One Fine Potion: The Literary Magic of Harry Potter
Greg Garrett
Baylor University Press, 2010, 146 pp., $19.95
J.K. Rowling’s seven-volume series about “the boy who lived” got many young (and not-so-young) people reading for fun for the first time. Greg Garrett invites us to read it again—and again, and again, and again—in his four-fold analysis, unpacking Harry Potter’s story on literal, allegorical, tropological and anagogical levels in the tradition of Aquinas. (Garrett assumes a much higher reading level than Rowling.) Addressing evangelical concerns regarding sorcery and witchcraft head on, he argues that the supernatural functions not as an alternate belief system, but as a backdrop for a story full of Christian values—a story so Christian that its creator hesitated to discuss her own Christian faith before the last installment came out for fear of giving away the ending. Themes of friendship, courage, community, tolerance, coming-of-age, integrity and faith pervade the epic, highlighting heroism in everyday and fantastic circumstances. At Hogwarts, magic is the local currency of power—a tool that one must learn to handle thoughtfully, a potential weapon for imposing one’s will or a gift to be transferred through sacrificial love.
