And now this important message from Amy...

Amy Welborn, who reviewed the His Dark Materials trilogy years ago, has written an excellent post about the controversy surrounding the books and "The Golden Compass" movie. Amy, who has written some fine books for teens about the challenge of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, states:

And so, say the defenders…the Golden Compass is really, really Christian.

Okay, but the problem is that it is clear that what Pullman is suggesting is that the whole thing - the whole impulse to find transcendent meaning and authority is false, period. The attempt to make his theme into a muted Christ-like critique of abusive religious authority gives Pullman too much credit.

One way, however, that it could be fruitful is this. What Pullman cleverly explicates is, of course, a set of opinions about religious authority that should be familiar to anyone who works with young people or, in fact anyone who remembers being an adolescent.

Of course, religious authority is the enemy. Because, as an adolescent, I believed that my own way of living out my own  vision and yearnings - what lay in my own heart - were sufficient for my happiness, and that any authority that questioned my authority was the enemy of my happiness.

In this sense, Pullman plays on sentiments that almost all young people share, and very expertly. The knowing adult who discusses this with young people has a chance to expose the deceptiveness and falsity of this vision, and to point out the wishful, prolonged adolescence at the heart of Pullman’s work, and then to move forward, pointing out its falsity.

Because it is false. At the heart of Christianity is this amazing paradox. The first shall be last. In death there is life. In being joined to Christ, I am free.

I often find it helpful to point out to young people who are struggling (justifiably) with the issue of personal freedom and what seems like absurd religious authority to consider the experiences of converts - from Paul to Augustine to Dorothy Day. We reflect on what they say about what has happened to them - and invariably, what jumps out is not the idea “Hooray, I’m now imprisoned in a dungeon of rules and obligations and my true self is obliterated Shut the door and throw away the key! “

Not quite. It’s the opposite, isn’t it. Peace. Joy. Love.

Do read the entire post.

Then consider reading this 2002 interview with Pullman and reflecting on his answers and statements.

Finally, if you've not read the books and are curious about how they go about portraying and attacking Christianity, read this excellent analysis by Alan Jacobs, first written in the fall of 2000 and recently reposted on First Things.

Comments

[Mike Silva]

If I can add another component to the critical mass on Pullman, another great blogger, Sci-Fi writer and convert from atheism John C. Wright, has plenty to say about the series. With all the talk about what a good writer Pullman is, Wright points out that he continually violates a prime directive of story-telling, which is, if you the author make promises to your readers you must at some point deliver on those promises. Wright says that Pullman fails miserably on this count and instead gets bogged down in forcing his philosophy into his story.

http://johncwright.livejournal.com/

[Mark Brumley]

Thanks, Mike. I think the link has been posted here before. But it can't hurt to repeat it. It's an interesting piece on Pullman and the weaknesses of his project from a sheer storytelling perspective.