The Church of England filed a lawsuit against J.K. Rowling this Friday claiming that she stole ideas for her wildly popular and lucrative “Harry Potter” books from the Bible. A representative from the Church, Eugene Thackery, added Rowling as a defendant in the lawsuit it filed against Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for alleged copyright infringement.
The lawsuit, filed in a London court, claims Rowling’s books “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” copied substantial sections of the Biblical account of the Passion of Christ, including central motifs crucial to Christian faith such as the idea that Jesus died willingly and came back to life, triumphing over his enemies.
“Jesus Christ’s physical resurrection is unique in history” said Archbishop of Canterbury George Leonard Carey, “Rowling blatantly plagiarized the powerful story of Jesus for her own financial gain; even worse Harry Potter distracts and confuses people away from the glory of God.”
Church lawyer Tom Davis, who is representing the Church of England, said “I estimate it’s a billion-dollar case, although that’ll be the decision of the courts, obviously.”
Unfortunately for Rowling, unlike the previous lawsuit filed against her that Harry Potter was copied from “Willy the Wizard”, this case seems to have much more strength. First, Rowling cannot deny, as she did with Willy, to have previous and personal knowledge of the Bible story of Jesus. Second, Rowling herself has made several statements to the press after the release of book seven that she was, in fact, aware of the similarities between Jesus and Harry Potter, and openly discussed Christian parallels in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
“To me, the religious parallels have always been obvious,” Rowling said in one interview. “But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.”
“It’s a pretty clean case,” said Davis. “The church did have the story first; the English language Bible manuscripts were hand-written in the 1380’s by John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, scholar, and theologian; these writings became the basis of the scripture used by the Church of England, which has preserved and replicated them in modern times. If there are precise parallels between Harry Potter and Jesus, then Rowling owes the inspiration of the story to the Church for keeping the story of Jesus alive for centuries and available in the English language. It’s only fair that some of the profits should go to the Church of England to maintain its operations.”
***This is not a real news article; it’s a hypothetical reaction to the book, Jesus Potter Harry Christ, created for promotional purposes.***
November 22, 2010
Well, if that ever becomes a true story, then I feel the church should be countersued for creating the mythical figure of Jesus from older religions. ^_^
November 22, 2010
Absolutely! Great comment… too bad those older religions aren’t around anymore though. Unless you go way back and prove that Christianity came from Eastern mystery cults that had roots in hinduism; not an easy task.
December 9, 2010
Is the church really that hard up for cash? If so, they’ve hit on a goldmine. Surely there are plenty of other adventure novels where the protagonist sacrifices himself or herself for the greater good and then “miraculously” survives. Tolkein and C. S. Lewis spring immediately to mind.
December 9, 2010
Well, Harry Potter probably has the most in common with Jesus although there are certainly other figures they could target. As for if they’re hard up… my guess is yes. Several huge churches went bankrupt recently; although that could probably never happen for the Vatican.
July 9, 2011
No actually. C.S Lewis would be in far more trouble if something similar came to fruition. C.S Lewis intentionally crafted the Chronicles of Narnia as an allegory to the Bible story. Not just the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, although that clearly shows the Jesus story, but the creation story in The Magician’s Nephew, and similar threads in the other books. But Harry Potter has serious similarities as well, just Narnia has just so many more
July 20, 2011
Yes, I agree. (This article was a spoof; just for fun). However: C.S. Lewis wrote a different story using allegory. There’s not much plagiarism or direct copying. The birth story of Harry Potter and the birth story of Jesus are much more direct parallels, but still not enough for a real lawsuit (Although – Lawsuits have already been filed against JK Rowling based on MUCH less).
What it comes down to, however, I think would be who they claimee wants to hurt most. The Church would never sue Lewis because he’s their greatest defender (60 years after his time, he’s still basically the greatest Christian theologian and apologist). Rowling is both no friend to the church, but also worth billions and billions of dollars. But the church doesn’t sue people. It just indoctrinates them into giving away all their money and land (or in previous epochs, denouncing them as heretics, burning them, and possessing their property.)
December 10, 2010
True, but the parallels between Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker are far more numerous and compelling.
December 10, 2010
Luke Skywalker follows more along the Oedipal lines; kill father, accidentally love sister/mother. Harry and Jesus don’t have as much incestuous sexual relationships and are both very close and loving with their distant/dead Fathers. And Harry and Jesus are set in a world of magic rather than technology.
But I have noticed the plot similarities and in other ways it’s true, Jesus and Luke have a lot in common as well.