For many people (both Christians and non-Christians), the controversy over works like Harry Potter is only much ado about nothing. After all, they reason, isn't all children's literature just about the power of the imagination? Aren't we simply talking about innocent fairy tales? Isn't it all just harmless entertainment? On often hears the comment, "It's only a story."

There is no such thing as ONLY a story.

Stories about magic and the fantastic have existed in all cultures throughout the ages. And most cultures have understood the power in these stories. A few examples:

• The oldest known fairy tale was found in an Egyptian papyrus dating 1250 B.C. ¹

• In Hindu medicine: "the mentally deranged person is told a fairy story, contemplation of which will help him overcome his emotional disturbance."²

• Ancient Greek philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and others were very concerned about the MORALITY of the stories told in their day.

• Renaissance poets wanted "to please and instruct."

• Many of our most familiar fairy tales such as Cinderella or Puss in Boots were first told in the court of Louis the 14th where they were intended to teach children morality.

• The German poet Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) said: "Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told me in my childhood than in the truth that is taught by life." ³

• Psychologist Karl Jung built his entire theory of the unconscious around the mythological stories passed down from generation to generation in all cultures.

• Bruno Bettleheim, a Freudian psychologist wrote an influential book entitled The Uses of Enchantment about the positive impact fairy tales have on children. Just one quote: "(F)airy tales depict in imaginary and symbolic form the essential steps in growing up and achieving an independent existence." ⁴

• Scholar Joseph Campbell wrote a book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces and did an famous series of interviews on Public Television about the power of myth (stories) in world culture.

• One of the many artists influenced by Campbell was George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars movies. In a recent interview, he said, "Mythology is designed to take the values and information and knowledge from one generation and move it on to the next generation."⁵

"For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." - Luke 16:9 (KJV)

Copyright © 2002 by Stephen Mark Spence

Notes:
¹Bettelheim, Bruno, (1989) The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, Vintage Books, p. 91
²Bettelheim, op. cit., p. 88
³Bettelheim, op. cit., p. 5
⁴Bettleheim, op. cit., p. 73
⁵"Starry-Eyed" by Toni Ruberto in The Buffalo News, p. F1, 5/19/02