AIS: Harry Potter: Theology and Literary Imagination.

Catalog description

The Harry Potter series has been a global phenomenon, read by children and adults worldwide. Its success is easy to understand, given Rowling’s masterful storytelling. What is often missed, though, is the series’ substantive theological engagement: The books take up classic theological claims and develop those claims. Rowling achieves this theological work through both her creative appropriation of Christian images and symbols and her use of established literary traditions, namely genre fantasy. In this course, we will read all seven of the Harry Potter volumes in conversation with theological questions, including the nature of God, suffering, immortality, hope, virtue, sin, and salvation. Moreover, we will explore the notion of a Christian literary imagination and consider what it means to bring together literature and theology.