereotypical manner. For example, Harry’s school supply list includes “three sets of plain work robes (black) … one pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar) … one wand, one cauldron (pewter, standard size 2),” and books like “The Standard Book of Spells … Magical Theory and One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.”

References to dark magic and other evils that pertain to the “dark side” are included, but they are never presented as desirable. Every character who is allied with these forces is an enemy or at least a tormentor to the hero of the story. For instance, one evil professor uses powerful dark magic to try to knock Harry off his broomstick during a Quidditch match. (On a cultural level, Rowling can be commended for steering young fans away from the so-called dark side, but from a spiritual perspective, it’s clear that there are not dark and light sides when it comes to witchcraft; it’s all as black as sin.)

The most intense example of dark magic occurs during Harry’s confrontation with Voldemort, when the evil one tempts Harry to come over to the dark side in order to save his own life: “‘See what I have become?’ the face said. ‘Mere shadow and vapor. … I have form only when I can share another’s body … but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds. … Don’t be a fool. … Better save your own life and join me … or you’ll meet the same end as your parents. … They died begging me for mercy.'”

“Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow” is a spoken charm typical of what Harry and his friends learn at Hogwarts. Some children may be fascinated and want to try these seemingly harmless spells for themselves. Not a wise idea, considering how very real the occult is. The meaningless charms found in this book may not summon occult forces, but there are real charms that do.

That said, Rowling presents life in the supernatural realm as much fuller than life in the physical realm. Colors are brighter, people are more interesting and life is more exciting and surprising. But the side of the supernatural world that Rowling presents is not really the side that offers this abundant life. In fact, biblically speaking, to participate in the world of witchcraft brings death rather than a fuller life (1 Sam. 28:6-18, Is. 8:19 and 47:12-14). That’s more than enough reason for families to think long and hard before embarking on Harry Potter’s magic carpet ride.

Plot Summary

Christian beliefs, other belief systems, authority roles, profanity & violence, sexual content, discussion topics, additional comments, latest book reviews.

Elf Dog and Owl Head

A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses Series)

Fog & Fireflies

The Minor Miracle: The Amazing Adventures of Noah Minor

The Eyes and the Impossible

Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Harry potter and the goblet of fire: harry potter, book 4, common sense media reviewers.

Fourth Potter has brilliant plotting -- and dragons.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Author J.K. Rowling borrows from many established

The whole series is full of positive messages abou

Harry faces many big challenges bravely. He has go

There's a little diversity at Hogwarts. Lee Jordan

A Hogwarts student dies suddenly in a burst of mag

Students are found kissing in the bushes after the

"Damn" is said fewer than 10 times, "hell," even l

Mention of a PlayStation.

Madame Maxime's horses only drink single-malt whis

Parents need to know that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series about an orphan boy at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Know right off the bat that a Hogwarts student dies in this one, and he's heavily mourned by fellow students and young…

Educational Value

Author J.K. Rowling borrows from many established stories and myths to piece together her magical world. Kids can look up more about dragons, elves, goblins, hippogriffs, boggarts, grindylows, sphinxes, giants, leprechauns, unicorns, blast-ended screwts (a mix of manticores and fire-crabs), magic wands, flying brooms, etc., compare the author's take with other interpretations, and think about how and why she weaves these magical elements and beings into her stories.

Positive Messages

The whole series is full of positive messages about the power of love, friendship, and self-sacrifice. This book also tackles sportsmanship (the students seem to possess it, while the adults cheat and gamble), activism, the drawbacks of fame, and why you shouldn't believe everything you read or hear -- especially if you heard it from Rita Skeeter! Dumbledore reminds students that "we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided." Students can fight against the enmity and discord Voldemort stands for with strong bonds of friendship and trust.

Positive Role Models

Harry faces many big challenges bravely. He has good mentors in his godfather, Sirius, and in Dumbledore. Hermione and Ron are mostly supportive, though it takes a while for Ron to get over his jealousy of Harry. Hermione becomes an activist for house-elf rights and sticks with it even though her campaign lacks support. Despite some adults trying to lead the Triwizard competitors astray, Harry always shows sportsmanlike conduct -- fair play is very important to him.

Diverse Representations

There's a little diversity at Hogwarts. Lee Jordan is described as having dreadlocks. Angelina Johnson is Black, the Patil twins are Harry and Ron's dates for the Yule Ball, Cho Chang is Harry's crush. Referee for Quidditch World Cup is Egyptian, and wizarding schools from Bulgaria and France come together for the Triwizard Tournament; all have strong accents. Characters face lots of discrimination in the wizarding world, especially for not being "pure-blood," or, in Hagrid's case, for being part giant. Some diverse family structures: Harry lives with his aunt and uncle; Neville, with his grandmother. Ron's insecurity over being from a poorer family comes up a lot. Women have prominent roles at Hogwarts: Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout are both heads of houses, Madame Maxime is head of Beauxbatons Academy. Lots of negative language around the size of Dudley and his father (Dudley is described as "the size and weight of a young killer whale") and of Malfoy's Slytherin friends Crabbe and Goyle.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

A Hogwarts student dies suddenly in a burst of magic and is heavily mourned. Another man dies suddenly. Other murders are talked about, three that take place close to or during the timeline of the book (from killing curses and a soul-sucking "kiss" from a dementor) and long before when Voldemort was in power and he and his followers were responsible for many deaths. Talk of torture before these deaths through a painful curse and talk of a student's parents who were tortured into insanity. A man cuts off his own hand; someone is tied up, cut, and tortured with pain. Fights with dragons, big spiders, and other magical creatures lead to injuries including burns and a broken ankle. Stories of how prisoners in Azkaban who are surrounded by dementors lost the will to live. A broken, bloody nose in a Quidditch game.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Students are found kissing in the bushes after the Yule Ball. Harry and friends navigate crushes, disappointment, and jealousy, and Hermione laments that her friends Harry and Ron will take the best-looking girl available even if she's "completely horrible."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Damn" is said fewer than 10 times, "hell," even less often. A joke about Uranus in Divination class.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Madame Maxime's horses only drink single-malt whiskey. Students drink butterbeer -- a magical-world drink with a pinch of alcohol. Percy (18 or 19) drinks wine with dinner, Mrs. Weasley takes some whiskey in her tea to calm her nerves, Hagrid drinks at a bar. A house elf gets drunk regularly and stops taking care of herself. Characters in picture frames get tipsy on Christmas. Talk of a woman drinking her fourth sherry at a bar while dishing gossip.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in J.K. Rowling' s Harry Potter series about an orphan boy at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Know right off the bat that a Hogwarts student dies in this one, and he's heavily mourned by fellow students and young readers alike. The overall mood is darker -- the book opens with another murder -- and Goblet of Fire is about 300 pages longer than Book 3 , so if kids younger than 10 are begging to keep rolling with the series, consider reading it aloud to them first to see how they fare. You can also check out our Harry Potter Age-by-Age Guide as well as details in individual reviews to help you decide. Other murders are talked about, three that take place close to or during the timeline of the book (from killing curses and a soul-sucking "kiss" from a dementor) and long before when Voldemort was in power and he and his followers were responsible for many deaths. There's talk of torture before these deaths through a painful curse, and talk of a student's parents who were tortured into insanity. A man cuts off his own hand; someone is tied up, cut, and tortured with pain. Fights with dragons, big spiders, and other magical creatures lead to injuries, including burns and a broken ankle. Harry and friends are 14 now and go to a Yule Ball; there's some drama around crushes and finding dates, and older students are caught kissing in the bushes after the ball. There's some drinking, but mostly by adults, house elves, and flying horses (they drink single-malt whiskey). The butterbeer that students drink has only a tiny bit of alcohol in it. Harry faces many big challenges bravely in this book, and lessons are learned about fair play (kids play fair, adults don't) and why you shouldn't always believe what you read. This book is also available in an illustrated edition with art by Jim Kay.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (29)
• Kids say (135)

Based on 29 parent reviews

e.g. Perfect for older kids, but not for kids under 10

What's the story.

In HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE, Harry wakes up at his aunt and uncle's house with a start, his scar searing, after he dreams of Wormtail and Voldemort and murder. He nearly forgets all about it when his friend Ron invites him to the Quidditch World Cup. It's Ireland vs. Bulgaria, and it seems the whole wizarding world is there to watch the excitement. Harry gets his first look at a pro Quidditch match, and everyone is in awe of the Bulgarian Seeker, Viktor Krum. Celebrations after the match carry so far into the night that Harry dozes off -- only to be awakened suddenly by screams of panic. Masked figures are moving through the campsites, floating innocent Muggles in front of them and taunting them for fun. These are the Death Eaters, Voldemort's followers, and they are growing bolder. It's an ominous display that casts a cloud over what is supposed to be a thrilling school year ahead. Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament, and two other schools are journeying there to compete: Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. Each school gets a champion selected by the magical Goblet of Fire, and the champions will perform three difficult tasks during the year. From Durmstrang, the Goblet selects none other than the famous Seeker Viktor Krum, from Beauxbatons, a girl named Fleur Delacour, and from Hogwarts, handsome Hufflepuff Cedric Diggory. But, to everyone's utter astonishment, the Goblet of Fire spits out one more name: Harry Potter. While the other schools are in an uproar over the unfairness of it all, Harry and those closest to him wonder who could have put his name in the cup. Could it have anything to do with his painful dream before the World Cup, and exactly how much danger is he in now?

Is It Any Good?

This first of the truly hefty Hogwarts volumes -- 300 pages longer than the last one – launches the darker second half of the series with an exciting tournament and the return of a terrifying foe. In Book 3, we get a break from Voldemort-level evil and are scared out of our wits only when those soul-sucking dementors appear. Book 4 begins in Voldemort's lair, not the safe haven of Privet Drive. Voldemort is a grotesque, infant-size thing accompanied by his giant pet snake and Wormtail, his simpering rat-servant. Right away the tone is unsettling, and when Harry wakes up with his scar searing in pain after being witness to a real murder in his dreams, you can predict the intense showdown to come. Yes, this is the one where a student dies, and geez, it's horrible. But Voldemort is ruthless, and the more we learn during the course of the book about his followers, the Death Eaters, and what happened the last time the Dark Lord was in power, the more this senseless loss makes sense, and the more readers will realize what kind of perilous ride is ahead for Harry and friends in the rest of the series.

Like all the Potter books, though, there's a whole school year at Hogwarts to distract us from the inevitable, and even better, a Triwizard Tournament and students from two rival schools, and a Yule Ball with all kinds of crushes and shenanigans -- Harry and friends are 14 now, so it's time for that stuff. Many, many fans call Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire their favorite of the series for one reason: dragons. Maybe the mermaids, too, but definitely not for Hagrid's blast-ended screwts. Older fans will enjoy the hilariously infuriating antics of crooked reporter Rita Skeeter, and budding activists will feel for Hermione's attempts to bring rights to the house elves (a storyline the fantastic movie version doesn't have the time to touch on). We're nearly lulled into a sense that it's just another school year -- that is, if we haven't been paying attention to those mysterious disappearances, or the casting of the Dark Mark at the World Cup, or how exactly Harry became a Triwizard champion at all.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Rita Skeeter in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire . Who trusts the stories she writes and who doesn't? How do you know when you're getting information from a reliable source and how do you know when it's been heavily embellished or downright false? What do news outlets gain by writing sensationalized stories?

Kids just getting into the series will find a whole world of Harry Potter available to them, from Chocolate Frogs for sale at the grocery store to theme parks. A die-hard Potter fan can spend a lot of money in their lifetime on merchandise and experiences. Do you think this is worth your money? Are there other ways you can celebrate books you love without raiding your piggy bank?

At the end of the book, the Minister of Magic outright rejects the startling news Harry tells him. What do you think this will mean for Book 5? If they believed Harry, what do you think would happen next?

Book Details

• Author : J. K. Rowling
• Illustrator : Mary Grandpre
• Genre : Fantasy
• Topics : Activism , Magic and Fantasy , Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More , Adventures , Brothers and Sisters , Bugs , Cats, Dogs, and Mice , Friendship , High School , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
• Character Strengths : Courage , Integrity , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Scholastic Inc.
• Publication date : July 8, 2000
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 9 - 12
• Number of pages : 734
• Available on : Paperback, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Kindle
• Award : ALA Best and Notable Books
• Last updated : June 10, 2022

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

Eragon: The Inheritance Cycle, Book 1

How to Train Your Dragon: The Heroic Misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Book 1

Dr. Ernest Drake's Dragonology Handbook : a practical course in dragons

Dragon Rider

Magical reads for kids who love harry potter, harry potter movies, related topics.

• Perseverance
• Magic and Fantasy
• Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More
• Brothers and Sisters
• Cats, Dogs, and Mice
• High School
• Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Advertisement

Supported by

'Harry Potter' Inspires A Christian Alternative

• Share full article

By Dinitia Smith

• July 24, 2004

Correction Appended

G. P. Taylor, an Anglican vicar, onetime roadie for the Sex Pistols and former all-around sinner, was roaring across the Yorkshire moors on his Yamaha XV1100 in a lightning storm when the idea for his hit Christian children's book, ''Shadowmancer,'' came to him.

Like some other committed Christians, he had been disturbed by the amount of witchcraft and the occult in children's literature. ''Harry Potter,'' for instance. The best-selling author J. K. Rowling gives too much power to the forces of evil in her books, he told parishioners. Well, one congregant replied, why not write your own book then?

So Mr. Taylor created a story deeply imbued with Christian imagery and set on the 18th-century Yorkshire coast in Britain with its rugged cliffs, hidden caves and smuggler's legends. It is about an evil vicar, Obadiah Demurral, who tries to take over the world but is thwarted by three teenagers and a smuggler.

When ''Shadowmancer'' was first published in Britain last year, it was soon dubbed the Christian alternative to ''Harry Potter'' and surged to the top of the paperback best-seller list, outranking its secular rivals, the ''Harry Potter'' books, for 15 weeks in a row. And in May when ''Shadowmancer'' was published in the United States by G. P. Putnam's Sons, it beat ''Harry Potter'' for six weeks straight on the children's chapter-book best-seller list of The New York Times. There are 300,000 copies in print, and now booksellers are eagerly expecting a similar success when the sequel, ''Wormwood,'' is published here in September.

Some of those sales have been fueled by the Christian media, which has hailed the ''Christian Harry Potter'' for its religious references and its celebration of God's power. Mr. Taylor's American promotional tour not only included the predictable appearance on the ''Today'' show, for instance, but also an interview with Pat Robertson on the Christian Broadcasting Network's ''700 Club.'' A reviewer for Pluggedin.com, the online magazine of the conservative Christian group ''Focus on the Family,'' wrote, ''It could be just the thing to counter Harry Potter's magic.'' And while Christianity Today magazine was more critical, it nonetheless credited ''Shadowmancer'' for showing ''something that some of the others do not -- characters relentlessly calling on God to shine his light into the shadows.''

That was what attracted Anne Pouns of Houston, who describes herself as a born-again Christian. She had not allowed her children, who are now teenagers, to read ''Harry Potter'' when they were young, and hadn't read the series herself. ''I don't desire to have it in my hands because of the witchcraft,'' she said.

But Ms. Pouns said she found ''Shadowmancer'' to be ''a very fascinating book. It reminds me of 'Lord of the Rings' and C. S. Lewis. If you have a knowledge of Scripture, you will realize how much he has interspersed the story with it.''

Michelle Black, who works at His Way Christian Bookstore in Eldersburg, Md., said she also tried to avoid books containing references to the occult or to gods and goddesses, and appreciated the Christian message of ''Shadowmancer.''

In the beginning, for instance, an Ethiopian boy, Raphah, washes up on the coast bearing a fragment of the ark of the covenant. ''He's willing to sacrifice his very life to prevent the darkness from overtaking the world,'' Ms. Black said. ''It's like when Christ said, 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends.' ''

Yet Mr. Taylor, who says he was influenced by the X-rated rapper Eminem as well as Jesus, insists he didn't set out to write a book against ''Harry Potter.'' He has never even read the ''Potter'' books, he says, though he has seen the films. ''I liked parts of them,'' he said on the telephone from Yorkshire, ''though I found some of them theologically a bit difficult to handle.''

'' 'Shadowmancer' isn't an alternative to 'Harry Potter,' '' he says, adding that he was simply writing ''as a Christian.''

Still, Mr. Taylor describes himself as a committed Christian who has ministered for two decades to those involved in the occult. ''Shadowmancer,'' he says, shows that the true power in the universe is God.

Mr. Taylor, 46, was not always moved by evangelical fervor. Much of his youth was spent, he said, in the precincts of ''sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.''

His father, Frank, was profoundly deaf, a shoe repairman or, in Mr. Taylor's words, ''a mender of soles.'' (''I am a mender of souls,'' the large and jolly Mr. Taylor likes to say.) His mother, Mary, was severely hearing impaired and worked in a cafeteria. As a child, Mr. Taylor learned to communicate with them by watching them talk to each other in sign language.

The family, which included two sisters, lived in a government housing project. When he was 13, Mr. Taylor was expelled from school. ''I hung a friend out the window,'' he said, ''set fire to the desks. I'd taken a radiator off the wall, dyed my hair bright red.''

At 15 he moved out of the house, lived with a girlfriend and became part of the punk rock scene, imbibing quantities of drugs and alcohol. ''It was good fun,'' he said. ''But it was stupid and dangerous.''

When he was 21 Mr. Taylor found God. He was working in a community center for the deaf and elderly. ''I had been searching for the truth,'' he said. His co-workers began talking to him about the power of Christianity.

''Very gently and very slowly they dismissed every argument I had,'' he said. ''I didn't become a born-again Christian. It wasn't like Saul on the road to Damascus. Over a period, I realized this was the way I should follow.''

In 1983 he married Kathy, a policewoman who dressed as a decoy prostitute in the Yorkshire Ripper case, which terrorized northern England during the 1970's. The couple have three children: Hannah, 16; Abigail, 13; and Lydia, 5. The two oldest have read ''Harry Potter,'' Mr. Taylor said, and ''they love it.''

In 1986 Mr. Taylor became a policeman himself in Yorkshire. He attended night school at St. John's College at the University of Durham, earning a postgraduate diploma in theology and ministry. Then, in 1995, he was severely beaten by a gang including a man he had arrested. He lost part of his hearing, developed a benign tumor in his throat and was forced to resign the force.

He was now a full-time vicar. One of his churches, St. Mary's in Whitby, was said by Bram Stoker to be the site of Dracula's grave. Each year thousands of people dressed as vampires converged on the graveyard. Mr. Taylor tried to convert them to Christianity, he said.

In ''Shadowmancer,'' Mr. Taylor turns the power of the occult celebrated in ''Harry Potter'' on its heels. Demurral is a sorcerer who uses witchcraft to carry out his devilish schemes. But Raphah (the name is from the Hebrew for ''healer''), and the two teenagers who join up with him, Thomas and Kate, defeat Demurral through prayer and the intervention of a savior figure named Riathamus (a Latinizing of a fifth-century British word meaning king of kings.)

In writing the book, Mr. Taylor said he wanted to emulate the adventure tales of Robert Louis Stevenson. It took him eight months to finish, he said. He sent it to an on-line editorial service, but got back a nasty letter, he said. He figured it would never be published, so he sold his Yamaha and used the money to print 2,500 copies himself. Another parishioner sent a copy to her uncle, David Reynolds, one of the founders of Bloomsbury, publisher of ''Harry Potter'' in Britain. Mr. Reynolds sent Mr. Taylor a letter predicting it would be a best seller, and the name of an agent.

Faber & Faber bought the book for about $13,000; later he made a three-book deal with Putnam's for $500,000. The sequel, ''Wormwood,'' from the falling star in the Book of Revelation, is about a comet hitting 18th-century London and a kabbalist, an angel and a servant girl who set out to save the city.

The film rights were optioned by Lisa Marie Butkiewicz, of Fortitude Films, a leader of Women Influencing the Nation, formed to support Mel Gibson's ''Passion of the Christ,'' which was criticized for being anti-Semitic.

''It is my hope that Mel Gibson would direct the film,'' Mr. Taylor said. Fortitude has just sold the rights to Universal for $6.2 million, and has also taken an option on ''Wormwood.''

He is now at work on the third book, ''Tersias,'' about a boy whose mother blinds him so that he can become a beggar. The boy has the gift of prophecy, and ''all sorts of elements want him,'' Mr. Taylor said.

Mr. Taylor has resigned his church post, but will remain an itinerant vicar. He has moved out of his shabby vicarage into a four-bedroom home near Scarborough that he describes as modest. And he will still tithe 10 percent of his income to the Church.

''Oh yes,'' Mr. Taylor said, ''I'm a 10 percenter.''

Correction: July 31, 2004, Saturday An article in The Arts last Saturday about the author G. P. Taylor and his best-selling children's book, ''Shadowmancer,'' described a deal for a possible movie incorrectly. Universal Pictures said it would pay Mr. Taylor $130,000 for the rights and at least $1.8 million if the film is made. It did not pay Fortitude Films $6.2 million for the rights. (Fortitude, a production company that was an intermediary for Mr. Taylor, is to be a producer if the film is made.)

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

As book bans have surged in Florida, the novelist Lauren Groff has opened a bookstore called The Lynx, a hub for author readings, book club gatherings and workshops , where banned titles are prominently displayed.

Eighteen books were recognized as winners or finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, in the categories of history, memoir, poetry, general nonfiction, fiction and biography, which had two winners. Here’s a full list of the winners .

Montreal is a city as appealing for its beauty as for its shadows. Here, t he novelist Mona Awad recommends books  that are “both dreamy and uncompromising.”

The complicated, generous life  of Paul Auster, who died on April 30 , yielded a body of work of staggering scope and variety .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

By j.k. rowling.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is one of the most popular children's books ever written. It is a story about the triumph of love and bravery over evil.

Article written by Mohandas Alva

M.A. Degree in English Literature from Manipal University, India.

‘ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone ‘ is a very engaging read for children and adults alike. Since it is the first book in this series, we are introduced to an entirely new world in this book. The world of magic slowly builds itself as we read through the book. The genius of this book is using the protagonist Harry’s discovery of this world to parallel the readers’.

Furthermore, despite several hardships and literally being an orphan who never knew love, Harry still recognizes love and affection when he sees it. While this book is memorable for a plethora of reasons, some elements of Rowling’s writing triumph as winners.

Discovering the Story World and Magic as a Metaphor

J. K. Rowling does a great job writing this story with an omniscient third-person narrative but still keeping the narrator wherever Harry is for a major part of this book. This makes the reader’s fascination and interest in the world of magic as new and real as Harry’s. We are introduced to several facts and significant peculiarities of the world of magic, all of which seem very consistently developed, adding authenticity to it. 

While there are a lot of similarities between the real world and the world of magic, the differences are usually peculiar and downright funny at times. Platform nine and three-quarters, running through a brick wall, ghosts roaming freely and talking to living people, and many other peculiarities add to the charm of creating an interesting story world. One could go on to theorize that calling non-magic people muggles and portraying the Dursleys as ordinary people who hate things like magic has a metaphorical purpose. 

It furthers the cause and appeals to the readers to be more imaginative and creative. Magic is a metaphor for imagination in this case. The Dursleys are scared of anything out of the ordinary. They spend their entire day doing mundane tasks they assign meaning to and criticize almost anything and anyone that doesn’t fit their design.

On the contrary, Harry, despite being ill-treated and not loved by the Dursleys, has a flair for imagination and creativity. It didn’t take very long for him to get used to the wizarding ways, and he very clearly had the potential to do great things after all. This book is, in its essence, an inspiration for readers to make dreams come true and bravely follow their dreams despite obstacles. It is an apt narrative for children who, at their age, tend to discover new things and ideas to develop. 

Good vs Evil and Heroism

The trope of a savior standing up to the tyrant is not new. However, ‘ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone ‘ being a children’s book, delves into this slowly. When Harry is unaware of magic and thinks that his parents died in an accident, he is a normal child with very little to think about good, evil, and the need for heroism.

However, once he is informed of the actual circumstances of his parents’ death and after discovering magic, he gains new insights, and his worldview significantly changes. His sense of responsibility and the need to stop Voldemort at any cost from getting to the Philosopher’s Stone set the path for his heroism. This transition happens slowly, yet it feels very natural. He doesn’t know what he will do if he faces Voldemort. Despite this naive understanding of the consequences, he still chooses to face Voldemort. 

This portrayal of heroism is quite commendable as it appeals to the very cause of wanting to stop the wrongdoing. The fact that an eleven-year-old boy and his two friends thwart a feared dark wizard from stealing the Philosopher’s Stone in a school that has so many adults who are way more experienced and well-equipped to do it portrays heroism in its purest form. Heroism is more the choice to take action against evil than the ability to stop evil. This book does a good job illustrating this subtlety.

Sacrifice in Harry Potter

Sacrifice is an essential part of this novel. The story of ‘ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone ‘ uses sacrifice to define both friendship and love. Harry’s parents die because they sacrifice themselves to protect Harry. Ron sacrifices himself while playing Wizard chess. Several people who fought in the war against Voldemort sacrificed themselves for the well-being of the collective community. 

The trope of sacrifice plays a major role in setting up differences in morality between the good and the evil. As Dumbledore points out to Harry, Voldemort does not understand love. The fact that Harry understands love and values it, sets a specific difference in the choices that Harry and Lord Voldemort make.

Harry is willing to sacrifice himself when he takes over the task of protecting the Philosopher’s Stone. On the contrary, Voldemort uses others for his selfish motives. This stark difference between willing to sacrifice oneself and using others as a shield to protect oneself makes all the difference and definitively separates good and evil in this book.

Why was Harry Potter banned?

Harry Potter was banned in a catholic school in Nashville, Tennessee, because of fear of evil spirits. Some other places have also banned Harry Potter books for similar religious fears. Some religious leaders were concerned that the spells and enchantments mentioned in the book were real and that they could summon evil spirits and dark magic.

Is  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone  worth reading for an adult?

‘ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone ‘ is definitely worth reading for an adult. While it was written as a children’s book, it has outlived this label, and there are people of all ages who not only read these books but also engage in community discussions and have fun playing games inspired by these books. Many people have found reading this book a very rewarding experience, as is evident from the sales and fame this book has garnered across all demographics.

Should I read  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone  or watch the movie? 

While the movie is undoubtedly well-made and a thrill to watch, the books are far more detailed and a very thrilling read. Most people who have both read the books and watched the movies always choose the former as a better experience. Furthermore, there are several interesting and amusing characters and scenes in the book that the movie couldn’t incorporate. So, one would be missing out on a lot if one doesn’t read ‘ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. ‘

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Review - A Thrilling Read

Book Title: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Book Description: 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' by J.K. Rowling is an enchanting, generation-defining tale of a young wizard's magical journey.

Book Author: J.K. Rowling

Book Edition: First UK Edition

Book Format: Hardcover

Publisher - Organization: Bloomsbury

Date published: June 26, 1997

Illustrator: Thomas Taylor

ISBN: 1-4088-5565-2

Number Of Pages: 309

• Writing Style
• Lasting effect on the reader

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Book Review

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling is a thrilling read that hooks the reader from page one. Published in the year 1997, it is one of the highest grossing novels ever written. Some elements of the novel like its elaborate yet accessible world-building makes it a very entertaining read for children and adults alike. It follows the story of an orphan boy named Harry Potter who realizes he is a wizard and the rest of the book records his journey as a young wizard in Hogwarts, a school of magic. This book, and the series as a whole have been a definitive part of an entire generation’s childhood and have garnered very high praise as an entertaining read.

• The plot is entertaining and is a very immersive read.
• Has a lot of early lessons for children on morality.
• The characters are well developed and the story world is well structured and interesting.
• The writing style may be a bit rudimentary for adult avid readers.
• Several instances of Deux Ex Machina make the protagonist’s position very safe and lacking any real danger.
• Some mild instances of body shaming exist within the novel.

Summon your wit and wisdom—our Harry Potter Trivia Quiz awaits you! Do you have the knowledge to claim the title of Master Witch or Wizard? Take the challenge now!

1) What is the name of Harry Potter's pet owl?

2) Which creature can transform into a person's worst fear?

3) What are the dying words of Severus Snape in both the book and the film "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"?

4) In the "Order of the Phoenix," who is NOT a member of the original Order of the Phoenix shown in the old photograph that Moody shows Harry?

5) What does the incantation "Obliviate" do?

6) Who is the Half-Blood Prince?

7) Who originally owned the Elder Wand before Dumbledore won it?

8) What potion is known as "Liquid Luck"?

9) What was the last Horcrux to be destroyed?

10) Which character is killed by Bellatrix Lestrange in the Battle of Hogwarts?

11) What animal represents Hufflepuff house?

12) What is the name of the goblin-made object that is supposed to bring its owner prosperity, but also brings them into conflict with goblins?

13) What specific type of dragon does Harry face during the Triwizard Tournament?

14) What creature is Aragog?

15) What is the core ingredient of the wand owned by Harry Potter?

16) What is the effect of the Cheering Charm?

17) What is the name of the goblin who helps Harry, Ron, and Hermione break into Gringotts?

18) What is the name of the book Hermione gives to Harry before his first ever Quidditch match?

19) Who was the Peverell brother that owned the invisibility cloak?

20) Who teaches Herbology at Hogwarts?

21) What is Dumbledore's full name?

22) Which potion did Hermione brew in her second year that allowed her, Ron, and Harry to assume the identities of Slytherins?

23) In which Harry Potter book does Harry first speak Parseltongue?

24) What is the name of the train that takes students to Hogwarts?

25) What form does Hermione Granger's Patronus take?

26) What does the Mirror of Erised show?

27) Which object is NOT one of the Deathly Hallows?

28) Which spell is used to open the Marauder's Map?

Your score is

Restart quiz

Join Our Community for Free!

Exclusive to Members

Create Your Personal Profile

Engage in Forums

Join or Create Groups

Save your favorites, beta access.

About Mohandas Alva

Mohandas is very passionate about deciphering the nature of language and its role as a sole medium of storytelling in literature. His interests sometimes digress from literature to philosophy and the sciences but eventually, the art and craft of narrating a significant story never fail to thrill him.

About the Book

The Harry Potter section of Book Analysis analyzes and explorers the Harry Potter series. The characters, names, terminology, and all related indicia are trademarks of Warner Bros ©. The content on Book Analysis was created by Harry Potter fans, with the aim of providing a thorough in-depth analysis and commentary to complement and provide an additional perspective to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Discover literature and connect with others just like yourself!

Start the Conversation. Join the Chat.

There was a problem reporting this post.

Block Member?

Please confirm you want to block this member.

You will no longer be able to:

• See blocked member's posts
• Mention this member in posts
• Invite this member to groups

Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.

Christian Version of Harry Potter

Rumor: a concerned christian mom has re-written the harry potter books to remove references to witchcraft., david mikkelson, published sept. 22, 2014.

Claim:   An Evangelical Christian mom re-wrote the Harry Potter series to remove all references to witchcraft and wizardry, replacing them with "prayer and miracles."

Example:   [Collected via the email, September 2014]

Has a housewife really rewritten the Harry Potter stories into a conservative Christian novel? I've seen this several times in the past few days on Facebook  

Origins:   On 24 August, a Harry Potter-themed story was posted to FanFiction.Net , under the title "Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles." The author, whose pen name is "proudhousewife," stated that she posted the revision in order to allow her children to read the wildly popular young adult series without being exposed to themes of witchcraft.

The author of the religious Harry Potter fanfic, who identifies herself as "Grace Ann," explained:

Do you want your little ones to read books; and they want to read the Harry Potter Books; but you do not want them to turn into witches? Well-this is the story for you! This story has all the adventure of JKR's books; but will not lead your children astray. For concerned mommies everywhere! Blessings!  

What follows is a re-imagining of Harry's first meeting with Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's groundskeeper Hagrid. In that scene, Hagrid comes to recruit Harry to Christianity and brings him back to Hogwarts.

In this particular fan tribute, Harry Potter is refashioned as an American, and the threat of Voldemort is interpreted as Congressional action to restrict "freedom of religion."

One of the later chapters features this excerpt:

Too many young men these days pressure young women into things undesired and forbidden. It is the mark of a true, old-fashioned gentleman to respect the fact that every young woman is another man's future wife. And we all know that it would be a dreadful, terrible sin to bring another man's wife into intimacy. Why does modern culture suddenly treat that as okay simply because he does not have her yet? Man's laws may permit it; but the laws of the Lord are not bound by time.

Hermione moved to push open the imposing, large door, but she struggled with the knob. It was quite a heavy door! But Harry was a good, devout Christian now. He would not have a young, godly girl struggling to open a door which he was perfectly capable of opening himself!

With the simple faith so often seen in little ones, Harry got down on his knees; and lifted his hands skyward; and shouted prayerfully, "Dear Lord, please open these doors; and allow me to enter my new home!"

With a loud, thunderous boom that echoed throughout the expansive, beautiful campus, the doors crashed open. Harry stood up piously as Hermione's jaw dropped. Now, she knew for certain that this was truly a man of the Lord!

Harry was about to step inside when Hermione grabbed his arm. He blushed once more.

"Wait, Harry!" Hermione uttered quickly. "There's something you should know."

"What is it?" Harry queried questioningly.

"My father says that dark times are coming," Hermione spoke worriedly. "There is a man named Voldemort who wants to destroy all that we stand for. He is pushing an agenda in congress which will stop us from practicing our faith freely."

"But that is what our founding fathers built this nation for!" Harry cried indignantly. "The freedom of religion!"

"Voldemort doesn't care," Hermione remarked sadly; and she shook her head. "And he is gaining power. The freedom of Christians to practice our faith is disappearing by the day. Soon, it will be like it was in Rome." Lovely, ladylike tears began to roll down her delicate, terrified face. "And I don't like lions!"  

The Evangelical version of Harry Potter spilled onto the social web

when meme site Tickld posted an article on 16 September 2014 titled "This Woman Just Changed Harry Potter for Her Kids. Seriously." The site presents portions of the fanfiction story, framing them as a genuine Christian effort to shield children from the evils of Harry Potter.

While there is indeed a Christian Harry Potter fanfiction story circulating the Internet, the writer's intent was satirical and was not part of a plan to create a published set of Harry Potter books suitable for Christian readers and stripped of troublesome references to witchcraft and wizardry. The final chapter made the author's intent clear:

"Enough of your lies," Dumbledore exclaimed bravely. "We know who you are."

Voldemort blinked stupidly; and then he uttered childishly, "I'm sorry ... what?"

Dumbledore smiled smartly. "You're pretending to be dumb, I see. Well I'm not stupid. We know all about how much you hate Christians."

"What? I don't hate Christians," Voldemort lied dishonestly. "What are you even talking about?"

"You're still pretending to be dumb," the Reverend pointed out truthfully. "We know all about your plot to illegalize Christianity, Voldemort ."

Voldemort blinked stupidly again and questioned evilly, "Wait, this is about my Reddit account?"

"Is that what you call your godless coven?" Dumbledore queried knowingly. "Well yes I have indeed seen your so-called Reddit Account; and just try to deny your hatred of Christianity when you post things like this-'kristians all sux. their religion is stoopid and should be illegal. i will rite to congres and tell them to make law.'"

Harry Potter laughed intelligently; because Voldemort did not even understand proper spelling and grammar.

"That was a joke," Voldemort retorted unintelligently. "That whole account is a joke. I mean, 'Voldemort_the_righteous_skeptic'?" He laughed with the nervousness of one who knows he is damned. "Of course you're not supposed to take it seriously."

"Do you think religion is a laughing matter young man?" Dumbledore demanded righteously. "Well it is not! What sort of a joke is trying to outlaw religion?!"

"Of course I don't actually want to outlaw religion," Voldemort uttered deceptively. "That would be ridiculous. I just got annoyed by the ridiculous straw man some Christians have made out of atheism, so, whenever I see someone ranting about how depraved and evil we nonbelievers are, I reply with something like that. You know, taking that stereotype to an extreme to point out how ridiculous it is.

"Also, a small but vocal minority of atheists exists that stereotypes and mocks anyone who disagrees with them. They can be just as hateful as people think we all are, and that does real damage. They bug me as much as the straw man arguments do — and they give those arguments credibility — so I do the same thing to them, replying with an extreme version of what they said to highlight the absurdity of it."  

Last updated:   7 October 2015

By David Mikkelson

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

Article Tags

[Opinion] New Book Answers the Question, "What if Harry Potter went to an HBCU in the South?"

“What if Harry Potter went to an HBCU in the South?” When LaDarrion Williams posed this question on Twitter back in 2020, he had no idea that it would completely change the trajectory of his career. But in a recent interview with the AP, Williams talks about the tweet that turned into a three-book deal.

The playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker wanted to start a conversation about the lack of diversity in the fantasy space. And the overwhelming response he got to his tweet sent him on a path to develop his idea into something bigger.

Williams said he originally wrote the story as a TV pilot. And after receiving donations from as far away as New Zealand, he snuck onto the campus of UCLA to shoot a short film. But to his surprise, the studios weren’t biting.

“I thought I had it all. I thought I had the viral tweet, the short film , I had the script, I had the idea. I thought Hollywood was going to give me a multimillion-dollar offer. I was humbled very quickly with that. No calls were coming. I struggled to get meetings with different production companies and showrunners and studios. Nobody wanted to meet with me. I was really confused and fell into a deep depression,” he said.

Feeling like he’d failed himself and everyone who supported his project, Williams was ready to give up until a friend suggested he turn his idea into a book. He did, but the offers still weren’t rolling in – that is, until he got a call in January 2023 that changed everything.

“I was driving for Uber, and I got a call from my agent who said we got a three-book deal,” he said.

“Blood at the Root,” the first book in the series dropped May 7. It introduces readers to Malik, a 17-year-old from Alabama with magical powers who gets accepted into Caiman University, a magical HBCU. Williams says he was very intentional about making sure his main character was a Black male with a softer side.

“I want people to get to know him. The way he speaks, the way he thinks,” he said. “He extends the love he didn’t have as a child to his foster brother. I wanted to create all of that through the lens of magic.”

While Williams is looking forward to sharing his book series with the world, he hasn’t ruled out the idea of bringing his story to the big screen.

“I want to recreate that moment when “Black Panther” dropped, and everybody was just buzzing about it. I want to do that for television. I want that for Black kids,” he said.

For the latest news, Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .