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Summary: Granger is a Genius!
Review: John Granger gives us an authoritative, honest, thought-provoking book, and I recomend it to anyone who's heard of Harry Potter. It's easy to read, but provides a wealth of important informaiton for Potterholics, like myself, and the Harry Haters. Everyone ought to read this book; we have a great deal to learn from Granger, and, as he says, the Potter books themselves. So what are y'all waiting for??? Buy it, Read it, Love it.
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Summary: Another Must Read from John Granger
Review: John Granger has emerged in recent years as one of the most important voices in the literature concerning J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Looking for God in Harry Potter offers Granger at his most accessible and compelling. His careful analysis provides an exceptional guide to the content and meaning of the Harry Potter novels, as well as practical suggestions on how to approach the books in a meaningful way with children. Those who know and love the Harry Potter series will find that this volume adds a new dimension to their understanding and reading enjoyment. Those who are new to and undecided about the series will gain a great appreciation for what Rowling accomplishes in her novels and for the larger religious tradition that informs her stories. Granger writes with clarity and conviction, and his work is both a joy and an education for the reader. All of those interested in the ways that fiction and faith intersect owe it to themselves to read this book.
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Summary: Great analysis but a bit stretched
Review: John Granger tries to show that the world of Harry Potter coincides with, rather than contradicts, the Christian world view. He analyzes the individual characters and their relationships to each other, and shows how they mirror Christian values. He argues that Harry Potter sorcery is in line with Christian philosophy and has nothing to do with occult practices, and that the battle between Gryffindor and Slytherin reflects the battle between devout Christians and "those who serve the evil one."
Although I certainly agree with him on many points, and some of his analyses are brilliant, Granger does stretch the issue a bit. For example, he likens the centaur (a mythical figure half man, half horse) to Jesus who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. I doubt that Rowling had that in mind. He painstakingly details the alchemical connections in the book, and again goes too far. He relates Hermione's name to a Greek alchemist named Hermes - a name quite common in ancient Greece and probably easy to find in just about any profession - and explains that she and Ron are symbols for mercury and sulfur, respectively. He equates mercury to the brilliant, female, cool alchemical counterpart of the passionate, red, male sulfur. Together mercury and sulfur help to produce gold (Harry). He sees body-mind-spirit in the trio, with Ron representing the body, Hermione the mind, and Harry the spirit or heart. He interprets just about any of the mythical animals as symbols for Jesus: Fawkes, the phoenix who dies and resurrects; Firenze, the centaur who mirrors Christ on his way to Jerusalem; Buckbeak, the hippogriff, James the stag, the Gryffindor lion, and also the philosopher's stone.
Granger also (over)jumps on Rowling's passion for names. Like other authors who wrote about Harry Potter, and sometimes with reference to their books, Granger interprets the Harry Potter names in the Christian context. Which eventually turns Harry Potter into the "son of God", from the Cockney and French pronunciations `Arry, which sound like "heir to", and his statement that God is thought of as a potter. Rowling did say in an interview that one of her friends was called Potter and she always liked the name. But I think that's part of the beauty of the Harry Potter books: they can be interpreted in so many ways, and people can identify with the characters in so many ways, that every reader finishes the books satisfied. And this is what makes them classics.
Granger wrote his book for Christian parents to help them understand the underlying Christian theme in the Potter books. I think he did a wonderful job, but in order to fully understand his book you must already have read the five Harry Potter books because he refers to many characters without much of an explanation.
Although I think, Granger occasionally goes overboard, I highly recommend this book to all parents and teachers who still have reservations about letting children read the books. The Harry Potter books are among the best books ever written, and every child should have access to them.
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Summary: Granger shows God's easy to find in Harry Potter
Review: That this book is under the aegis of Tyndale House speaks volumes. John Granger, an educator with strong Christian credentials, has been at the forefront in seeing JK Rowling as "a Christian novelist of the Inkling School." In his book, "A Charmed Life," English pastor and Anglican theological college headmaster Francis Bridger acknowledged only "snippets of traditional Christian theology" in Harry Potter, despite understanding that "what runs most deeply through the entire Potter series is the theme of sacrificial love." John sees that Christian theology forms its entire tapestry, transformed through Rowling's art into a magic carpet.Speaking plainly, Granger explains that this magic captivates children not to lead them into temptation--dangerous experimentation with occult forces--but to "baptize the imagination," as did CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, and before them, Scottish novelist and minister, George MacDonald. Symbols are central to such baptism. Although this book's full of talk about Christian symbolism, don't be put off. As Granger puts it, "Symbolism is not just an English major's thing-it's a human thing," a language of the soul used in dreams, prophetic visions, poetry, and fiction. As an educator who's worked with castaway children, I'm sure that if Rowling were to read John's book, she'd feel that his Sorting Hat has seen truly into her heart and mind and perceived there, along with abiding love for children, a fierce desire for their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Read this book. Understand her vision and, hopefully, make it yours.
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Summary: Confirming your greatest hopes
Review: This will be a simple review. Mr. Granger does a great job at two things:
1. Provides you with a background into the rich symbolism and metaphor used throughout the Harry Potter books that point in the direction of Christian ideology and the alchemic principles of life, death, and rebirth.
2. Shows you that the Harry Potter books are serious literature. These aren't just kids stories, bur rather they are stories which touch and tug at the heart because they intimate the reader with the essential human struggle--the desire to be one with God.
The analysis provided by Mr. Granger is very insightful and delightfully easy to read.
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Summary: Gotta love it
Review: Those who enjoy the Harry Potter series, here is a study of the reason they are so popular. For those who are against this series (often without ever reading them), here is an intelligent study by a conservative, evangelical Christian exposing the depth of Christian doctrine that is within these works. For those English Majors who love to "look deeper" into whatever is read, here is a book of wonders.
Mr. Granger takes the Harry Potter series from the perspective of them being Great Books, i.e., they "(1) Ask the big questions about life, (2) answer the questions correctly (in harmony with Christian tradition), and (3) support the answers artistically" (from the introduction). He is a convert to the series, having been adamantly opposed to them until he read the books!!!! Now, Mr. Granger is a fan of the books (even reading them aloud to his seven children at bedtime), is a disciple of Jesus and leads the reader into a clearer understanding of the transcendence of these five books.
This is not a fluff piece of research. The author is serious about his subject but is passionate enough, too, to desire the reader to understand these works on a more profound level. Each of the books is examined for the "alchemy" that is present in each Great Book and is the basis upon which they speak to the reader and lead the reader to a state of transcendence. The evident matters uncovered by the reading of this work will cause any Harry Potter fan to be more smitten with this Everyman Hero, if that is possible. This book will also cause those who have not read these books and are interested in honestly examining their opinions about them to consider them in a new light.
The author never takes himself or his task too seriously, while maintaining focused upon the task. He often has asides that let this reader know that Mr. Granger enjoys the books and wants others to catch "Potter-mania" as well. He even shares what he expects in the last two books of this series, but states "(let) me confess to you that I have made my share of predictions, and many of them have proven next to worthless." (P.179) A student who seriously likes this story but can still play in/with it. How refreshing.
As a therapist, I found this book deeply interesting. The psychological profoundness of the Harry Potter series is one of the magnets by which readers are attracted to this Story. The conflicts, growing pains, relationships, etc. portrayed in the (to date) five books are brought into focus by Mr. Granger's work. I am better able, by having read it, to use vignettes of Harry Potter to bring forth many issues with my clientele. As Mr. Granger points out, symbolism speaks when words confuse.
As a theologian, this book is a true Godsend. Mr. Granger points out how the Harry Potter story is a retelling of The Story and therefore has a word for all readers. The theology of Mr. Granger is that of a conservative, evangelical Christian who honestly addresses life from the perspective of revealed Truth. He is unafraid of speaking of the Harry Potter story as a new "translation" of the redemption story. Having read this work, my understanding of Christ as "an Enigma, wrapped in a Riddle, hidden in Mystery" has been affirmed.
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