"If you want to know who dies in Harry Potter, the answer is simple: God"

Adapted from Lev Grossman's commentary: Time, July 23, 2007, page 15.

"Harry Potter lives in a world free of any religion or spirituality of any kind.

"He lives surrounded by ghosts but has no one to pray to, even if he were so inclined, which he isn't.

"What does Harry have instead of God?

"[Author Joanne] Rowling's answer, at once glib and prfound, is that Harry's power comes from love.

"This charming notion represents a cultural sea change.

"In chosing Rowling as the reigning dreamer of our era, we have chosen a writer who dreams of a secular, bureaucratized, all - too - human sorcery, in which psychology and technology have superseded the sacred.

"When the end comes, where will it leave Harry?"