His Dark Materials - Why the Controversy? - Part 3

In my last blog, I talked about the five religious reasons or themes people may find offensive in the fictional fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman.

They were:
1 - The God Killer (or the Subtle Knife)
2 - The Authority (or the God-like character)
3 - The Magisterium (or the ruling Church)
4 - Lucifer's Fall From Grace (or a biblical fractured fairytale)
5 - Original Sin (or Lyra’s prophetic role as the new Eve)

I have to admit that I have found it basically impossible to stereotype peoples’ ideological beliefs or possible triggers based on their main religious affiliation (i.e., Christian, Muslim, or Jewish). I would hazard to guess that many people in the same parish or temple would have differing opinions on the issues raised in The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.

For example, look at the first two themes mentioned above. In the second novel, The Subtle Knife, the object with the same name as the title, is also referred to as the “God Killer “or the “God Destroyer”. If the God of the Bible was in fact the admitted antagonist in these novels, and if the children protagonists were actually trying to kill this “Authority” or loving, graceful, merciful, God, then many followers of an Abrahamic religion would probably take offence or at least pause to consider the author’s intent for including this plot in his stories. More on my thoughts and documented statements by the author later…

The next issue, the immoral Church, would only “offend” a certain section of the Christian religions population. Here, Pullman does seem to take a direct shot at Catholicism or at least the structure of Catholic authority and use this as a scaffold for his plot (i.e. think Da Vinci Code and hundreds of other novels in western literature). The term “Magisterium” is used in the novels to describe the religious and social authority in Lyra’s world. At the very top levels of this patriarchy are ruthless, brutal, and downright criminal leaders on a quest for maintaining power. In our world, the term Magisterium is used by the Catholic Church and represents the teaching authority of the church with regards to spiritual truths. Had His Dark Materials trilogy been published prior to 1948, they would have surely been given a prominent spot on the infamous “Index of Forbidden Books”.

Our cultures’ prominent identification with the “Fall of Lucifer” is an interesting study in early Jewish theology and how stories that are only briefly referred to in scripture become secular legend. Most of my research on this issue pointed to the time of the Jewish Exile and their struggled to explain the “problem of evil.” Meaning, in a world where God is good, why is evil still allowed to exist. However, I have to admit that I am not academically inclined to delve into this subject with respect to doctrine in any Abrahamic religion due to its complexity. But suffice it to say that depending on your flavor or theology, you may or may not take the story literally.

Only Christians and Jews would possibly take offense at the twist in the biblical story of Adam, Eve, the Serpent, and the true meaning of Original Sin. In Islam, at least according to my research, there is no doctrine of Original Sin as we have in Christianity and Judaism.

So, in a very quick nutshell, these are the groups who may upon hearing the media hype, and possibly, even from reading all three novels in their entirety, form a challenge based on religious viewpoints.

In my next blog I will talk about how these themes play out in the novels. I will also discuss how I, as a YA Librarian and avid fantasy fiction reader, interpreted these subjects in relation to Pullman’s fictional world.

Until then, keep reading!