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All I Really Need to Know I Learned at Hogwarts

Aug. 12, 2007 Dave Barnhart

Having just read the last book of the Harry Potter series, I’m excited to announce that our next sermon series will be All I Really Needed to Know I Learned at Hogwarts. You don’t need to have read the books or seen the movies to understand the message, and I’ll do my best not to provide too many spoilers for those who have not read or seen.

There are many Christians who feel that the Harry Potter series isn’t “safe” for children to read. I’ll be addressing these kinds of concerns in the first sermon, Defense Against the Dark Arts. The second sermon, Who’s Afraid of You-Know-Who, will be about how the main characters deal with evil. The last sermon, Magic, Muggles, and God, will be about the idea of salvation and the very clear references to Christian scripture in the series.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions as we worship and study together!

[update on 8-6-07]:
If you’d like to read some interesting perspectives on the relationships between Harry Potter and Christian faith, I recommend:

  • Thunderstruck, which has a snippet of dialogue from an interview with J.K. Rowling, as well as links to other articles.
  • Al Hsu wonders at Christianity Today what it would be like if we told the Gospel story the way we tell the story of Harry Potter.
  • And an author at GetReligion suggests that ant-Potter Christians might change their tune after they read the last book of the series.

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