tonight, on "fic neither Ari nor I is writing"

[hermionesviolin]

Jesus as a student at Hogwarts

prompted by Ari's, "I bet Jesus could Apparate in Hogwarts" (in discussing Borg and Crossan's Holy Saturday chapter)

Comments

[undeny.livejournal.com]

What house would Jesus be in?

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

My housemate makes a good argument for Hufflepuff.

[undeny.livejournal.com]

I think I've seen a LJ icon around that says just that. I can't remember who has it, though.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I'd vote for Gryffindor, and not just because it's Harry's house and therefore the one most favored by the books. Gryffindor is the house of the brave and of the reckless and of the radical, and while I don't know that you can necessarily call Jesus reckless, he certainly was incredibly radical.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

My first thought was Gryffindor -- because it's where JKR puts the good people -- and then I also thought, "brave, bold, sometimes impulsive," but then I remembered that Holy Week was very much premeditated (Jesus knew what Jesus was getting into by going to Jerusalem). Jesus was brave, to be sure, but all the Houses can be brave. (It's arguably the defining characteristic of Gryffindor, but as I argue below, I don't see Jesus' bravery so much as being of the Gryffindor kind.)

I'm not sure I'd say Gryffindors are radical.

Also, I feel like Gryffindors are more likely to jump into a fight, whereas Hufflepuffs are more likely to see a need and do the (not-so-flashy) work that needs to be done to fill it. So I feel like the Messiah that people were expecting would be a Gryffindor whereas Jesus was (arguably) more of a Hufflepuff.

[cadenzamuse.livejournal.com]

Also, I feel like Gryffindors are more likely to jump into a fight, whereas Hufflepuffs are more likely to see a need and do the (not-so-flashy) work that needs to be done to fill it. So I feel like the Messiah that people were expecting would be a Gryffindor whereas Jesus was (arguably) more of a Hufflepuff.

I agree with this.

Once upon a time, I heard Hufflepuff encapsulated (possibly by minisinoo?) as "we may finish last, but we all finish together." And that definitely speaks to me as part of how God works.

[marketsquare.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I'm a born Ravenclaw and so have little stake in this one, but Jesus was totally a Hufflepuff. Who came to save Slytherins.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you're saying, I do.

And yet. I object to the idea that Gryffindors aren't radical in their thinking. Look at Hermione with SPEW and Hagrid with his love of Aragog and all things that should not in the least be anthropormorphized and Harry with Dobby and Fleur with Bill after he's been mauled by Fenrir and stands to be rejected by a large portion of the Wizarding World. And even with their stance on wizarding itself (and here I know this is not an exclusively Gryffindor belief). While it might seem so on at the outset, Voldemort's is not the radical position. He's taken normative ideas of Us and Them and Who Gets to Belong and twisted them to a terrible, terrible conclusion, but the seeds from which his Darkness grew? Not radical. It's their rejection that's radical. I guess I just see a whole lot about social justice and extending compassion to those who don't "deserve" it from the Gryffindor camp. Which again, is arguably unfair because that's the camp JKR pitched the tent in.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh oh!!!!! And also, Harry's courage? Totally premeditated from OotP on. He walks into his death on purpose and totally sacrificially.

[wisdomeagle]

I feel that Jesus in the chapel going, "Didn't you know I'd be at my mom's place?" was the best part of that conversation.