Hello Hugh! My mother-in-law asked me to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, so I did. My 11-year-old niece is a Harry Potter devotee, and MIL just wanted my opinion (FWIW) on the book.
Overall, my impression is that Sorcerer's Stone, being targeted to kids, seemed to be framed to make a strong appeal to fantasy and illusion at a time when kids really ought to be learning about real life. Plus I thought that such statements as "Death is but the next adventure" was not the sort of thing you want to legitimate for children, given the teen suicide statistics.
You said: "I just can't see my faith being shaken by reading a piece of fiction." Well, you have a faith, presumably mature with the passing of time and ripened by life experience. It probably would be difficult for a "work of fiction" to make a dent in it, whatever it may be. But can we say the same thing of a young child?
Maybe it's just me; but the Sorcerer's Stone came across as typical, standard "one-worlder," fashionable Left Progressive cr*p. But then, maybe I'm just strange. best, bb.
Overall, my impression is that Sorcerer's Stone, being targeted to kids, seemed to be framed to make a strong appeal to fantasy and illusionSort of like "Star Wars"/"The Empire Strikes Back"/"Return of the Jedi"/"The Phantom Menace", or in a lighter vein "The Wizard of Oz", if you ask me.