1

Harry Potter and the Meaning of Life

Gregory Bassham
Kings College (Pa.)

J. K. Rowlings Potter novels are among the best loved childrens books of our time. As Potter
scholar John Granger argues, this is partly due to Rowlings remarkably successful fusion of a
wide variety of usually distinct literary genres, including fantasy, mystery, humor, satire, heroic
quest, gothic, coming of age, boarding school novel, and literary sleuth.
1
But the huge appeal of
the Potter books is also due, I think, to the way the books deepen and become more adult, so to
speak, as the series progresses. The first three books are short, whimsical, fantasy-filled romps
aimed mainly at younger readers. The later books are thicker, deeper, grimmer, more complex
works, filled with grandeur and sorrow, that speak to the great existential and spiritual yearnings
of the human heart. In the Potter books, Rowling not only entertains but teaches us important life
lessons about what really matters in this crazy, mixed-up world. What important lessons? I doubt
any two Potter fans would give exactly the same answer to this question. My own hit parade
would include the following six themes:
Be valiant and bold.
Its important to have good friends.
Treat everyone with respect.
Dont be a humungous bighead
Think of death as the next great adventure.

1
John Granger, Harry Potters Bookshelf: The Great Books Behid the Hogarts Adetures (New York: Berkley
8ooks, 2009). ee also my Pow Lo Read Harry Potter and How Not To," in Corbin Fowler, The Ravenclaw
Chronicles (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2014), pp. 44-59.
2

Keep faith

Let me say just a bit about each of these perspicacious pieces of advice.
1. Be Valiant and Bold. As philosopher and Potter scholar Tom Morris has noted, the
single most striking quality of Harry Potter, other than his basic goodness, is his remarkable
personal courage.
2
When Harry first arrives at Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat puts him in Gryffindor,
the House where the bravest of Hogwarts students are placed (GF 177). And how brave Harry
proves to be! Jumping on the trolls back in Sorcerors Stone (176), setting off alone to rescue
Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets (CS 304), fighting off 100 dementors to save Sirius (PA
383), retrieving Cedrics body at great personal risk (GF 499), flying off on a seemingly hopeless
rescue mission when he thought Voldemort was torturing Sirius in the Ministry (OP 764),
sacrificing his life for his friends in Deathly Hallows (DH 691) and then choosing to return from
near-death to face Voldemort in a fight to the finish (DH 722)the list could go on and on.
More than anything else, it is Harrys courage that allows him to destroy the Horcruxes and
defeat Voldemort against such incredibly long odds. Harry is truly, as Dobby says, valiant and
bold (CS 16).
Rowling has stated that she deeply admire[s] bravery in all forms,
3
and this is clearly
reflected in her books. Traditionally, courage (or fortitude) was ranked as one of the four
cardinal virtues (along with justice, temperance, and prudence). What is courage, and why is it
such an important virtue?

2
Tom Morris, If Harry Potter Ran General Electric: Leadership Wisdom from the World of the Wizards (New York:
Doubleday, 2006), p. 26.
3
Interview with WBUR Radio, Oct. 12, 1999, at http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/1099-
connectiontransc2.htm.
3

Courage is the virtue that helps us face and stand firm against danger, pain, fear,
difficulty, and ultimately death for the sake of important values.
4
Courage is a virtue, or good
character trait, because it is a habit or settled disposition that helps us achieve our own good
(both moral and intellectual) and to serve the good of others. As such, courage is a source of
strength, both for individuals and for families and communities. Because (as Spinoza says)
excellent things are as difficult as they are rare,
5
courage is necessary for almost any kind of
human excellence or high achievement, such as a starting a successful business, achieving an
important political reform, or performing a difficult athletic feat. But courage isnt some rare and
exotic quality thats required only in dire emergencies; life is full of problems, difficulties,
dangers, and hard choices that call forthand often createour courage on a daily basis.
Moreover, courage is necessary for the exercise of any virtue in difficult or challenging
circumstances. Often it takes courage, for instance, to do what is honest, loving, just, loyal, or
obedient. These are the sorts of decisions when (as Dumbledore says) we face a choice between
what is right and what is easy
6
and only if we act courageously can we do the right thing. In
some cases, indeed, courage may be an absolute precondition for the exercise of other virtues
as when individual lives or whole nations are saved by the courageous actions of a few. (Bottom
line: You cant act virtuously if youre dead.) In Potters world, as in ours, courage is the price
that life exacts for granting peace.
7
It is for these reasons that the ancients ranked courage as a
cardinal virtue, for they rightly saw that courage is a kind of hinge (cardo) on which the other

4
Adapted from Rebecca Konyndyk ue?oung, Love 8ears All 1hlngs: 1homas Aqulnas, Parry oLLer, and Lhe vlrLue
of Courage," aL
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/philosophy/virtual_library/articles/deyoung_rebecca_k/harrypotter.pdf.
5
Baruch Spinoza, Ethics, Bk 5, prop. 42.
6
GF 724.
7
Amella LarharL uLnam, Courage." CuoLed ln Bartletts Failiar Quotatios, 12
th
ed. (Boston: Little, Brown and
Co., 1948), p. 1012.
4

virtues swing. J. K. Rowling is thus in good company and squarely in the classical tradition in
reminding us of the value of courage.
2. Its Important to Have Good Friends According to Tom Morris, the importance of
friendship is one of the most crucial pieces of wisdom running through all the Harry Potter
books.
8
As Aristotle noted, shallow friendships can be based on pleasure or usefulness,
9
but
surveys show that what people value most about friendship are communication, sharing, mutual
understanding, trust, loyalty, and dependability.
10
These kinds of closer, deeper friendships are
possible only between people who genuinely care about one another, which is why none of the
bad guys in the Potter books has any true friends. Voldemort, were told, never had a friend,
nor . . . ever wanted one (HBP 277). Snape (a semi-bad-guy), the Dursleys, Lucius Malfoy,
Quirrell, Karkaroff, Fudge, Umbridge, Lockhart, Crouch Jr., Rita Skeeter, Wormtail (after he
turns bad)all seem to be essentially friendless.
11
By contrast, Harrys friendship with Ron and
Hermione, though it certainly has its ups and downs, is depicted as rich, satisfying, mutually
beneficialand essential to Voldemorts defeat. Harry is unhappy when he is separated or
temporarily estranged from his friends. They help him celebrate his triumphs, console him when
hes down, build up his confidence, join him in his perils and escapades, offer good advice, serve
as sounding boards when he needs to vent, and assist him in countless ways in his battles with
the Dark Lord. Often the closest relationships involve friends or lovers that balance or
complement each other in various wayseach supplying something that the other lacks.
12
The
three-way friendship of Harry, Ron and Hermione falls into this pattern. For instance, Harry

8
Morris, If Harry Potter Ran General Electric, p. 213.
9
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1156a7-8.
10
Geoffrey L. Greif, Buddy System: Understanding Male Friendships (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp.
46, 131.
11
1rue, uraco Malfoy has hls sldeklcks Crabbe and Coyle, and uudley uursley has hls gang," buL these are
superficial friendships based on pleasure and mutual interests.
12

5

often benefits from Hermiones studiousness, caution, and respect for authority, while Hermione
benefits from Harrys courage, resourcefulness, and unshakable loyalty to his friends. As
Rowling notes, the trio of friends work far better as a team than apart.
13
This is shown most
graphically in Sorcerors Stone, where Hermiones powers of logical reasoning, Rons skill at
chess, and Harrys unselfishness and superior flying ability are all necessary to stop Voldemort
from obtaining the Stone.
C. S. Lewis once described friendship as the greatest of worldly goods and the chief
happiness of life.
14
Given her treatment of friendship in the Potter books, I suspect J. K.
Rowling would agree.
15

3. Treat Everyone with Respect. Time magazine famously described the Potter series as
a 4,100-page treatise on tolerance.
16
This isnt far off the mark, but tolerance isnt quite the
right word. Rowling doesnt advocate merely tolerating (putting up with, not discriminating
against) people of different races, backgrounds, talents, etc. She favors treating all persons,
whether human or otherwise, with equal respect and dignity. Kingsley Shacklebolt speaks for her
when he says, Every human life is worth the same (DH 440). But it is clear from what she says
about the treatment of creatures such as house-elves, goblins, centaurs, Buckbeak, Grawp, and
Hedwig, that she believes that a significant level of respect is due to all persons and near-
persons, whether they are human or not.

13
Interview with WBUR Radio, October 12, 1999, at http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/1099-
connectiontransc.html.
14
The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, vol. 2, Walter Hooper, ed., San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004), p. 174.
15
A related theme in the Potter books is the importance of unity in opposing evils. Both Dumbledore (GF 723) and
the Sorting Hat (OP 206-07) strongly emphasize this theme.
16
nancy Clbb, !. k. 8owllng," Time, Dec. 19, 2007, at
http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/article/0,28804,1690753_1695388_1695436,00.ht
ml.
6

Rowling has said that her books preach against . . . [b]igotry, violence, [and] struggles
for power.
17
These are three very strong candidates for the greatest evils of the twentieth
century. Imagine a world without bigotry, violence, or struggles for power and you imagine a
world that lacks many of the chronic sources of human misery and injustice. Rowling has
described the Potter series as a political metaphor,
18
and one of the things she most strongly
wants to underscore is the huge suffering that results from disrespecting others as inferiors.
Voldemort and his Death Eaters are motivated partly by old-fashioned hunger for power (more
about that anon). But this isnt any garden-variety lust for power. Most people want power
because they think they can use that power to get stuff that they want. But Voldemort and his
minions can already get almost anything they want by means of magic. (Want a Cadillac?
Transfigure one from a dirt clod.) What they want power for is to bring the wizards out of
hiding to rule the Muggles and the Muggle-borns (DH 193).
19
But of course merely ruling non-
pure-bloods wouldnt sufficethey want to treated as superiorsgods evenby those they
regard as animals, stupid and dirty (DH 574). As Hermione said, wizards have this horrible
thing of thinking theyre superior to other creatures (OP 171), and Voldemort and his Death
Eaters take this to a psychopathic, Hitler-like extreme.
I take it that the point of Rowlings political metaphor about the evils of racism and
intolerance isnt simply to remind us of the benighted days of yore. Wizards arent the only
people who have this horrible thing of thinking theyre superior to others and deserve to be

17
Clbbs, !. k. 8owllng," aL
http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/article/0,28804,1690753_1695388_1695436,00.ht
ml. Rowling has also sLaLed LhaL 1he oLLer books ln general are a prolonged argumenL for Lolerance, a prolonged
plea for Lolerance." CuoLed ln Cranger, Harry Potters Bookshelf, p. 159.
18
Interview with Dateline NBC, July 29, 2007, at http://www.today.com/id/20001720/page/4/#.U_jJvaNlySo.
19
Cbvlously Lhls couldnL occur ln [usL one counLry (CreaL 8rlLaln), because Lhen everyone ln Lhe world would know
that wizards exist. This raises the interestingand as far as I know unansweredquestion of what wizards in other
countries would have done if Voldemort had openly gained power in Great Britain.
7

treated with greater consideration and respect. Strait is the gate that leads to recognition of the
true inherent equality of all persons, and few there be that find it. Hence Rowlings implicit
message to us: Examine your hearts for any seeds of intolerance or conceit, and root them out!
Then join the fight for true equality in the world.
4. Dont Be a Humongous Bighead. Voldemort caused two terrible wizarding wars
because he was racist and (as Rowling says) incredibly power-hungry.
20
Decades earlier,
another dark wizard bent on racial supremacy and world domination (Gellert Grindelwald)
provoked a global wizarding war, which ended when Dumbledore defeated him in a duel,
imprisoned him in his own fortress, and took possession of the Elder Wand (DH 499). The Potter
books, in fact, are peppered with warnings against the dangers of power-seekers. Percy Weasley
is lampooned as a Bighead Boy (PA 67), a Humongous Bighead (PA 63), and a reader of
books with titles like Prefects Who Gained Power (CS 58). Barty Crouch Sr. and Cornelius
Fudge are portrayed as ineffectual high Ministry of Magic officials blinded by their love of
power (GF, 527, 708). Dolores Umbridge, as Hogwarts High Inquisitor, exhibits a Nazi-like
desire to bring every aspect of life at Hogwarts under her personal control (OP 551). By
contrast, Harry and Dumbledore are praised for their humility and lack of interest in power or
glory. Dumbledore, in particular, is lauded for his self-awareness in recognizing early in life that
power was my weakness and my temptation (DH 718). He turned down the post of Minister of
Magic several times becauseafter his dangerously nave and misguided plan of benevolent
wizard-dictatorship in concert with Grindelwaldhe knew that he was not to be trusted with

20
A Cood care," Time, October 30, 2000, p. 108.
8

power (DH 717). Sagely, Dumbledore remarks that [t]hose who are best suited to power are
those who have never sought it (DH 718).
21

Without question, the dangers of power-hunger is one of the most persistentand
importantthemes in the Harry Potter stories. As Plato noted 2500 years ago, the lust for power
is both one of humankinds greatest temptations and its greatest scourges. To be sure, there are
occasional power-seekers, such as Lincoln, who are both gifted leaders and motivated by a
sincere desire to do good. But these are the exception. Most who seek power do so largely
because of the trappings of powerwealth, pleasure, luxury, fame, pride, adulation, control, and
the like. We only need to recall the names of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot,
Idi Amin, Muammar Gaddafito cite but a few recent examplesto be vividly reminded of the
evils that power-hungry despots can commit. In interviews, Rowling has explained that the
Potter books contain a number of deliberate echoes of Nazi Germany, including the Nazis
campaign of ethnic cleansing, the warped logic of Nazi blood-purity and racial registration
laws, government control of the press, Fudges Chamberlain-like policy of denial and
appeasement, and the fact that Voldemort is himself a kind of Hitler.
22
Rowling believes that
its a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and
you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.
23
The
parallels she draws with Nazi Germany offer powerful support for this view.

21
Compare Plato, Republic, 320c (A clLy ln whlch Lhose who are golng Lo rule are leasL eager Lo rule ls necessarlly
besL").
22
ee relevanL clLaLlons ln ollLlcs of Parry oLLer," Wlklpedla, aL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Harry_Potter.
23
Quoted in Granger, Harry Potters Bookshelf, p. 159.
9

5. Think of Death as the Next Great Adventure. Rowling has said that her Potter
books are largely about death
24
and that death is possibly the [books] most important
theme.
25
Tolkien said something similar about The Lord of the Rings, claiming that the work is
not fundamentally about power, or the struggle between good and evil, but about Death and the
desire for deathlessness.
26
Both teach essentially the same message about death: that it is not an
evil to be feared and avoided at all costs, butin ways that perhaps cannot be fully understood
a gift that should be accepted as part of the natural and divine order.
27
A few examples from the
Potter books:

24
Interview in The Tatler, January 10, 2006, at http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2006/0110-tatler-grieg.html.
25
BBC Christmas Special, December 28, 2001, at http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2001/1201-bbc-
hpandme.htm/.
26
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981), p. 262. Rowling
says that similarities between the Potter books and The Lord of the Rings are falrly superflclal" (Scholastic.com
interview, October 16, 2000), at http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2001/1201-bbc-hpandme.htm). There are,
however, numerous parallels between the two works, whether these were consciously intended or not. These
include:
Dark Lord (Sauron)/Dark Lord (Voldemort) (neither of whom is to be named)
Sauron attempts to conquer the world and have himself worshipped as a god// Voldemort does the same.
Sauron attempts to conquer death by encasing part of himself in a virtually indestructible physical object
which corrupts whoever wears it// Voldemort does the same.
Sauron permanently ruins his own physical appearance by means of his own evil acts// ditto with
Voldemort.
Sauron is eventually defeated by humble and easily-underestimated heroes led by a wizard// same with
Voldemort.
1olklens Mlddle-earth is a world populated by elves, goblins, giants, trolls, dragons, ghosts, wizards, and
other fantasy creaLures// so ls 8owllngs wlzardlng world.
Verbal similarities include: Wormtongue/Wormtail; Isengard/Nurmengard; Longbottom Leaf/Neville
Longbottom; Old Man Willow/Whomping Willow; Proudfoots the hobbits/Proudfoot the auror;
Butterbeer/Butterbur.
Beorn the shapeshifter/various Potter animagi;
Shelob (giant spider)/Aragog (ditto).
Black Riders/dementors
Caladrlels mlrror (maglc basln)/uumbledores ensleve (dlLLo)
The invisible arched doorway into the Mines of Moria/ the invisible arched doorway into voldemorLs
locket cave.

27
For the treatment of deaLh ln 1olklens works of fanLasy, see 8lll uavls, Chooslng Lo ule: 1he ClfL of MorLallLy ln
Middle-earLh," ln Cregory 8assham and Lrlc 8ronson, eds., The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy (Chicago: Open
Court, 2003), pp. 123-36.
10

The Sorcerors Stone (which can produce an elixir that makes its drinker immortal) is
condemned as an example of humans knack of choosing precisely those things that are
worst for them (SS 297).
Voldemorts attempts to conquer death (GF 653) by drinking unicorn blood, stealing
the Sorcerors Stone, creating Horcruxes, and uniting the Deathly Hallows, are
condemned as monstrous (SS 258), against nature (HBP 498), and resulting grievous
self-inflicted harms (e.g., a half life, a cursed life (SS 258), a mutilated, unstable, and
dehumanized soul)
Only wizards that are afraid of death choose to remain on earth as ghosts rather than go
on (OP 861)which is the better choice.
Voldemorts failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has
always been his greatest weakness (HBP 814).
Dying to save others creates an ancient magic (OP 835) that is more powerful than
death or dark magic. Love is the most powerful thing of all.
28
Love conquers death.
Love wins.
29

Harry is the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away
from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse
things in the living world than dying (DH 720-21).
According to Rowling, the two Biblical quotes on Harrys parents tombstones
including the passage from I Cor. 15:26 (KJV)The last enemy that shall be destroyed
is deathsum up, they almost epitomize the whole series.
30


28
J. K. Rowling, Interview with Oprah Winfrey, October 1, 2010, at
http://www.harrypotterspage.com/2010/10/03/transcript-of-oprah-interview-with-j-k-rowling/.
29
Ibid.
11

Friends are not truly separated by death, because there is an afterlife in which they both
love and live in that which is omnipresent (Epigraph from William Penn in DH). In the
postmortem world, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (DH 325).
Thus, [t]o the properly organized mind, death is but the next great adventure (SS 297).
Rowlings take on death in the Potter books is clearly influenced by her Christian beliefs,
and will resonate most strongly with those with religious or spiritual leanings. But many non-
religious thinkers have also argued that death should not be seen as an unmitigated evil and
avoided at all costs. Socrates pointed out that if death is an eternal state of nothingness and utter
unconsciousness, this is experientially equivalent to a single night of dreamless sleep, which
most people would count as a boon.
31
Epicurus argued that death cannot truly harm a person
who, by hypothesis, no longer exists and lacks all sensation or awareness.
32
Others have argued
that any kind of immortal human life would eventually get intolerably boring.
33
And of course
from a biological point of view, death clears the way for new life, puts an end to suffering and
debility, and is necessary for evolutionary advance.
None of this is to minimize the loss, the sadness, the real tragedies associated with death. But
Rowling is right about the importance of keeping death in proper perspective. As Montaigne
said, to philosophize is to learn to die.
34
Death is part of the natural (and as Rowling thinks)

30
hawn Adler, Parry oLLer AuLhor !. k. 8owllng Cpens up abouL Lhe 8ooks ChrlsLlan lmagery," CcLober 17,
2007, at http://www.mtv.com/news/1572107/harry-potter-author-jk-rowling-opens-up-about-books-christian-
imagery/.
31
Plato, Apology, 40c.
32
Lplcurus, LeLLer Lo Menoeceus," ln The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers, ed. by Whitney J. Oates (New York:
Modern library, 1957), p. 30. One plausible response is to say that death can be a harm if it deprives us of future
happiness or some other goods that we otherwise would have obtained. See Shelly Kagan, ls ueaLh 8ad for ?ou?"
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 13, 2012, at http://chronicle.com/article/Is-Death-Bad-for-You-/131818/.
33
ee, e.g., 8ernard Wllllams, 1he Makropulos Case: 8eflecLlons on Lhe 1edlum of lmmorLallLy," reprlnLed ln !ohn
Martin Fischer, ed., The Metaphysics of Death (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 71-92.
34
Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Vol. 1, E. J. Trechmann trans. (London: Oxford University Press, 1927), p. 75.
12

divine order. Like most human attempts to conquer nature, efforts to conquer death are
hubristic and likely to have unintended costs. If the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,
the Conqueror must be someone greater and wiser than us.
6. Keep Faith. In a 2007 interview, Rowling stated that the Christian parallels in the Potter
books have always been obvious to her.
35
One of the clearest religious themes in the final
book, Deathly Hallows, is the role of faith. Rowling has admitted that she herself struggles with
faith: The truth is that, like Graham Greene, my faith is sometimes that my faith will return. Its
something I struggle with a lot, she remarked.
36
In Deathly Hallows, Harrys struggles over
whether to trust Dumbledore is a metaphor for the choice of whether to have faith in God.
37
By
the end of Half-Blood Prince, Harry was Dumbledores man through and through (HBP 649).
In Book 7, however, Harry learns much about Dumbledore that causes him doubt whether he can
be trusted. At one point, after Elphias Doge exhorts Harry not to believe a word of Rita Skeeters
damning biography of Dumbledore, Harry remarks: Did Doge really think it was that easy, that
Harry could simply choose not to believe? Didnt Doge understand Harrys need to be sure, to
know everything? (DH 153). Harrys faith in Dumbledore begins to revive in the Forest of Dean
when Harry is led by instinct, overwhelming instinct (DH 366)
38
to believe that the silver doe
was sent to help him, as of course proves to be the case. Doubts remain, however, until Harry
makes a leap of faith after burying Dobby with his own hands. Should he trust Dumbledores
seemingly hopeless plan of trying to destroy the Horcruxes, or try to become the invincible
master of death by uniting the Hallows?

35
Adler, Parry oLLer AuLhor !. k. 8owllng Cpens up abouL Lhe 8ooks ChrlsLlan lmagery," aL
http://www.mtv.com/news/1572107/harry-potter-author-jk-rowling-opens-up-about-books-christian-imagery/.
36
Ibid.
37
For a thorough and insightful analysis of this themes, see John Granger, The Deathly Hallows Lectures (Allentown
PA: Zozzima Press, 2008), pp. 85-129.
38
At several crucial points in the Potter series, Harry is saved by his instincts, which prove nearly always to be
reliable. For a discussion of this theme, see Granger, ibid., pp. 90-92.
13

Harry hesitated. He knew what hung on his decision. There was hardly any time left; now
was the moment to decide: Horcruxes or Hallows?
Griphook, Harry said. Ill speak to Griphook first.
His heart was racing as if he had been sprinting and had just cleared an enormous
obstacle (DH 484).

From this point on in the story, Harry acts unwaveringly to continue along the winding,
dangerous path indicated for him by Albus Dumbledore, to accept that he had not been told
everything that he wanted to know, but simply to trust (DH 563). And of course this proves to
be the only way that Voldemort could have been finished for good.
What we have here is an Everymans Tale of the struggle for faith in a world of
increasing confusion. We live in an ambiguous world, and faith in God is difficult in the face of
so much conflicting evidence. Can we trust instinct (divine grace, the voice of the Spirit
speaking in the still places of our hearts) when there is so much reason to doubt? And is
choosing to believe really an option? Isnt belief largely involuntarya kind of automatic
reflex of how the mind assesses the relevant evidence? If I offered you a million bucks to believe
that Germany won the Second World War, could you honestly collect? Surely we cant just
believe whatever we like.
True, but there is sometimes room for what William James calls precursive faithfaith
that runs ahead of the evidence and involves an element of trust. James notes that sometimes we
can do X only if we have faith that we can do X (e.g., an athletes confidence that he can perform
a particular feat, even though this might seem somewhat unlikely given his past performances).
These are cases where our belief in the fact will help to create the fact. As Tom Morris notes,
14

James thought that we sometimes have to meet reality halfway. We cant just sit back and
wait for the world to give us evidence of what is true. We need to move forward with an
openness of mind, and even the first glimmerings of a positive conviction, in order to
discover some truths.
39


And so it proves to be with Harry. Only by making a leap of faith in Dumbledores
trustworthiness does he come to know for certain that that trust was well-placed. Harrys
precursive faith that he could finish off Voldemort by destroying the Horcruxes proved to be the
only way to make that act of trust self-fulfilling.
One reason for the huge popularity of the Potter novels is that, even though they include
timeless and powerful Christian motifs, these motifs are generic enough to appeal to readers of
all religious (and nonreligious) persuasions. So it is with Rowlings (and Fred Weasleys) advice
to keep faith (DH 444). Faithand its close cousin, hopeare part of what makes us human.
Faith in each other, in the future, in the possibility of something better, is what gets us out of bed
in the morning. Hope for our childrens futures, for a brighter tomorrow, for a new and better
you, for something amazing just over the sunlit horizon, is what fuels the human spirit. And so
lets allin our own waykeep faith. And thanks to Jo Rowling for showing the way!

39
Tom Morris, Philosophy for Dummies (Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, 1999), p. 77.