Others may already have seen this info, but I thought it was interesting and thought provoking. I ran across a couple of interviews with JKL about religion (she's a member of the Church of Scotland, aka a Presbyterian). This first snipet is from a
CBC Interview:
E [Interviewer]: When you talk about dealing with death and loss in the books, does this come out of your own - you've had loss with the loss of your mother - did it come out of a personal spirituality? I mean, are you are religious person? Does your spirituality come from a certain place?
JK: I do believe in God. That seems to offend the South Carolinians [apparently here, she is talking about a specific protest group] more than almost anything else. I think they would find it…well that is my limited experience, that they have more of a problem with me believing in God than they would have if I was an unrepentant atheist.
E: You do believe in God.
JK: Yeah. Yeah.
E: In magic and…
JK: Magic in the sense in which it happens in my books, no, I don't believe. I don't believe in that. No. No. This is so frustrating. Again, there is so much I would like to say, and come back when I've written book seven. But then maybe you won't need to even say it 'cause you'll have found it out anyway. You'll have read it.
E: But in your own life, I mean, are you a churchgoer?
JK: (Nods) Mmm hmm. Well I go more than to weddings and christenings. Yes, I do.
E: And in your own life, would the church and that kind of spirituality help you deal with the loss of your mum?
JK: No, actually it didn't at the time. No. (Shakes her head)
E: So you've come back to it.
JK: Yeah, I would say so. I have some problems with conventional organized religion. Some problems. (Long pause) But…but, yes, it's a place I would go to in a time of trouble. It probably is a place I would go to in a time of trouble. I wouldn't expect it to provide all the answers, 'cause I would expect to find some of those within me.
E: Right, but the institutional side of it, you know, the rules…
JK: I have certain problems with some aspects of that. Yes I do.
Second is an interview I have found a number of places (do a Google and you'll find it, but I did not find the original in the Vancouver Sun):
"Every time I've been asked if I believe in God, I've said yes, because I do; but no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that, and I have to say that does suit me -- because if I talk too freely about that, I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what's coming in the books."
There are, of course, plenty of books and sites that will talk about how various aspects of HP can be interpreted from a traditional Christian symbolism perspective, but I these snippets shed an interesting perspective on what might happen in 6 and 7.