Comments on: Harry Potter and Christianity, part 2–The Body of Life http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/ Catholic Anglican Reflections on Theology and Culture Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:29:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Janet Leslie Blumberg http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/#comment-267 Janet Leslie Blumberg Sun, 26 Aug 2007 22:39:44 +0000 http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/#comment-267 Also for Lana. I thought about your question today during the liturgy (and heard the same passage that Aron talks about in his new post). I have deep doubts about this whole "believing" thing that Christians in modernity have adopted. It seems like something we can do, and by an act of our own will, too, and so maybe we can kinda hope to "control" our relationship with God. Christians switched lover to this concept of belief after Descartes switched over to the thinking ego or self as the source of knowing, whereas before it had been the wonderful formal elegance of the world (and of God and of Revelation) that enabled us to come-to-know more and be changed by that knowing. So I sorta think it IS all about "accepting" that we are loved, which is existential and messy and personal, rather than "believing," which originates in us and is thought of by us often as something close to "blind faith in spite of evidence," for which God will pat us on the head. No, faith has nothing at all to do with "believing" against evidence. It has everything to do with what Aron has called "the upsurging of the Real," the things that evoke deep passionate love in us whether we will or no, and awe and devotion, and about keeping faith with the reality of that. Keeping faith by struggling to keep on opening to it, "accepting it." Everything Harry does comes to him through the miracle of the other in his life (mother, friends, mentors) and all he does is just to keep on remembering they are (were) there and what their miraculous value is and not coming up short of what THEY deserve. Everyone's choosing all the time and what Ron and Hermione choose is because they too keep faith with what evokes loyalty in them. What is it? I learned this from Aquinas and Dante but it's so hard to say. It's the deep soul in things and in people (ok it's the true and the beautiful and the good that we know without even putting names to it), we put our souls into hotse things and them and we keep faith with their souls in us -- it's the horcruxes that matter, not the deathly hallows.... At the bottom of Dante's hell they are devouring one another, cannibalism, and at the other pole of the universe the heavenly communion is taking place... Also for Lana. I thought about your question today during the liturgy (and heard the same passage that Aron talks about in his new post). I have deep doubts about this whole “believing” thing that Christians in modernity have adopted. It seems like something we can do, and by an act of our own will, too, and so maybe we can kinda hope to “control” our relationship with God. Christians switched lover to this concept of belief after Descartes switched over to the thinking ego or self as the source of knowing, whereas before it had been the wonderful formal elegance of the world (and of God and of Revelation) that enabled us to come-to-know more and be changed by that knowing.
So I sorta think it IS all about “accepting” that we are loved, which is existential and messy and personal, rather than “believing,” which originates in us and is thought of by us often as something close to “blind faith in spite of evidence,” for which God will pat us on the head. No, faith has nothing at all to do with “believing” against evidence. It has everything to do with what Aron has called “the upsurging of the Real,” the things that evoke deep passionate love in us whether we will or no, and awe and devotion, and about keeping faith with the reality of that. Keeping faith by struggling to keep on opening to it, “accepting it.”
Everything Harry does comes to him through the miracle of the other in his life (mother, friends, mentors) and all he does is just to keep on remembering they are (were) there and what their miraculous value is and not coming up short of what THEY deserve. Everyone’s choosing all the time and what Ron and Hermione choose is because they too keep faith with what evokes loyalty in them. What is it? I learned this from Aquinas and Dante but it’s so hard to say. It’s the deep soul in things and in people (ok it’s the true and the beautiful and the good that we know without even putting names to it), we put our souls into hotse things and them and we keep faith with their souls in us — it’s the horcruxes that matter, not the deathly hallows…. At the bottom of Dante’s hell they are devouring one another, cannibalism, and at the other pole of the universe the heavenly communion is taking place…

]]> By: A.D. http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/#comment-266 A.D. Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:26:28 +0000 http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/#comment-266 Responding to Lana, I think the close connection of love and death obviates the argument concerning which I doubt that God loves me because horrible things happen. Death is the most horrible thing to happen, but it is only through dying (to self and to body) that I experience that love. Responding to Lana, I think the close connection of love and death obviates the argument concerning which I doubt that God loves me because horrible things happen. Death is the most horrible thing to happen, but it is only through dying (to self and to body) that I experience that love.

]]> By: Janet Leslie Blumberg http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/#comment-265 Janet Leslie Blumberg Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:49:15 +0000 http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/#comment-265 About Mother Theresa and her dark night. She is very honest about it, isn't she? When I think about her strange and lingering affliction of spirit, it reminds me of something Melanie Klein said -- that when a subject opts out of the paranoid position offered by capitalism, she places herself by default into the depressive position. About Mother Theresa and her dark night. She is very honest about it, isn’t she?
When I think about her strange and lingering affliction of spirit, it reminds me of something Melanie Klein said — that when a subject opts out of the paranoid position offered by capitalism, she places herself by default into the depressive position.

]]> By: Lana Pilogrusa http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/#comment-264 Lana Pilogrusa Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:22:33 +0000 http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/#comment-264 Sorry--I meant to say The Magic Mountain and not The Magic Flute. Sorry–I meant to say The Magic Mountain and not The Magic Flute.

]]> By: Lana Pilogrusa http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/#comment-263 Lana Pilogrusa Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:09:24 +0000 http://www.thelandofunlikeness.com/2007/08/24/harry-potter-and-christianity-part-2-the-body-of-life/#comment-263 Very interesting analysis of the articulation of death in a Christian sense in Harry Potter. 2 comments: 1) Your proposed 21st century taboo of boredom (a great idea): Boredom is often tied to a sense of meaninglessness (something you also treat in your posting). An interesting recent book by Marina Van Zuylen titled *Monomania* touches on the question of boredom as a perceived threat to meaning and orderliness in our lives. Reading Middlemarch, The Magic Flute, and other texts and examining the photography projects of Sophie Calle, Van Zuylen pinpoints the quest for some kind of ordering element, belief, or person that will eliminate any "free-floating" feeling of boredom or fear that existence is not bound by any overarching meaning. It's a great read that gets into many other texts (fictional, psychological, philosophical). 2) On love: Is the main struggle truly to accept love, or is it more to believe we are loved and to understand that this love exists despite the horrible things that happen? Very interesting analysis of the articulation of death in a Christian sense in Harry Potter.

2 comments:
1) Your proposed 21st century taboo of boredom (a great idea): Boredom is often tied to a sense of meaninglessness (something you also treat in your posting). An interesting recent book by Marina Van Zuylen titled *Monomania* touches on the question of boredom as a perceived threat to meaning and orderliness in our lives. Reading Middlemarch, The Magic Flute, and other texts and examining the photography projects of Sophie Calle, Van Zuylen pinpoints the quest for some kind of ordering element, belief, or person that will eliminate any “free-floating” feeling of boredom or fear that existence is not bound by any overarching meaning. It’s a great read that gets into many other texts (fictional, psychological, philosophical).

2) On love: Is the main struggle truly to accept love, or is it more to believe we are loved and to understand that this love exists despite the horrible things that happen?

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