Bishop Auxentios of Photiki -- The Harry Potter Phenomenon and Orthodox Reactions

This is an incisive piece by an Orthodox bishop contrasting the "open, intelligent, and expansive intellectual view advocated by the Church Fathers" to the narrow and superstitious view advocated by Orthodox (and other) fundamentalists. He even manages to explain the anti-Western, specifically anti-American, attitude of the Greeks in a way that makes sense to me. I don't agree with their analysis, but with Bishop Auxentios's charitable and balanced view of Americans' attempts and failings, now I understand it.

Bishop Auxentius also drew my attention to The Hidden Key to Harry Potter, by John Granger, a Reader in the Orthodox Church.

This is the same Orthodoxy that inspired the ikos in The Akathist of Thanksgiving:

The breath of Your Holy Spirit inspres artists, poets and scientists. The power of Your supreme knowledge makes them prophets and interpreters of Your laws, who reveal the depths of Your creative wisdom. Their works speak unwittingly of You. How great You are in Your creation. How great You are in Man.