Religionless universe of Harry Potter
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:date: 2019-03-30T20:33:21
:category: literature
:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment, fromReddit, HPreligion, zettelkasten
(my comments on the thread “`Probably gonna catch some hate for
this. Religion and Mythology and its place in fiction.`_” on
Reddit by RhysThornbery; edited for this blog)
.. _`Probably gonna catch some hate for this. Religion and Mythology and its place in fiction.`:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/b2b2qj/probably_gonna_catch_some_hate_for_this_religion/
The question is about the role of religion [#]_ in the HP
universe, and it is very interesting one. I am a Christian and
I was looking for some good religious fanfiction stories for
myself.
It is kind of weird that in the country where majority of Muggles
at least nominally belong to the Church of England (for you,
Americans, not every state in the world has separation of the
state and church) there is no mention of anything religious
anywhere. Of course, the true reason is probably that Ms. Rowling
wanted to have her book approachable and commercially acceptable
all over the world (or she probably didn’t think about that at
all), but sometimes it is really a bit ridiculous. All those
Christmas, Easters, and no mentioning of school chapel (every
large British educational institution has one, of course)? All
those godfathers and godmothers and no baptisms (try to imagine
Sirius Black present to the baptism of Harry in the church of
St. Jerome in the Godric’s Hollow; or even better, Lily in the
church praying for the God’s protection from Voldemort)? Nothing.
**(update 2020-07-15)** Ha! There actually `was the
christening`_.
This religion-lessness mostly continues in the fanfiction
universe. There are really few stories which take religion
seriously and even less which make a good job of it.
In completely random order (just as I found it in various
bookmark lists):
1. Prayers_ by Master Spy advenger. This is sweet, not super
deep, but lovely retelling of missing parts of DH from the
Hermione’s point of view, who is practising Anglican and
carries with her “Prayers for Young Girls” as surprisingly
relevant guide through her struggles. Prayer in face of
Voldemort (or Bellatrix Lestrange) is here surprisingly
convincing (I was always afraid that such stories end up like
the Hogwarts, School of Worship, which is IMHO abomination).
2. `Trading My Sorrows`_ by ShadowBallad. Severus Snape’s cover
is blown and he is saved on the run from Death Eaters by
a wizarding priest who teaches him a lot about faith and
himself. Not bad, the heart of the author is certainly in the
right place, but it seems to me that he never figured out how
to finish the story and it somehow hangs in the middle. Also,
this story suffers horribly from lack of editing (and here
mainly cutting it down) and couple of occassions of rhetorical
diarrhea, which makes reading it rather difficult. Show, don’t
tell!
3. Solo_ by Crookshanks22. For change, Severus here is not Roman
Catholic but Jewish, but the main hero are OC person (Jake)
and Anthony Goldstein and their trials and tribulations with
trying to be faithful Jew in quite secular environment of
Hogwarts. Except, it is apparently not as secular as
Ms. Rowling talking from the Harry’s point of view lead us to
believe. There are Christians (Terry Boot, Cedric etc.), of
course Patils are Hindus, there are some Muslims IIRC, and all
of them are trying to navigate waters of Hogwarts as much as
they can. Sympathetic, but the author is apparently Jewish and
he is struggling with understanding of Christianity (that’s
the one I can judge) rather desperately.
4. Sanctuary_ by sheankelor. Severus Snape, brought up as a Roman
Catholic, when dying in the Shrieking Shack manages to pull
out antidote and transfer with his emergency Portkey to the
friendly Irish Roman-Catholic friar who cures him. Apparently,
he secretly practised his faith all those years including
confessions, and he is now trying to reconcile with his past.
Not bad, sometimes a bit too preachy and too much teaching the
Catholic liturgy for every occasion, but story makes sense.
One of the few fanfiction stories which noticed that the Good
Friday Agreement happened 22 days before the Battle of
Hogwarts.
5. `All Are His Children`_ by sheankelor. Foundation of Hogwarts
as viewed by Brother Brendan (from the film “Secret of Kells”)
who turns out to be Fat Friar eventually. Actually, not much
religious, but sweet nevertheless.
6. `The Friar's Calling`_ by Chthonia. A rare example of
a medieval story from the HP universe, and it is very good.
Brother Thomas turns out to be a wizard and he is sent by his
prior, `Robert Grosseteste`_ (true historical figure, famous
medieval philosopher) to Hogwarts. Although he is always
suspicious whether his powers are not a bit demoniacal, he is
forced by God (and the Sorting Hat) to live in the wizarding
world as a humble friar. Lovely description of medieval
wizarding world, which is precisely not developed enough to be
persuasive (he participates in developing the Floo powder).
Brother Thomas is of course later the Fat Friar (who cannot
leave his students for whom he cares pastorally). Sir Cadogan
is present as well as his friend and not completely crazy
knight.
7. `Hermione Before the Beit Din`_ by facingthenorthwind
(spacegandalf). We all suspected it, but now it is clear,
Hermione is Jewish (actually, it seems to me as the only
explanation why a super-bookish girl from country with
mandatory religious education has no idea where “Where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also.” or “The last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” come from) and she is
dealing with the punishment for Obliviating her parents.
Jewish wizarding tribunal and all that jazz. Not bad but
unfinished and sorely missing a conclusion.
**{updated 2020-06-28}**
8. `Thou Shalt Not Suffer`_ by TheWizardsHarry. A girl from very
strongly evangelical family (which feels more American than
British, but small suspension of disbelief here is probably
useful, and I am certain that every nation can generate
religious bigots, there are some even here in the agnostic
Czechia) gets the Hogwarts Letter and she is immediately
ostracised by her parents (she is a single child) and friends
from the religious community, she lives in (which is all her
friends). She finds her refuge with her very distant and
herself ostracised aunt who lives away. There she finds out
that magical world truly exists and that the aunt is a witch
herself. With a lot of hesitation, she, in the end, agrees to
enter Hogwarts for a year just to control her magic, where she
struggles with adventures during Harry’s Second Year. However,
more important is her parallel discovering what is the
relationship between magic and those verses from the Bible.
During the year she meets some other Christian wizards and
witches (including one very cute Cedric Diggory) and she gets
her hand on an old essay by some witch named Lilly Evans who
wrote a rather thoughtful analysis of that verse. Adventure is
nicely written, Christian point of view very authentic, only
problem is that the story ends with her first year at Hogwarts
and the promised sequel is nowhere to be found. Pity.
9. PUSH_ by tree_and_leaf (PUSH is apparently abbreviation common
among evangelicals of some sort and it stands for “Pray Until
Something Happens”). The basic plot conflict is similar to the
previous one (only this is a post-war story, so for example
Hermione and Ginny are as the Seventh Year girls), but the
main heroine seems more depressive and strongly rejecting
magic and less accessible to the argument in another
direction. In relation to the title, she actually in one point
prays a lot towards some resolution, and when something which
really looks like God’s answer happens, she has trouble
accepting it. Unfortunately, at this point when things were
getting interesting, the story has been abandoned.
**{updated 2023-11-22}**
I forgot few:
10. `Harry Potter and the Knight of the Radiant Heart`_ by
Raven3182, which is rather bizarre retelling of the sixth
year (starting with the Battle of DoM), where gets
a spiritual mentor who leads him to the super!Harry status.
The most strange thing is that the main tool on his spiritual
journey (aside from the standard physical exercises) is
reading of something which looks very much like Saint Thomas
Aquinas “Summa Theologie”, but without ever mentioning the
words God or Christianity. I hoped for some discussions
related to ethics and religion, but the result is
unfortunately rather boring superHero soft philosophy (I am
not sure whether they mention literally “with great power
there must also come great responsibility”, but that kind of
fluff) and I quite dislike super!Harry theme.
11. `The Man Who Lived`_ by Luke1813 just for the sake of
completness, a story, where Harry achieves everything he
wants and feels the emptiness of the life without God. The
author has certainly his heart in the right place, but as a
literature I was not impressed. Mentioned in the interesting
discussion_ on the Reddit by `/u/AntoniusScriptor`_
**{end of the inserts}**
The crazy thing is that it seems to me this is really it. If
anybody knows about any other good religious wizarding story (no
mocking, no anti-religious) let me know.
.. [#] I am a Protestant, so for me “religion” means more “humans
activity towards deity” (sacrifices, liturgy, this sort of
thing) rather than just “existence of God” (and yes this
understanding of the word is paradoxically for Protestants
non-Biblical, James 1:27).
This is not exclusive to the Harry Potter universe. It is even
more weird with J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe.
Historically it is more certain than anything that Aragorn
would quite certainly sacrifice to some deity before the
Battle of the Pelennor Fields, etc., but Tolkien was rather
traditional Catholic so he probably didn't like the idea of
inventing a pagan religion. Here the definition of religion is
even more important. There is God in the Tolkien’s Arda
universe (BTW, beginning of Silmarilion is one of the most
beautiful description of rise of Evil I know about), but
nobody does anything about it. There are no prayers (almost,
at least no explicit ones), no sacrifices, no priests, etc.
Tolkien himself wrote about it:
The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally
religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at
first, but consciously in the revision. That is why
I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all
references to anything like “religion,” to cults or
practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious
element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.
-- a letter to a priest, Fr. Robert Murray (The
Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 142)
.. _`was the christening`:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110927060621/http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/news_view.cfm?id=80
.. _Prayers:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6494461/1/
.. _`Trading My Sorrows`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3077936
.. _`The Friar's Calling`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/7460772
.. _`Robert Grosseteste`:
https://historyofphilosophy.net/grosseteste
.. _`All Are His Children`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/4426211
.. _`Hermione Before the Beit Din`:
https://archiveofourown.org/series/636071
.. _Solo:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3388041
.. _Sanctuary:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/7292632
.. _`Thou Shalt Not Suffer`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5176787
.. _PUSH:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/55647
.. _`Harry Potter and the Knight of the Radiant Heart`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9203082
.. _`The Man Who Lived`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13874020
.. _discussion:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/16k9kwx/comment/k0ul0wa
.. _`/u/AntoniusScriptor`:
https://www.reddit.com/user/Antonius_Scriptor/
