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Apologia Report 14:12
March 25, 2009
Subject: Harry Potter Among the "Great Books"?
In this issue:
CHRISTIANITY, GENERAL - pollster George Barna argues that the church succumbed to paganism at the end of the First Century
HOMOSEXUALITY - its liberal interpretation of Scripture tripped up by hermeneutics once again
POTTER, HARRY - the power of books shared by generations
ROMAN CATHOLICISM - book chronicles the problems within the embattled Legion of Christ order
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CHRISTIANITY, GENERAL
Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices, by Frank Viola and George Barna [1] -- reviewer Mark Traphagen explains that "the mission and message of house church guru Frank Viola and evangelical numbers cruncher George Barna [in this] intentionally provocative book [is that] nearly everything the Christian church has called 'church' since the end of the first century has been wrong. Worse actually - it has all been outright pagan. ...
"The authors call for an 'organic' church reproducing their image of the early first-century church. In this book and his other writings, Viola makes clear that this means small house churches with minimal leadership and 'every-member' participation. No seminaries, no denominations, no buildings, no professionally trained clergy, no order of worship. ...
"Pagan Christianity comes to bad conclusions from good questions down a two-lane highway of poor historiography and fantastic leaps of logic. [It is] heavily dependent upon secondary sources. The majority of citations for their most crucial and controversial points are from very few sources, not surprisingly those that agree with their conclusions. They almost completely ignore the many good sources that would refute the book's assertions. ...
"Viola and Barna also lean heavily on older sources that did not have access to the huge amount of information uncovered only in the last fifty years or so about the first century." In general, the authors are said to be "highly selective" and often "make assertions without proof or documentation. ...
"A particularly glaring omission shows up in the authors' apparent ignorance of the Jewishness of early Christianity. [The book] presupposes a discontinuity between the Old and New Covenants so deep it would make Scofield cringe. Without any supporting arguments, Viola and Barna assert that the New Testament church and its worship and practices were radical rejections of all Old Testament counterparts." Modern Reformation, Jan/Feb '09, pp40-41.
POSTSCRIPT 5/2/09: Linden D. McLaughlin shares much the same criticism in his Bibliotheca Sacra review (Apr/Jun '09, pp239-241).
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HOMOSEXUALITY
The Queer Bible Commentary, Deryn Guest, et. al., eds. [2] -- Richard S. Briggs may be sympathetic in general, but at least he notes some obvious problems in this review. "31 contributors offer a one-volume Bible commentary with a loose focus on issues relevant to the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) community. As with all such perspectival projects, which are quite often in some way sex or gender related regardless of theological (or indeed sexual) orientation, there are some basic hermeneutical conundrums present in the linking of a hermeneutical agenda with a comprehensive coverage of the particular set of texts comprising a 66-book canon. Often the text has really nothing of relevance to the chosen agenda. ... I Corinthians 7 is an obvious case in point, where it seems as if a certain amount of interpretative discomfort has led the interpreter so far away from the text that there is not even a serious discussion of what celibacy might offer our world today, which must surely be a relevant concern. ...
"Indeed in general hermeneutics does not seem to be the strong suit." Heythrop Journal, 50:1 - 2009, pp171-172.
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POTTER, HARRY
"Book Binders: What I Learned About the Great Books & Harry Potter" by John Granger -- the author explains that the anti-relativist "Allan Bloom taught me too many years ago that 'shared books' are the foundation of culture, politics, and individual thinking." Thus Granger notes that, like it or not, "Harry Potter is the 'shared text' of the twenty-first century." In the past, said Bloom, "our grandparents' great-grandparents, as backward as we might imagine them [to be,] had had close to a memorized knowledge of the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress [3], and Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans [4]," the shared books of their day.
Granger believes that the shared text of our day "is a good thing." He discusses five reasons for this. Namely:
"1. There is no relativism in the Harry Potter novels. ...
"2. The books, as books, invite readers to read more books. ...
"3. The stories have a challenging message for postmodern readers. ... J. K. Rowling ... has succeeded in smuggling in a great deal of traditional, even transcendent, material and themes into these stories - including her Christian beliefs....
"For example, in the 'King's Cross' chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort is shown as a tortured soul in agony who cannot be helped postmortem. Could any other author have sneaked the message of punishment in the afterlife for sinners past the 'watchful dragons' of materialistic tweens? Or the message of the power of a pure heart to confront evil, or of love to conquer death? This is a message and artistry Bunyan would have loved. ...
"4. The shared text is ubiquitous. ...
"When New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wanted to smear Governor Sarah Palin, her tactic was to suggest that, as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin wanted to ban Harry Potter novels from the local library. This was about the most damning accusation Dowd could have made against Palin in the public square (also a false one, it should be noted; the Potter books weren't even in print at the time) - on par with calling her a creationist or a believer in absolute monarchy. Like it or not, for the 'Harry Potter generation,' there may be no greater heresy, token of ignorance, or insult to their collective understanding of the world than to suggest that one might be a fundamentalist Harry hater.
"5. The author is making an argument - and an important one. [These] are novels that operate on the four levels of symbolic art that Dante asked his readers to look for in his work. Understanding their superficial, moral, allegorical, and mythic or anagogical meanings requires some appreciation of English literature and symbolism, as well as the meditative, 'slow mining' that [John] Ruskin said the best books demand and reward. ...
"Rowling urges her readers to look beneath the story's narrative line until they find the meaning and experience of parable and myth that Dumbledore tells Harry is a 'power beyond the reach of any magic.' ...
"I struggle to think of any fictional work of the last two or three centuries that had the potential to shape the cultural and political agendas of its time as this one does. Dickens's crusading social novels? Uncle Tom's Cabin? The Jungle? Harry Potter differs from these in that the others ignited a latent Christian conscience. The Potter novels help foster one into existence. ...
"From this text, we can build a conversation about virtue and vice, and about what reading does to the right-side-up soul." Touchstone, Dec '08, pp28-32. <www.tinyurl.com/cehr2u>
As a counterpoint, our Associate Editor, Robert Velarde, is far from agreeing with Granger. Velarde notes that at the very least, "Ethically speaking, saying Potter is 'anti-relativist' leaves out a lot. The Potter books, for example, include elements of utilitarian ethics and at times favor ethical egoism (hardly great alternatives to relativism).
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ROMAN CATHOLICISM
Our Father, Who Art in Bed: A Naive and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ, by J. Paul Lennon [5] -- Jesuit reviewer Brian Van Hove explains that "Irishman J. Paul Lennon, author of this autobiographical work, was a priest of the now much-embattled Legion of Christ for 23 years. Having left it behind in 1984, he went on to found the ReGAIN Network (www.regainnetwork.org), which provides documentation about the Legion and Regnum Christi, its lay branch.
"The Mexican founder of the Legion, F. Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), was 'invited' to retire to a life of prayer and penance by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 after years of being investigated for sexual abuse. Until that time, Fr. Maciel was convinced that he would one day be canonized. ...
"Lennon's book is one of the few sources in English (others are written in Spanish) that reveal the predatory nature of the highly regarded Maciel." Van Hove reports that "all Legionary apostolates exist for recruiting and fundraising, no matter their alleged purpose. This agenda leads to the creation of numerous 'front' apostolates. Instead of thinking 'with' the Church, the Legion wishes to think 'for' the Church, especially in its attempt to dominate Catholic publishing and media.
"The Church approved the constitutions of the Legion and Regnum Christi. Will history judge the Church harshly? ...
"In recent years, several American dioceses have restricted or banned the Legion and Regnum Christi, including the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul. More recently, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has moved against the Legion."
Van Hove gets into some of the related fallout when he reports that "three curial cardinals in Rome protected the Legion from an American archbishop [Baltimore's Edward O'Brien] who was doing his duty and safeguarding his people, especially the youth.
"While it is possible to oppose the Legion for the wrong reasons, the truth is served by administrative decisions such as that of Archbishop O'Brien. Paul Lennon would argue that such efforts are only a beginning." New Oxford Review, Jan '09, pp47-48.
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Sources, Monographs:
1 - Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices, by Frank Viola and George Barna (BarnaBooks, 2008, hardcover, 336 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/d2qn6w>
2 - The Queer Bible Commentary, Deryn Guest, Robert E. Goss, Mona West, and Thomas Bohache, eds. (SCM, 2006, hardcover, 859 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/ct5mrn>
3 - Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan (Dover, 2003, paperback, 336 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/cu4e46>
4 - The Lives of Ten Noble Greeks and Romans, by Plutarch (Grolier, 1968, hardcover, n.p.) <www.tinyurl.com/ca7f9h>
5 - Our Father, Who Art in Bed: A Naive and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ, by J. Paul Lennon (BookSurge, 2008, paperback, 400 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/dhdxxr>
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