Christians: what's the difference between these three series of movies?

Question

The Chronicles of Narnia vs. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy vs. The Harry Potter movies

Why do a lot of Christians believe that it's perfectly okay to love the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but believe that the Harry Potter series is the gateway to hell?

I don't get it. Don't they all have "mythical" creatures in them? Magic too? Witches, wizards, the whole shebang.... What's the difference?

Oh, and btw, before you start jumping down my throat about me making a generalization about ALL people of a religion, I didn't say ALL Christians, okay? I'm just asking a question based on about 15 other Christians that I personally know, and some things I have seen on here.

OKAY PEOPLE!!!! WAS GANDALF NOT A FREAKING WIZARD???!!!! Or was I just imagining them calling him that???!!!!

And what about that chick in "Narnia" who made it winter forever? Wasn't SHE a witch too? Or did I imagine that as well?

Answer 1

I'm a Christian and I don't quite get it either. I personally love reading Harry Potter. The only answer I can come up with for my fellow brothers and sisters who differ on this subject is that The Chronicles of Narnia were written by the Christian theologian CS Lewis and were meant to be a blatant allegory to the Gospel. Lewis' good friend Tolkien was also a Christian and even though there are strong Christian themes throughout the Lord of the Rings, it is still debated as to whether or not it was meant to be a Christian allegory. It is known that Tolkien didn't like the Narnia books because they were too obvious.

I think that's why most Christians can accept those books while still finding it difficult to take in Harry Potter. That's my guess, anyway.

Answer 2

Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings were both written by Christians and alllude to Christ.
Harry Potter acknowledges a different religion...one that Christians believe is wrong.
As a Christian parent, I want my kids to know what is "out there" and be able to tell others (just like I am doing) about the difference. People who keep their kids away from things like that are really doing their kids a disservice, and are not helping the kids to grow in their faith. It speaks more to the lack of faith of the parents both in God and their own parenting skills.

Answer 3

I cannot speak for everyone, but you might have noticed that in general, LOR and Chronicles Of Narnia had fairly obvious Christian themes running through them. Harry Potter does not. Simple as that, I suppose

There was magic in both the LOR and Narnia books, but the magic and mythical creatures were more of a vehicle to tell the story; the emphasis was never on gaining supernatural power for its own sake -- rather both series of books seems to teach away from the idea of gaining power for its own sake (In the LOR, as you may recall, Frodo has to voluntarily GIVE UP magical powers in order to save his soul). Harry Potter does not.

I suppose that it is because the emphasis is different. Simple as that.

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"And what about that chick in "Narnia" who made it winter forever? Wasn't SHE a witch too? Or did I imagine that as well?"

The "chick" that you are referring to is the villian of the story. She is evil, remember?

Answer 4

the chronicles of narnia happens to be written by the most published and greatest theologian of the 20th century, C. S. Lewis.

However, it is not a Chiristian parable, as is often confused by those who do not study the author. The trilogy is a tribute to his understanding as Dean of Middle Age Studies at Oxford. The imagry he uses has Christian and pagan undertoes, as does the history and culture of the Middle Ages. He relies heavily on Gawain and the Green Knight refrences in Silver Chair, the concept of the death of the frontier in Dawn Treader, the multiverse paganism in magicians apprentice, several pagan and christian understandings of apocolypse in last battle, usurpation and destiny in caspian, ironic desting in horse and boy.

A better trilogy for middle age allegory is also his Dr. Ransom space trilogy, which has more of a gnostic take to the universe, even though Lewis was strongly anti-gnostic.

LOTR was Tolkeins view of England as related to the world, to history, and to both world wars. Each of the good peoples of Middle Earth represented an "ideal" or iconic time of English history. The enemy rising again from the east,(germany) etc.....

Harry Potter does not rely on the same themes of the other two in that it makes magic the story as much as the characters are, in the same was that Asminov often made the technology the story as much as the characters the story in his Sci-fi books.

The difference lies in how the material is presented...in that in both chronicles and lotr noone is called names because they cannot pratice magic. There are no powerful muggle characters capable of foiling wizardry. Magic is the means to the power to control your own destiny, whereas in LOTR and Narnia it is a setting or plot device unto itself. In LOTR and Chronicles, maginc is the explanation....in Potter, it is the plot.

That is the difference others see. I do not agree with them that it is a pathway to hell, any way more that Al Pacino is going to hell for playing Satan in The Devil's Advocate, or Val Kilmer is going to Hell for playing the voice of GOD in that stupid moses disney anime.

But, from an analysis of literature, they have a case (albeit a weak one).

Answer 5

I can't talk about Potter or Rings, but when C.S. Lewis wrote Narnia, he wrote it very specifically as an allegory of Biblical Truths in Christianity. The white witch who was the deceiver, the time in which it is always winter but never Christmas, the traitor who sold out his brother and sisters to the witch, the lion who had to sacrifice his very life for the traitor, etc, etc.

Each and every one of his books in that series, has direct Biblical revelation and Truth for anyone to see.

I hope that helps to answer your questions to some extent.

Answer 6

All of them are good? Cannot wait until the 7th Harry Potter Book to come out!!! Ohh, I dont care if Im the only person there who can give a lecture over Symbiotic relationships...I want that BOOK!

Answer 7

There's no difference. They are all pretty good, but fictional. I'm going to a midnight showing of Harry Potter with my kids and I can't wait. People should worry more about the real evil and threats in the world instead of books and movies.

God Bless.

Answer 8

I'm a christian and I only saw those movies as fictional stories. I did not compare the three to each other. Honestly, I didnt know there was much of a difference except for the storyline and the plots of course.

Answer 9

Since these three are all movies, they should be treated as such. They are just sources of entertainment and are not based on realities. They were not designed to "teach us" anything other than how to enjoy the story they are telling.

If you started believing that the movies and what they depict are real, then that is when you would have a problem with Christianity.

Enjoy the movies, they were simply made for your entertainment. They are not documentaries.

Answer 10

I don't believe that any of those movies are the gateway to Hell. Any who says that they are need to study the Bible more.