"[H]ere is the man who killed off God."

Wouldn't you know it, more nasty attacks on Philip Pullman and his trilogy, His Dark Materials, by right-wing, unthinking, nasty, Magisterium-loving Catholics:

I am sitting in an anonymous hotel room in London with Philip Pullman and I find myself thinking: here is the man who killed off God. Yet to him this death - which happens almost in passing in The Amber Spyglass, the long-awaited third installment of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy - seems hardly worth mentioning. It is done, as he says, in an incidental way: "Perhaps people won't even notice," he remarks. His voice is low and even; his eyes are steady and blue. <snip>

This is hardly surprising; more surprising, perhaps, that these books (which Pullman calls glibly "Paradise Lost in three volumes, for teenagers"), with their radical agenda and deadly serious intent, should sneak out into the children's market. Trainspotting is a gross-out; Hannibal more of the same. But Pullman, with His Dark Materials, sets out to pull down the whole moral framework that has underpinned Western civilisation. Who says English writers aren't ambitious anymore? <snip>

I am very suspicious of ceremony, hierarchy, ritual," he says. "It represents the ossification of something that was once genuine. The underlying myth of these three books - the story of the Creation and the Fall - clarifies how the original impulses of great religious teachers are used and perverted and taken as empty banners by people who set up churches." He has, he says, a "deep, deep dislike" of any kind of religious organisation: "if there is any good in it, it comes out of human beings and not out of religious structures." <snip>

"I suppose you could say that these books are an answer to the challenge thrown down by Lewis in the Narnia books. All books teach, whether they intend to or not. You can't help but reveal your world view in the story you tell." That is certainly the case in The Amber Spyglass, which I found somewhat compromised by the strength of Pullman's belief: finally, the Church he portrays becomes so over-the-top wicked it threatens to tip into caricature. But then Pullman spent many years as a teacher, first in an Oxford secondary school and then as a lecturer at Westminster College: it is clear he has not quite lost his taste for pedagogy.

Oh, I'm sorry. My mistake. Those excerpts are actually from an October 18, 2000, article in The Times, written by an admirer of Pullman and his books, Erica Wagner. She concludes her piece, "Divinely Inspired: Philip Pullman," by writing:

One can only hope that where Pullman leads they [young readers] will follow, and discover the dissenting tradition from which these books spring. This is remarkable writing: courageous and dangerous, as the best art should be. Pullman envisions a world without God, but not one without hope. We still need, he says, "all the things heaven represented: joy, delight, a sense of connectedness with ourselves and each other and the wider universe. We need all those things that were symbolised by heaven, but we cannot have a kingdom - so we must have a republic, and it must include all of us, and it must be here."

In related news, "The Golden Compass" movie has received an endorsement from SIGNIS, the "World Catholic Association for Communication", which is "officially recognized by the Vatican as a Catholic organization for communication." A Signis "statement" written by Peter Malone about "The Golden Compass" begins by stating, "The Golden Compass  is well-made, with a lot of intelligent dialogue, including the word ‘metaphysics’ a couple of times." Wow. Metaphy...uh, how do you say that big word? What does it mean? Never mind.

There are some aspects of the film that may raise a religious eyebrow. The opening of the film speaks of parallel worlds, a feature of all of the best film fantasies. In our world, our souls are within us. In the parallel world, the soul is outside us, in the form of a symbolic animal called a daemon (not a devil but a ‘spirit’ according to the origins of the word).

The other word is the Magisterium, the name of the all-powerful ruling body which is authoritarian and intent on eradicating free will so that all people, especially the children they abduct and experiment on, will lose their daemon and be completely conformist and happy. Science fiction has treated this plot in the several versions of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers . The Magisterium heads are embodied by Derek Jacobi and Christopher Lee who spurn tolerance and freedom and speak of heresy. Magisterium is, in fact, the word used for the authoritative teaching of the Catholic church, so that is clearly a critical element - though, as will be quoted later, Pullman says he is not anti-Catholic but anti-rigid and authoritarian religion.

Pretty clever of Pullman, isn't it, to say he's not anti-Catholic—just anti-rigid and authoritarian—when he clearly thinks the Catholic Church is rigid and authoritarian. Malone then goes on at length about "alarmist warnings" of the Catholic League, and asks some questions to spark conversation, including:

Allowing that Pullman is critical of religion and professes atheism, is the faith of the ordinary Catholic, the ordinary reader and cinemagoer so slight that it can be rocked or undermined by The Golden Compass ?

A fair question. Especially since Pullman has made it clear for years (as The Times piece indicates) that he does indeed wish to undermine and rock the beliefs of Christians (and other theists). Bully for him. What is more bothersome is this question: Do Malone and others at Signis believe that it is "alarmist" to take Pullman at his word? Or is it, in their minds, always and everywhere bad form to criticize books and movies that either attack or misrepresent the Catholic Church and her teachings? (And, on a related note, why does Malone conveniently separate the movie from the books? Is he taking his cues from the makers of the movie?) Finally, Malone writes:

Pullman’s ideas deserve some intelligent response rather than derision or dismissal. He does make serious points about the role of institutional religion which need both a Church examination of conscience as well as thoughtful response or rebuttal.

Good point (about the response; I'm not sure what "a Church examination of conscience" refers to). Be sure to order a copy of Pied Piper of Atheism: Philip Pullman and Children's Fantasy, written by Pete Vere and Sandra Miesel (with an introduction by yours truly), and coming soon from Ignatius Press. In the meantime, ponder further why it is that a Catholic group such as Signis is more critical of the Catholic League and other critics of His Dark Materials than it is of those who openly criticize, malign, and misrepresent the Catholic Church...

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