Religionistic analysis of Harry Potter

(Tato stránka existuje i v české verzi .)

A lot of paper (not mentioning disc space) has been covered with various studies of the Harry Potter book series. Certainly more is yet to come. Unlike more conventional or commercial sites, this page is devoted to a very special aspect of the famous work, namely, to religionistic analysis of distinguished characters appearing in the series.

Should you manage to decode the religious orientation and preferences of other persons than those discussed here, would you please let me know. I would be happy to add your comments and discoveries to the uncomplete list bellow (obviously with quoting your authorship). Note that like all the material displayed on pages devoted to results of my non-physical research, also this section is covered by the GNU General Public Licence copyright. Do not worry if you do not know what does it mean - I do not know it either. However, I just find it exciting to find notices like that scattered around the Web and so I decided to have a similar notice of my own. I just hope I do not infringe anyone's copyright by that.)

Technical note: I read the Harry Potter books in Czech only so it is quite possible that some names will not be correct, some sentences may be misquoted etc. Would you please forgive me and kindly send me the erratas. Thanx in advance.

Religionistic preferences of main characters

The school gamekeeper giant Hagrid - member of the franciscan order (OFM).

Just recall his love towards animals and first of all towards all sorts of biting creatures. He is internally convinced that each beast is "not that bad in fact" and he really is able to forge friendships with them (say with the man-eating spider Aragog in the second book "Harry Potter and the Mysterious Chamber"). It is here a direct analogy with St. Francis, who talked face-to-face to the nasty wolf whom nobody dared to approach. Hagrid's helplessness, naivity and defencelessness speak about his franciscan roots as well (compare the episode of the death-sentenced hipogryf in "Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban").

Teacher of the defence against black magic Lupin - member of the order of salesians of don Bosco (SDB).

Simply he knows how to deal with boys. Friendly and warm, yet demanding as a teacher, able to keep his authority. A typical salesian feature can be traced in his way of organizing the final examination - in the form of "adventure trail".

Teacher of clairvoyance Trelawney - charismatic renewal.

She goes around bug-eyed, speaks indefinitely and in hints only. She has presentiments and phantoms, always suggesting that she understands matters and connections totally unnoticed by others. Keeps on foreboding tragedies.

The whole Weasley family (Ron, Fred and George, Percy etc.) - unambiguously catholics.

Their churchmanship is ultimately revealed by a contemptuous remark uttered by Lucius Malfoy (and quoted by his son Draco in the first book "Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone"), that the Weasleys always used to have more children than they could afford to.

Potions Master Severus Snape - adherent of the Opus Dei movement.

Always neatly dressed in black. Intelectually briliant, zealous, devoted for the cause. Strict, disciplined. A lot of things do not quite fit around him, his behaviour raises many quesitions, several suspicions stick on him. Disregarding all this, the highest authorities highly regard him and never doubt his loyalty. However, you cannot really trust him, can you?