The Pope may have condemned the Harry Potter books, but J.K. Rowling has now revealed that Christianity has been one of her major inspirations, ASSIST News Service reports. This news was revealed in a story that has appeared on the www.telegraph.co.uk website. "Breaking her silence on the much-debated question as to whether religious themes permeate her books, Rowling confirmed that they echoed her personal struggle with faith," said the story. "Speaking in America this week, she was open about the Christian allegories in her latest book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The author said that she had always deflected questions on the issue in the past to avoid disclosing the direction in which the books were heading. "To me, the religious parallels have always been obvious," Rowling said. "But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going." The Telegraph story said that at the end of her latest and final installment in the series, there are specific references to Christianity and themes of life after death and resurrection. At one point Harry visits his parents' graves and finds two biblical passages inscribed on their tombstones. "They are very British books, so on a very practical note, Harry was going to find biblical quotations on tombstones," she said. "But I think those two particular quotations he finds on the tombstones... they sum up, they almost epitomize, the whole series."

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