Jesus christ biography summary of harry
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Jesus Potter Harry Christ by Derek Murphy – a review.
Jesus Potter Harry Christ by Derek Murphy – a review.
Part 1
Chapter 1
This book, a hefty 478 page work, sets out to find the parallels that exist between Harry Potter and Jesus Christ; the main characteristics being the fictional commonalities that they share. As Murphy sets out:
This book will trace the genesis of the story of Jesus Christ and examine the controversy concerning the historical founder of Christianity, to see if Jesus can be distinguished from Harry based on the claim that Jesus was a real historic figure, while Harry Potter is uppenbart a fable. (viii)
I was expecting the first chapter to uppstart dealing with the character of Harry Potter, looking into the literary devices that Rowling may have used to develop her now legendary figure of popular culture, in order to then compare the characteristics of the Jesus of the bible. However, to my surprise, the entire first chapter is devoted to analysing the Harr
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Although it is easy to accept that Rowling crafted the literary character of Harry Potter after the figure of Jesus, shouldn’t it pique our interest that Jesus — a monumental figure in modern world religion generally believed to have been historical — has so much in common with the obviously fictional fantasy world and character of Harry Potter? (Preface, p. viii, Jesus Potter Harry Christ)
It’s a good question. It appeals to me personally because I have a particular interest in the gospels as literature. I am convinced that they need to be understood as literature before we can decide if and in what manner we might seek to extract historical kunskap from them.
This post is a first draft of a review I am preparing for the book, and covers so far only the first of the book’s three sections. I am posting this now for the simple reason that I fear too long a time gap before I will be in a position to post a completed review of the entire book. So
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I regularly argue on this blog for an appreciation of the literary nature of the leading characters, episodes and narrative structures in the canonical gospels. So I am looking forward to reading and reviewing Derek Murphy’s Jesus Potter, Harry Christ. My initial response to reading the title was that this was a joke of some sort. But I encourage anyone interested in the gospels and Jesus as literature to read the content below and see that it does seek to be a serious contribution to an understanding of the literary and mythical character of Jesus.
Neither is this a slur against Christianity. The author rightly explains that the fictional nature of characters does not detract from the positive influence that character can have on those who love them. The author also answers pertinent questions about his rationale for writing such a book, the status, history and grounds of Jesus-mythicism. I will introduce some of this discussion from the author’s perspective in this