Ever since J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books arrived on the scene a few years back, kids have been going crazy over them. Some parents, however, don’t see the Harry books as such a great tool for getting kids to read. All across the country, parents have tried to ban the Potter series from schools, censoring the books not only for their own children, but for other’s as well. Many Christians cite the use of witchcraft in the books as their reason for disliking the series, but perhaps there are other causes. The book seems to lack any true authority figure for Harry, an orphaned boy who lives with his fat, mean aunt and uncle. So here’s where it gets troublesome: how do Christians cope with of an absence of authority, and, therefore, with an absence of God? The controversial world of Harry Potter presents a problem for Christians in its Godlessness.

Before we can do this, though, we must be sure there truly is no “God” in Harry Potter. There do exist, in the Harry Potter series, almost God-like figures. Take, for example, Dumbledore. He is clearly one of the most powerful wizards around, and a guide to Harry on his quest. And he’s almost always in control of things, but that’s the problem: he’s almost always in control of things. The extent to which he controls the situation is not even enough for him to be able to stop his own death. Ultimately, Harry must figure things out for himself as Dumbledore can only do so much, especially after his death. For example:

“In Goblet of Fire, the limitations of Dumbledore’s power are made especially clear. Even though Dumbledore designed protection for Harry after his parents’ death, ‘invok[ing] an ancient magic’ to shield Harry as long as he remained under his relatives’ guardianship, Voldemort is able to remove Harry from the circle of the Dursleys’ protection and that of Hogwarts itself by turning the Triwizard cup into a portkey that transport Harry directly to Voldemort’s location… Dumbledore does not know in advance about this spell. So he cannot rescue Harry…”(Stephens, 57)

So one must look elsewhere if one wishes to search for a God in the Pottervesre. And since God seems to be hidden, perhaps we should look first for other religious Christian figures. There may be, in some way, a Jesus-like figure. Who? Harry of course. Not taken seriously at first, by the end of the books Harry has achieved quite a following, and in a way many of the story’s characters can be seen as disciples. In addition, there is a clear correlation between Harry and Jesus in that near the end of the last book he dies, and is resurrected, his death having been necessary to rid the world of the evil that is Lord Voldemort. He cannot, however, be looked at as the books’ God. God is all knowing and for much of the series Harry is fairly clueless. It is not till the end of the last book that he truly even understands his own purpose.

Then, if Harry is looked at as Jesus-like, who is his father, or the main father figure? Wouldn’t he have to be God? Well, here we run into another problem. Harry is an orphan, and his true father clearly is not the God-like figure we’ve been looking for. Dumbledore plays a father-like role to Harry, but we’ve already concluded that he is no God. There is one other character that acts like a father to Harry: Sirius Black.
But looking at Sirius Black as a God figure one stumbles upon many roadblocks. Due to his unjust incarceration in Azkaban, the wizard prison, his access to Harry is limited, as well as his control over things in general. Sirius is a man on the run, unable to control his own life, let alone others, so there’s no way he could be a Godlike figure.
Well, then, what about Hagrid? He is in many ways a father figure to Harry, and his sheer size certainly gives him a certain amount of power. Plus, he has a love for all creatures somewhat reminiscent of the New Testament God’s outlook (God loves all his children). But he really isn’t in control at all, being little more than a janitor for most of the story: a magical giant janitor, but a janitor nonetheless.

Once again then, we must look elsewhere to try to find God. We must look to the devil. Finding a devil-like figure in Harry Potter is no great feat. Clearly Lord Voldemort is the devil. With his evil ways, and his demand for complete and total obedience from his evil cohorts, he is clearly in control of the evil side of things. Not to mention his love of snakes, the serpent being the form the devil chose when he appeared to Eve in the Garden of Eden.

So, if Lord Voldemort were the devil in the Potter books, than his polar opposite would have to be God. Who then, is his polar opposite? Here, like everywhere else one looks, we run into problems. The only character in the books that poses a threat to Voldemort is Harry. Harry is the only one strong enough to defeat Lord Voldemort, and therefore the only one who could be seen as the God to Voldemort’s devil. And, of course, we already know why Harry can’t be the God-like figure in the book.

At this point we come to a roadblock in looking for the God-like figure in the Harry Potter series. If we look hard enough we can find a Jesus-like figure. If we look hard enough we can find a devil-like figure. But no matter how hard we look, a God-like figure simply cannot be found. Why? The answer is simple enough: There is no God-like figure.

It would appear we’ve stumbled upon a problem here, a problem for some people at least. With her Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling has created an entire imaginary world, which is quite a feat. The world she’s created, however, has no God. It has its heroic Jesus-like character, and it has its antagonistic devil-like character, but it is completely devoid of God, and, therefore, completely devoid of Devine control.

This may not seem like a big deal to someone who is not particularly religious in his or her values. In fact, to a person who doesn’t believe in God, it is no problem at all. Furthermore, the absence of Devine control is in many ways what makes the Potter books so good. If one character is in control, how can you ever really create the suspense Rowling’s books rely on? How can you create situations where the reader doesn’t even know for sure if a character is good or bad, such as with Sirius Black, or Snape?

So why should Christians care? Why can’t they accept a fantasy world in which God is simply not present? Well, the problem is, creating a world in which there is morality with no God, a world in which the good guys win all by themselves is, in a way, saying that God is unnecessary. So here we come upon the heart of the problem: if God dictates morality, how can Christians accept a moral world with no God. And the Potter world is a moral one. Most of the witches and wizards are good people, with strong moral compasses. They are, generally speaking loyal, honest, and good-natured. Even Vivian Dudro, a devout Catholic, states that Rowling “…places the hocus pocus of Hogwarts in a moral framework, in which some uses of magic are good, and others are bad.” (Dudro, 6) Sure, there are immoral characters, and moral grey areas, but those also exist in the real world, the world that God created according to Christian beliefs.

Let’s look at Harry as an example of why this is a problem. He’s the hero of the story. He is the ultimate force of good, the destroyer of evil. He’s always there for his friends, not to mention total strangers. Because of inheritance he is extremely wealthy, but doesn’t let that go to his head, or allow it to change his friendship with Ron, who family is not nearly as well off. He shows compassion to misunderstood and downtrodden characters and creatures, like Hagrid, dobby and the other house elves, and Buckbeak, the hippogriff. He sometimes breaks the rule, but only when the rules are blatantly unjust, or when he has to break them to save the day. Harry Potter is upright citizen, with a strong sense of right and wrong.

What’s the problem with that? Well let’s look at what he isn’t, or doesn’t have. He isn’t a believer in God, or in anyway a prescriber to the Christian faith. He has no formal parent figures. He constantly clashes with authority, and, like I said before he breaks the rules. He lives in a world with no set up hierarchy, and what hierarchy exists Harry generally ignores. No one is in control of Harry’s life. It’s pretty easy to see why a character like this might bother family oriented, disciplinary, conservative Christians.
And that’s not the only thing about the books that trivializes God. After all, in the Harry Potter series there are countless witches and wizards, all with a little slice of God’s power. The absence of God in Harry Potter is like cutting religious Christians with a knife; the presence of witchcraft adds salt to the wound.

In addition, like I said before, Rowling created a world devoid of God, and therefore devoid of control, and this is another big problem. According to Rebecca Stephens “…what is truly troubling to Potter detractors seems to be the lack of a single controlling authority in the books…”(Stephens, 56). Lord Voldemort demands complete control from his subjects, and yet he still falls to the unorganized forces of good. The message Rowling seems to be sending about control is not one that most Christian parents would prescribe to, because in the eyes of Christians god is the single, controlling force.

So then, it would appear that there might be more to Christian contempt for the Harry Potter series than their claims that it promotes witchcraft. Perhaps in someway, at least looking at it through Christian’s eyes, it not only promotes witchcraft, but, in addition, it demotes God. In fact, the character most in control throughout the series is Voldemort, so while there is no true God-like figure, perhaps the closest thing to one is Voldemort himself. The closest thing to God in the books is the main Villain? No wonder Christians can’t stand Harry Potter.

Works Cited
Dudro, Vivian W. “Is Harry Potter Good for Our Kids?” St. Joseph’s Covenant Keepers July 2000: 1+.
Stephens, Rebecca. “Harry and Hierarchy: Book Banning as a Reaction to the Subversion of Authority.” Reading Harry Potter (2003): 51-65.