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This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

As I noted in "Is There a God in the Harry Potter Series?", there are no overt signs of religion. The characters don't speak about how they perceive their god, so we can only speculate.

And so we shall speculate!

First, the characters of the Harry Potter series have never seen J. K. Rowling. They know nothing about her at all. So how would the characters of Harry Potter imagine their creator?

As we do, the characters would probably take clues from their world to construct an image of God. They would see as through a glass - or mirror - dimly as they used a reflection of their world to see who had created them.

Overall, there seems to be more power on the male side in this universe. It's a male (Tom Riddle/Voldemort) against a male (Harry Potter) with mostly male allies on both side. Bellatrix LeStrange seems less important than Lucius Malfoy; Minerva McGonagal secondary to Albus Dumbledore, and the brilliant and studious with Hermione Granger secondary to Harry Potter (but perhaps not to Ron Weasley). Even Dolores Umbridge -- who takes over Hogwarts - doesn't carry the strength of the male characters.

So it would not be surprising that a male image of the creator would be prevalent in the Harry Potter world (as it is in much of this world). We know, of course, that J. K. Rowling is a woman. So their creator would be of the generally less powerful gender in their world.

Wizards, witches, squibs, and magic-aware muggles would probably imagine a powerful wizard. Voldemort would probably imagine a remorseless powerful god who valued purity and obedience. Dumbledore might imagine a very wise god. Harry would probably wonder what kind of god lets him be orphaned and mercilessly pursued by a dark wizard. Gilderoy Lockhart would probably imagine - well, exactly himself. Hermione Granger might imagine a very clever witch.

But their creator is actually a muggle. J. K. Rowling, the ultimate power in the Harry Potter series, is not a witch at all, and has no power of magic.

In the Harry Potter series, the person most like their creator is a single muggle mom.

Just because Rowling is female doesn't mean she cannot write powerful male characters. Even though she cannot do magic, she can create beings with strong magical powers.

What if our God is poor? What if our god is blind, deaf, or cannot walk? Even if this is true, that God can create in our universe beings that are rich, powerful, and with many abilities.

However, the person among us who is most like god may be a poor, powerless person.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

Some authors are considered "immortal" because their work lives on. I don't know whether the Harry Potter series will become timeless classics, but I do know this:

J. K. Rowling is eternal.

Not to us, of course. We know she was born July 31, 1965. But to the characters in the Harry Potter series, she has always been and always will be.

The key here is that the timeline in the story is separate from Rowling's (and our) timeline. The Harry Potter universe has a timeline all its own, created by J. K. Rowling herself.

Rowling was there at the beginning of Harry's life, but that's not her earliest influence on her universe. She was there when Tom Riddle was at Hogwarts as a student. She was there when James Potter and friends were teasing Severus Snape. She was there when Snape first fell for Lily Evans. In fact, by giving us background information on several different families and on the persons for whom the Hogwarts houses are named, J. K. Rowling goes back to the earliest history the characters have for themselves. If she hasn't written it, they don't know it.

Rowling doesn't move through the Harry Potter timeline with the characters. While she wrote the books largely in order, there are flashbacks. It's also reasonable to assume that Rowling had ideas about later parts of the story while she was writing earlier parts.

The time Rowling created in the Harry Potter books has no claim on Rowling. Yet Rowling can work inside the Harry Potter timeline. To Rowling, a "Time Turner" is a mere toy. Rowling has all power over time, and time has no power over her -- at least for Harry Potter time.

So J. K. Rowling is eternal. In the Harry Potter series, she has always been, and always will be.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

One of the popular phrases in theology is "Why does God permit evil?" But in the Harry Potter universe, evil is created by J. K. Rowling.

First, it may be helpful to define evil. Dictionary.com offers:

adjectives:

1. morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked: evil deeds; an evil life.
2. harmful; injurious: evil laws.
3. characterized or accompanied by misfortune or suffering; unfortunate; disastrous: to be fallen on evil days.
4. due to actual or imputed bad conduct or character: an evil reputation.
5. marked by anger, irritability, irascibility, etc.: He is known for his evil disposition.

nouns:

1. that which is evil; evil quality, intention, or conduct: to choose the lesser of two evils.
2. the force in nature that governs and gives rise to wickedness and sin.
3. the wicked or immoral part of someone or something: The evil in his nature has destroyed the good.
4. harm; mischief; misfortune: to wish one evil.
5. anything causing injury or harm: Tobacco is considered by some to be an evil.
6. a harmful aspect, effect, or consequence: the evils of alcohol.
7. a disease, as king's evil.

I most often think in terms of the older definition: "harmful; injurious" or "characterized or accompanied by misfortune or suffering; unfortunate; disastrous: to be fallen on evil days". But in the Harry Potter universe, there certainly is "the force in nature that governs and gives rise to wickedness" and "the wicked or immoral part of someone or something".

Why is there evil in the Harry Potter universe? Because J.K.Rowling decided it should be in the books (and, later, films). It is Rowling who decided Harry's parents should be killed, that he should grow up in an abusive home, that he should have is arm broken in a Quidditch match. It was she who ordained Hagrid and Sirius Black should be wrongfully imprisoned in Azkaban. It was the author herself who created Tom Riddle/Voldemort as a murderous bigot. And she was the one who decided who would die.

In fact, Rowling owns her responsibility for the deaths in the universe she created. In her interview on MSNBC with Meredith Vieira, she says "I-- no, the deaths were all very, very considered.  I don't kill even fictional characters lightly.  So I don't regret any of them." Later in the same interview, she says "I am often asked, 'Well, don't you feel guilty killing people, characters that kids love?'  And-- it sounds horrible and heartless to say 'no.'"

If you're one of the "good guys" in the Harry Potter series, you might wonder why your creator made all this awful stuff. It might not seem that the author loves or even cares about the characters.

Certainly, there are horror and slasher films that are merely designed to shock. Harry Potter isn't part of this genre: Rowling (thankfully) doesn't create moments of suffering for the joy of seeing someone suffer. In the same interview, she speaks about two characters she killed in The Deathly Hallows, "Which I hated, hated doing because I love them both as characters." So she doesn't cause suffering and death with glee. So why does she do this?

First, one could argue "they're just imaginary characters. They don't really feel anything." That could give us license to write anything at all. But in their world, these imaginary characters suffer pain, loss, and death.

One could say "the deaths move the plot along". And this is true, and it's for the benefit of the readers. But the characters aren't the readers. What changes in them because of this?

The characters grow. They become stronger and wiser. They see the effects of good, and of evil. One might say that by living in Rowling's universe, they intimately know good and evil. They touch and are touched by love and hate, gain and loss, life and death.

More tomorrow.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

In the Harry Potter series, Rowling doesn't only create places, animals, and people. She creates resources for them.

The meals at the Dursleys' home and feasts at Hogwarts show that Rowling has considered the need for people to eat. Animals like Buckbeak are fed as well.

She created Professor Sprout to teach herbology and St. Madame Pomfrey to take care of the students.

And she has provided her characters with different talents and gifts. The obvious talent is the ability to do magic, but there are different strengths in magic. Some are good at defensive spells, some at potions, some at divination, some at herbology. Hermione Granger has a keen mind and studies well, so she has deep knowledge on a lot of subjects. Harry, in addition to being a powerful wizard, is a natural at flying a broom.

In the Harry Potter series, Rowling makes sure that people have just what they need when they need it. In The Chamber of Secrets, for instance, Fawkes brings Harry the sorting hat, and the hat gives Harry the Sword of Griffyndor. Sometimes they may not have what they would wish for in the moment, but even not having something can advance the story. Even He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has resources such as the death eaters and his various horcruxes.

Why does Rowling provide these? Because the universe she desires to create requires them. These things could not exist without her choosing to create and distribute them in space and time for the benefit of the story.

Rowling, the god of Harry Potter, is the source of providence for her creation.

But not all is well, of course.

Why is there pain and suffering in the Harry Potter universe? Why loss? Why death? Why cruelty?

More tomorrow.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

The creator of the Harry Potter series is J. K. Rowling. This makes her the god of her created world. This is not to say that Rowling has placed herself above her creator. But in every story, it is the author whose pen (or typewriter, or computer) can give life and take it away; even bring a whole world into being and then discard it.

We can guess the reasons that authors create. One motivation may be wealth: some authors have been well compensated in this world for their creation of other worlds. Yet authors like Rowling, Dan Brown, James Patterson, John Grisham, and Stephen King are the exception. In How Do We Know when It's God, Dan Wakefield -- whose Going All the Way and Starting Over were made into films -- writes about the jobs he has taken to support himself. Though some dream of the book that will make them rich, being an author is not an easy path to financial security.

Another reason may be to deal with one's own life. Les Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues is fiction based on Feinberg's real life. In fact, many authors draw on their own lives, family, and friends to create more realistic stories. Sometimes fiction tells the story of a real life; sometimes it tells of the internal struggles. Certainly, the death of Rowling's mother affected the storyline of Harry Potter.

But for many, there is just plain joy in creating. Rowling began writing at the age of six. And sometimes, as happened for Rowling, a story comes to mind that just must be told.

The reasons authors write books are also the reasons visual artists draw, paint and sculpt; and songwriters and composers create music. Few people in creative arts become wealthy or famous -- many work one or more other jobs in order to have a place to sleep and food to eat. But the ideas, feelings, tunes, pictures, and stories in their heads beg to come to life, and that's what drives most creative people.

The reason I'm writing this series, in fact, is that it came to me while riding my motorcycle to work yesterday. It was something in my head that I had to share.

So why was our universe created? Some say it was because our God was lonely.

Some say God created us so that we could worship God.

Some say that God cannot be God without creation. This makes sense the same way Rowling couldn't be an author without writing.

But I think that most authors don't create to comfort themselves, or to have the admiration of their characters, or just so they can be authors. They tell the story because of their love for the story itself. Perhaps that's why we exist: because God so loved the idea of us, God had to make us real.

More tomorrow.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.

When the Harry Potter books first came out, there was an uproar in some Christian communities. True, there are passages in the Bible that are against what is translated to English as Witchcraft. So, for some, anything that talks about witchcraft, wizards, spells, and the like is to be avoided, if not banished altogether.

This isn't new. When I was younger, there were a lot of people talking about Dungeons and Dragons being a tool of Satan. And who can forget those killed in Europe and the Americas on accusations of witchcraft?

But eventually, most people (and the popular media) got bored with the drama, and lots of kids read the books. Then the movies came out, and there was another, smaller, dustup over the evils of Harry Potter.

So now, with the opening of the final film, based on the last half of the last book (Onion stories notwithstanding), I would like to take another look at the Harry Potter series.

If you're hoping for my diatribe against the Satanic influence of Harry Potter, I'm sorry to disappoint. If you really need a "Harry Potter Is Evil" fix, please go here.

Instead, I want to look at the god of the Harry Potter stories.

One might argue there is no god in Harry Potter. There is no mention of Abba, Adi Purush, Adonai, Ahura Mazda, Allah, Elohim, El-Shaddai, Krishna, Marduk, Odin, Rama, Shiva, Vishnu, Waheguru, Yahweh, or Zeus. Despite a sort of Christmas celebration, there's no overt concept of a supreme being.

But there is a creator.

Someone created the world of Harry Potter. Someone is responsible for the existence of Godric's Hollow, Ottery St Catchpole, Tinworth, Little Hangleton, Little Whinging, Malfoy Manor, Number 12 Grimmauld Place, Diagon Alley, and Hogwarts. Someone is responsible for the existence of creatures like basilisks, boggarts, centaurs, dementors, giants, hippogryphs, house-elves, lethifolds, thestrals, and unicorns. Someone is responsible for the existence of people like the various Blacks, Crouch (father and son), Dumbledore, Filch, the Granger family, Hagrid, Malfoys (father and son), Moody, the Potter family, Snape, assorted Weaselys, and he-who-must-not-be-named.

That creator is Joanne "J. K." Rowling.

Whether Rowling's creations perceive her or not, she is their creator. She brought them to life, and can decide what happens to them. In the world of Harry Potter, the rules of physics and of magic are held in the hands of Rowling. She decides who lives and who dies.

But don't get too upset. The creator god of every story is its author. It's also true for Star Wars. It's also true for Hamlet. It's true for the Narnia stories.

So what does it mean for Rowling to be god of the Harry Potter world? What responsibilities are on her shoulders? And how would her creations perceive her?

More tomorrow.

This is part of a series on the Theology of Harry Potter.