The lived theology of the &lt;i&gt;Harry Potter&lt;/i&gt; series

Anastasia Apostolides,Johann-Albrecht Meylahn

doi:10.4102/hts.v70i1.2713

The lived theology of the <i>Harry Potter</i> series

Anastasia Apostolides, Johann-Albrecht Meylahn

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v70i1.2713

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Abstract

This article will argue that the recent turn towards lived theology or religion in practical theology can offer a useful hermeneutic to interpret the impact of the Harry Potter series on the spiritual formation and identity creation of adolescents. In practical theology there has been a turn towards lived theology or religion as lived religion has moved out of institutions into social–cultural phenomena as people seek to find meaning and purpose for their lives in alternative places to institutionalised religion.

Highlights

This article aims to show how the Harry Potter series is lived religion or theology and by reading it, some adolescents may find spiritual meaning within this and other fantasies – such as Tolkien’s Lord of the rings (1991) and Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia (1980) – that they fail to find within the Church or the Bible
In recent years the focus of practical theology has moved from focusing on traditional Church practices towards a hermeneutic of lived religion (Ganzevoort 2009; Gräb 2012; Miller-McLemore 2012b, 2012c, 2012d): ‘The face and structure of religion are changing, and theology, even more practical theology, has to respond to those changes’ (Ganzevoort 2009)
Miller-McLemore’s (2010e:103) understanding of lived theology extends beyond the Church and includes social practices where the divine may be encountered in everyday living and how this may have an influence on theology and how people experience and interpret the divine

Summary

Introduction

This article aims to show how the Harry Potter series is lived religion or theology and by reading it, some adolescents may find spiritual meaning (through glimpsing the Gospels through some of the characters’ actions) within this and other fantasies – such as Tolkien’s Lord of the rings (1991) and Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia (1980) – that they fail to find within the Church or the Bible.The turn to lived-religion in practical theologyIn recent years the focus of practical theology has moved from focusing on traditional Church practices towards a hermeneutic of lived religion (Ganzevoort 2009; Gräb 2012; Miller-McLemore 2012b, 2012c, 2012d): ‘The face and structure of religion are changing, and theology, even more practical theology, has to respond to those changes’ (Ganzevoort 2009). Practical theology has recently moved from being a primarily ministry orientated field, to a field that responds to the social–cultural realities in which communities exist and seek to find meaning for their lives from traditional faith communities but, more recently, from outside traditional faith communities (Ganzevoort 2009; Gräb 2012:80; Miller-McLemore 2012e:111). Miller-McLemore’s (2010e:103) understanding of lived theology extends beyond the Church and includes social practices where the divine may be encountered in everyday living and how this may have an influence on theology and how people experience and interpret the divine. Gräb (2012:80–81) agrees with Miller-McLemore, and calls for a practical theology of lived religion that is ‘limited to church theory, pastoral theology or even methodologicallyorientated empirical science (theologia applicata)’, and includes an attempt to define socio– cultural ‘phenomena as religious through the employment of cultural-hermeneutic’. Miller-McLemore’s (2010e:103) understanding of lived theology extends beyond the Church and includes social practices where the divine may be encountered in everyday living and how this may have an influence on theology and how people experience and interpret the divine. Gräb (2012:80–81) agrees with Miller-McLemore, and calls for a practical theology of lived religion that is ‘limited to church theory, pastoral theology or even methodologicallyorientated empirical science (theologia applicata)’, and includes an attempt to define socio– cultural ‘phenomena as religious through the employment of cultural-hermeneutic’. Ganzevoort (2009) understands lived religion as evaluating the practices of lived religion in the light of the sacred texts and the sacred ideas of a particular religion such as Christianity

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