Most people agree that the wildly popular Harry Potter series has a religious following. But to what extent are the stories about the fictional boy wizard a religious allegory?
Danielle Tumminio, a Yale Divinity School graduate student who instructs a course called "Christian Theology and Harry Potter" at Yale would say, "Yes."
Her course uses all seven Potter books to examine Christian themes such as sin, evil and resurrection, reports CNN.
She said she struggled to design the course in a way where it would not be "misconstrued" or "come across as someone trying to indoctrinate my students", according to CNN.
"I also wanted to make it clear that it was a critical endeavor, and that it wasn't ... that you'd sit around all day talking about how great Luna Lovegood was," said Tumminio, who has an academic background in literature and theology.
The resurrection theme is supposedly explored in JK Rowling's seventh instalment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”. (Spoiler warning: Read no further if you don't want to find out what happens.) By the end of the book, Harry becomes the "Master of Death" and “resurrects” from the dead the spirits of his parents, his godfather, Sirius Black and his old teacher Remus Lupin.
Cat Terrell, a student in Yale's Harry Potter course, told CNN that "the lens of the Harry Potter books actually makes theology ... easier to understand.
"It's amazing how many connections you can draw between the theology that we're reading outside of class and the Harry Potter that we've known for 10 years."
Beyond Yale, a minority group of Christians have also attempted to justify "Pottermania".
John Granger, author of "Looking for God in Harry Potter", and John Killinger, author of "God, the Devil and Harry Potter", both argue in their books that the JK Rowling series contains a Christian allegory for the fight between good and evil.
And elsewhere, colleges such as Georgetown University, Liberty University, Pepperdine University and Stanford University are offering courses that examine the series from a literary or historical perspective, according to CNN.
The trend to offer Potter-themed courses was embraced by some readers and strongly rejected by others, according to comments posted in response to the article.
One reader by the name of "Blue Sky" wrote, "I think we should steadfastly resist any attempt to 'Christianize' Harry Potter."
