[1][2] Supporters of the series have said that the magic in Harry Potter bears little resemblance to occultism, being more in the vein of fairytales such as Cinderella and Snow White, or to the works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, both of whom are known for writing fantasy novels with Christian subtexts.
[13] Author and scholar Amanda Cockrell suggests that Harry Potter's popularity, and recent preoccupation with fantasy and the occult among Christian fundamentalists, explains why the series received particular opposition.
[18] Scholar Em McAvan writes that evangelical objections to Harry Potter are superficial, based on the presence of magic in the books: they do not attempt to understand the moral messages in the series.
[22] In 2007, Jacqui Komschlies wrote an article in Christianity Today comparing Harry Potter to "rat poison mixed with orange soda" and saying "We're taking something deadly from our world and turning it into what some are calling 'merely a literary device.
"[24] In 2001, Evangelical journalist Richard Abanes, who has written several books arguing against new religions and Mormonism, published a polemical text that made similar allegations to the video: Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick.
[40] Italian Methodist minister Peter Ciaccio analysed the relationship between J. K. Rowling's work and Christian theology, stating that the Harry Potter series is the positive outcome of the encounter of the Jewish–Christian tradition with other important features of the Western cultural heritage (namely Celtic, Nordic, and Classical).
In 2003, Peter Fleetwood, a priest incardinated in the Archdiocese of Liverpool then serving as an official of the Pontifical Council for Culture,[42] made comments supportive of the novels during a press conference announcing the release of A Christian Reflection on the New Age.
"[45] Cardinal Ratzinger, the later Pope Benedict XVI, wrote in two private letters in 2003 that the books create "subtle seductions" that "deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly".
In the interview, Fleetwood reaffirmed his positive opinion of the books and remarked that then-Cardinal Ratzinger's letters may have been written by a member of the congregation's staff and simply signed by the prefect.
Essayist Paolo Gulisano said the Harry Potter novels offer lessons in the importance of love and self-giving,[48] but Professor Edoardo Rialti described Harry Potter as "the wrong kind of hero" and said that "Despite several positive values that can be found in the story, at the foundations of this tale is the proposal that of witchcraft as positive, the violent manipulation of things and people thanks to the knowledge of the occult, an advantage of a select few: the ends justify the means because the knowledgeable, the chosen ones, the intellectuals know how to control the dark powers and turn them into good [...].
[60] In 2002, the Holy Metropolis of Didymoteicho [ru] (Greece) authorities released a statement denouncing the Harry Potter books as Satanic, saying that they "acquaint people with evil, wizardry, the occult and demonology".
"[11] In June 2004, soon after a native Bulgarian, Stanislav Ianevski, had been cast to portray the character Viktor Krum in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church printed a front-page interview with bishop Gabriel Dinev [ru] in their official newspaper, claiming that "magic is not a children's game" and that the Holy Synod had advised that people go every Thursday to a church in Sofia where special services are held to help those said to be afflicted by spells and curses or possessed by evil spirits.
[62] Among the supporters of the work among the ROC clergy, Protodeacon Andrey Kuraev, Hieromonk Demetrius (Pershin), Archpriest Andrei Posternak, priest Alexy Pluzhnikov, and religious scholar Roman Silantyev can be singled out.
[65] On 29 July 2021, Vladimir R. Legoyda, chair of the Synodal Department for Relations with Society and the Media of the Moscow Patriarchate, noted that it was wrong to denounce J. K. Rowling's books "in some kind of magism and devilry".
[1] Feiz Mohammad, the Australian Islamic preacher believed to have inspired Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing, decried Harry Potter for "paganism, evil, magic and the drinking of unicorn blood".
In August 2007, police in Karachi, Pakistan, discovered and defused a car bomb located outside a shopping centre where, hours later, the final Harry Potter novel was scheduled to go on sale.
[91] Humanist commentator Austin Cline attributes this decline to school libraries employing "opt-out" policies, which allow parents to prohibit their children from reading books they do not wish them exposed to.
[94] In response, children began a letter-writing campaign, forming clubs, and organising petitions, which ultimately merged into an internet site called Muggles for Harry Potter.
[97] In 2003, Billy Ray and Mary Nell Counts, a couple in Cedarville, Arkansas, brought suit against the local school board on behalf of their daughter to contest a rule requiring parents' written consent to read the Harry Potter books.
"[111] In July 2000, Birkenhead Primary School in Auckland, New Zealand, placed a ban on the Harry Potter novels being read aloud by teachers in class after parental complaints regarding the books' supposedly occult content.
In July 2006, Sariya Allan, a teaching assistant at Durand Primary School in Stockwell, South London, quit her job after she was suspended for refusing to listen to a seven-year-old pupil read a Harry Potter book in class.
They have also highlighted the differences between magic within Wicca, which is invocational and derives from the divine powers, and that depicted by the Harry Potter books, which is a purely mechanical application of spells without invoking any deities.
[115] Divinatory practices such as scrying and astrology, although occasionally employed by characters in the books, are neither unique nor central to the Wiccan religion[116] and are treated in the novels in a condescending tongue-in-cheek manner; the school divination teacher is, according to writer Christine Schoeffer, "a misty, dreamy, dewy charlatan"[117] who is ridiculed by the students and staff alike.
J.K. Rowling researched Wiccan practices and incorporated a few elements in order to give her books a bit more of an air of reality, but she and Wicca are drawing upon the same corpus of ancient traditions and stories so similarities are inevitable.
God", written before the publication of the seventh and final book in the series, Lev Grossman argues that: "Harry Potter lives in a world free of any religion or spirituality of any kind.
[138] Dave Kopel, citing John Granger's book, draws comparisons between Rowling's and Lewis's common usage of Christian symbols, such as lions, unicorns, and stags.
He compares the work to Lewis's Christian allegory:[139] "In the climax of Chamber of Secrets, Harry descends to a deep underworld, is confronted by two satanic minions (Voldemort and a giant serpent), is saved from certain death by his faith in Dumbledore (the bearded God the Father/Ancient of Days), rescues the virgin (Virginia [sic] Weasley), and ascends in triumph.
"[130] Tom Willow stated that: "Harry Potter going knowingly to his death at the hands of Voldemort, willing to sacrifice himself to save his friends, is reminiscent of Aslan similarly sacrificing himself in C. S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
"[130] Raymond Keating also outlines several Christian themes of the last book in an article in Newsday, concluding that: "It's possible to read Lord of the Rings and Narnia without recognizing the religious aspects.
The gospel stories themselves, the various metaphors and figures of the Law and the Prophets, and their echoes down through the past two millennia of Christian literature and art are largely unknown to vast swaths of American Christendom.