The Golden Compass

One of the books I received for Christmas was The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. It has garnered a fair amount of criticism in Christian circles, but it was in my stocking. I figure if St Nicolas, one of the great saints of the Church, is distributing it, it can’t be all bad. And, if I can extend that logic to cover the other things in my stocking, it’s really shocking to see how broad minded the old saint has become.

The Golden Compass was originally released as Northern Lights, but for some reason the American publisher decided the title should be changed. There’s a device in the book that might be thought of as a golden compass, but it’s not a compass, and is never called that. The northern lights, on the other hand, are very central to the story, so it all seems very odd to me. – American publishers have a bad habit of making gratuitous changes in children’s classics. They rearranged the books of the Narnia series, and renamed the first book in Harry Potter, to no particular advantage except to assure that a generation of American children would be out of step with the rest of the world. Come to think of it, the Yanks are not yet metric. Perhaps there’s a pattern here. – It’s the controversy in the book, however, that most interests me.

The Golden Compass is the first in a three part series called His Dark Materials. It begins in a universe, parallel and very similar to our own, and deals with a battle for the truth that there are, indeed, parallel universes. An organization called The Magisterium (Catholic Church), centered in a place called the Vatican (the Vatican), is desperate to hide the truth of these parallel universes because it does not accord with it’s theology (Copernicus, Galileo, etc.). This organization is evil incarnate, even torturing children in the course of this massive cover-up. But Lyra, the preadolescent heroine of the book, together with her uncle and a collection of marginalized and persecuted peoples such as Gyptians (Gypsies) and witches (witches), are engaged in a war with The Magisterium to discover and reveal the truth.

This is actually a pretty good book. The characters are interesting, the plot is engaging and the philosophical notions are amusing. But it’s not hard to see what Pullman’s getting at. In fact he is very open about it in his writings and interviews. This is an attack upon the Catholic Church and religion in general. He is an Evangelical Atheist, who seeks to spread atheism. Though I’ve not yet read the entire series I’ve heard Pullman himself say the god (God) who created our universe will be killed in the course of the story.

Now, I don’t think Christian people should boycott these books or the movie series based upon them. I think they afford us a great opportunity to engage ideas with which we disagree, and to teach our children how to do the same. We cannot keep ourselves, or our children, from being exposed to Atheism, Buddhism, Humanism, or any of the other isms. and we shouldn’t try.

Though Pullman has a very naïve approach to God and religion, he also has some true and worthwhile things to say. And one of the things he is saying is that religion is a great problem when it tries to control the world. Well, I am more than willing to grant him that. So let’s just humble up, take our seat, and become another voice at the table.