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Harry Potter and the Sacred Text is an audio podcast founded and hosted by Vanessa Zoltan and Casper Ter Kuile in which the Harry Potter books are read as a sacred text. Each episode, the characters and context of one chapter in the Harry Potter series are explored through a different central theme like 'vulnerability', 'betrayal', or 'friendship'. The podcast, which charted #2 on the US iTunes Charts a few months after its inception in 2016, has been described as "Bible studies for J.K. Rowling fans".

History
The project originated at Harvard Divinity School, where both founders studied and shared an interest in religion without God - with Vanessa Zoltan describing herself as "an atheist and a Jew and a humanist" and Casper Ter Kuile training as a minister for non-religious people. The inspiration for the podcast was a lecture by Zoltan on reading Jane Eyre as a sacred text, which Ter Kuile attended. As a fan of the Harry Potter books, he persuaded Zoltan to attempt to apply the same method of sacred reading to Harry Potter.

In 2015, the duo started a weekly book club in the off-campus Humanist Hub. They chose the Harry Potter series because of its wide cultural reach and its coverage of life's big questions - like love, friendship, family and loss - with Ter Kuile noting that Harry Potter is "often a text that people turn to in real times of trouble". .

When the book club grew in popularity and gained interest internationally, Zoltan and Ter Kuile decided to turn their project into a podcast. Harvard Divinity student Ariana Nedelman, an experienced digital producer, was enlisted to help make the transition from book club to podcast production. A Kickstarter project was set up to fund the production, which successfully raised $3,549 - exceeding their original $3,000 goal.

Format
The podcast follows the composition of the Harry Potter book series; each regular podcast episode covers a chapter of the book, and each podcast season ends when the book is finished. Besides discussing a different chapter each week, every episode also has a different theme through which the text is explored, like 'love', 'forgiveness', 'duty', or 'heartbreak'.

Most episodes follow the same format. Recurring segments include:
 * 30-second recap, in which the hosts compete to summarize this week's chapter as comprehensively as possible;
 * Reading and discussing the chapter through the week's theme. For instance, in an episode about shame, the show explored ways in which the characters can be seen to act out of shame or embarassment.
 * Sacred reading: a specific sacred reading practice is applied to part of the chapter. Practices used include chavruta, pardes, florilegium and lectio divina.
 * Fan voicemail: listeners of the podcast send in their own personal stories related to the book or a topic discussed in a previous episode. The topics are usually quite serious; for instance in season 3 a listener from Austin, Texas shared her thoughts on the recent University of Texas stabbing related to the theme of forgiveness.
 * Blessing: the podcast closes with Zoltan and Ter Kuile each choosing to bless a character from the chapter

Other activities
Zoltan and Ter Kuile also host live shows, which are 'inspired' by the podcast but include more interactive elements. Live events have included games, live music, audience participation and meditations. Harry Potter and the Sacred Text live shows have been featured at conventions like LeakyCon, PodCon and Nerdcon:Nerdfighteria.

While the original book club started by Zoltan and Ter Kuile continues to this day, local reading groups for Harry Potter and the Sacred Text have sprung up all around the US as well as in the UK, Canada and Australia.

Reception
Harry Potter and the Sacred Text charted #2 on the iTunes Podcast Charts in August 2016 and has around 100,000 listeners per week. The podcast was listed in The Guardian's "50 best podcasts of 2016", taking the number two spot in the category "Culture and Sport", and featured second on Entertainment Weekly's "Must List" in September 2016

According to The Daily Dot, "the beauty of the podcast comes from the storytelling and analysis". They consider the show a fascinating way to revisit the Harry Potter books, adding that it "manages to respect and reflect on a range of faiths and religions from around the world." The Jewish Journal describes Harry Potter and the Sacred Text as "proudly idealistic, but also grounded in realism", while the Utah Statesman praises the hosts' charm: "Zoltan and ter Kuile have been accomplishing their goal of relating Harry Potter text to real-world lessons, but it is their nerdy and friendly personalities that keep me coming back for more each week."

However, some publications express reservations about co-opting religious language for secular texts. Conservative journal LifeZette posits: "Fans of the podcast are using terminology previously used by or about Christian believers to describe their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, yet now they’re talking about … a wizard." and says about Vanessa Zoltan "Clearly, she and her colleagues are 'up to something.'" Religious journal First Things gives a mixed review, criticising the lack of solid basis for its definition of 'sacred' and noting: "It seems that the hosts of this show are great on quips, but not so good on metaphysics". However, they praise the podcast's humble approach to the text and consider it part of a valuable literary culture that loves books for their 'hidden gifts': "much of HPST is simply an exercise in thoughtful reading—the kind of joyful reflection that draws avid readers and makes avid readers, that reminds us how great books comes alive when we trust them to teach us something".