Tracing Faith in Harry Potter

Last Thursday, the T&P department took a group of Y11 students to an evening of academic enrichment hosted by the Education Centre at St Albans Cathedral.  Students enjoyed a seminar on the subject Tracing Faith in Harry Potter.  Since J. K. Rowling’s series was published 20 years ago, it has attracted both great fame and intense criticism.  Books have been burned publicly and banned from some schools in a response to perceived anti-Christian subtexts.  Students were invited to engage with Rowling’s Christian faith and passages from religious scripture in her novels.  The seminar explored Biblical parallels in the novels and questioned whether it is possible to find theological significance in them.