Repost: Severus Snape and the Doctrine of the Calvinists (with apologies to Hemmens)

Here’s a semi-organized rant that I posted over at Snapedom a few days back on the subject of Severus as a Catholic figure in a Pseudo-Calvinist world, inspired by Dan Hemmens’ excellent article on Calvinism and Harry Potter. I do eventually intend to do a proper essay on the subject, but for now it’s a start. Reposted in its entirety (minus the excellent and thought-provoking comments – I do suggest you pop over to Snapedom and give them a look-through here).

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I was browsing through some old DH rants and reviews a while back and rediscovered Dan Hemmens’ excellent essay, “Harry Potter and the Doctrine of the Calvinists” posted over at Ferretbrain. Hemmens, IMHO, does a fantastic job in putting together a coherent, workable theory of just what on god’s green earth is going on in the Potterverse and how it can so blatantly propose a clear double standard on just about every major moral issue it touches. My question, after rereading the article, was: what about the characters’ own worldviews, within the books? Particularly Severus’, considering how he fought so hard, for so long, out of an apparent belief that he could in this way somehow make up for his earlier failing/s and thereby earn something – praise, respect, or even just a respite. A change in category, if you like. Redemption. But where does he get this idea, if the world is so clearly and definitively Sorted into the Elect and the Not? You’d think seven years of Hogwarts under the Marauders would have given him a clue, but apparently not. So what gives? What IS his world-view, in comparison with his contemporaries’? Well, I’ve got a theory. More behind the cut.

This is, I warn you, not an actual essay with a proper argument, just some ranting thoughts about how Severus fits into the Potterverse in light of Hemmens’ theory. I intend to come back later and post a proper essay on the subject sometime, with more coverage given to just why the notion of Severus as a Catholic (in the character of his world-view, not necessarily in formal practice) makes a lot of sense to me. In the meantime: I do hope no-one takes offense at anything I say here – I’m not attempting any kind of judgment of any religious tradition, merely examining how the implications of Hemmens’ theory work out on the level of the characters themselves and their world-outlooks. That is: how a Potterverse character’s view of the world can clash, or not, with the view of the world the books themselves lay out, and what this can mean for the characters, including – of course – our poor dear Sev.

Link to Hemmens’ article, a definite read if you haven’t already: http://www.ferretbrain.com/articles/article-161.html

For those unfamiliar with the article, Hemmens’ thesis is essentially that the Potterverse operates according to the Calvinist doctrine of Election (either you’re simply among the Elect, saved, redeemed by grace, etc., or you’re not, and you can’t do a damn thing about it because your actions have no bearing upon your ultimate moral status) as understood by a Cultural Christian, rather than within the actual theological context that gave rise to it. As Hemmens puts it, Rowling’s world “really does work the way atheists perceive Calvinist Election as working.” We might say that in the Potterverse the Pseudo-Calvinists have gotten their way, and have decided that a hat (yes, a HAT) shall have final say over who is Teh Good and who Not.

In other words, the chosen ones [aka Gryffindors] can do whatever they please and it’s Teh Good, while those singled out as being, deep down, irredeemably Teh Evul [Slytherin] will get kicked down for doing anything, because they’re Teh Evul and that’s how it works. Regardless of whatever tripe about love, choice, and righteousness is on the menu today.

But what about the individual characters – how do they perceive the world as working, and what effect does their perception have on their actions? Who, in the basic character of their world outlook (leaving aside the issue of actual religious practice in the WW – that’s another matter), are the (Pseudo-)Calvinists, who the mainline Protestants, etc.? Note that getting how Teh Rules work, and actually being among the Elect, have nothing causal to do with one another. That is, you can ‘get  it’ and still be screwed, not get it and be saved, be saved/screwed and KNOW it, or somewhere in between.

Harry, of course, has learned the proper course of things at the knee of Ol’ White-Beard himself, the fount of all wisdom, and by the end of DH has so thoroughly taken this ‘wisdom’ to heart that he quite uncomplainingly marches off to his own death in the company of his suicide-cult-aka-family. He then gets to come BACK because he’s Teh Ultimate Good and it’s his fate, but I’m sure that knowing that all is going as it should helps his sanity along the way. Clearly the pinnacle of Pseudo-Calvinist thinking. Dumbles too, the master manipulator. They accept their fates with nary a complaint and all goes well.

Voldie, poor guy, either doesn’t get it at all or totally gets it and is enjoying every second of the ride. Bellatrix, like a number of other DE’s, probably has gotten it and has decided that if she’s among the ranks of Teh Evul, well, she might as well enjoy it. The two side wheels of Harry’s Tricycle of Teh Good Jr. seem to have imbibed enough Pseudo-Calvinist doctrine to make their way well enough in the WW (being among the Elect certainly helps in this regard). Ron the pureblood Gryffindor, like his family, seems to me to be a touch clearer in his grasp of Teh Rules, while Hermione (influenced by her Muggle upbringing?) wavers occasionally for a little while before she really gets it – possibly tempted by the general Protestant notion of salvation by faith alone. I suspect quite a few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws fall somewhere along this section of the spectrum too.

And Severus?

Severus, poor guy, is a Catholic.

I mean, the silly sod actually thinks he can change his fate, by doing things! By trying to do Good (TM)! In the name of the mother and child! He actually thinks his devotion to the Queen of the Elect herself and her Glorious Son might earn him something! Like, a get-out-of-Hell-with-maybe-a-limb-intact-card. He doesn’t seem to get it: he’s Slytherin and therefore screwed – though if in his delusion he wants to help Dumbles and Co. out by providing a steady stream of information (going one way) and misinformation (going the other way) at risk of his life and freedom, well, he’s welcome to do so. Nobody’s complaining, least of all Dumbles himself. Nobody seems particularly keen to point out Teh Rules to poor, dumb Severus either. Sorry, the fount of wisdom is off today, Severus. Try again another time. But what was that about Mr. Scaly wanting the prophecy? From the DOM? Go on, go on, the Big White Beard is listening. And trying not to smirk at how pathetically dumb this idiot Slytherin is, to still  – after all he’s been through – think he’s got a chance in hell of anything other than a messy, painful and thoroughly unpleasant end to a life that Hobbes, unfortunately, characterized quite well in Leviathan:

“the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Where does he get this stubborn idea that he can change anyway, though? My theory – or the theory lying behind the Severus who appears in my current in-progress fic, at least – is that Severus’ family, on the Muggle side, was Catholic, and that whatever his current status vis-a-vis actual religious practice or belief in God, his general OUTLOOK is fundamentally shaped by the notion that redemption, forgiveness, CHANGE, is possible if one devotes oneself to working hard at it.

Sometimes we Sort too soon, my foot. Aaargh, JKR just pisses me off sometimes. Anyway, that’s all for now, folks. Like I say above, eventally I hope to get around to writing a proper essay on this subject. Until then: Toughts? Comments? Major silly typos or lapses in logic in the above post?

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