Authors Weigh In as Pullman Movie Nears Release
by Marcia Z. Nelson, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 10/3/2007
Though the bestselling English fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials might seem to invite comparison to a certain multipart saga about an English boy wizard, fans say the books and author Philip Pullman are in a league all their own. For one thing, Pullman's novels explore some big-league ideas about God.
Two new books, Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman's Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials by Donna Freitas and Jason King (Jossey-Bass, Sept.) and Shedding Light on His Dark Materials: Exploring Hidden Spiritual Themes in Philip Pullman's Popular Series by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware (Tyndale/Salt River, Sept.), excavate these spiritual themes in Pullman's work as the movie version of The Golden Compass, the first book of the series, awaits a Dec. 7 world premiere.
"I think Pullman is a scholar's dream," said Freitas, a visiting assistant professor of religion at Boston University and PW contributor. "I couldn't not see the divine in the trilogy." Pullman is a self-professed atheist, and it shows. Freitas and King see Pullman's criticisms of the institutional church as consistent with contemporary feminist and liberation theologies. "This trilogy is a monument to these edgy theologians who operate on the margins," said Freitas, who calls herself an unabashed fan of the series.
But authors Bruner and Ware—"devout Christians," in the words of Bruner, a Texas pastor—approach from a different angle, acknowledging Pullman's storytelling prowess while attempting to correct what they think an atheist has got wrong. In their view, Pullman pays backhanded tribute to the tradition with which he has a mighty quarrel.
"I see him paying homage to a lot of Christian truths and values," said Ware, a writer for the Christian organization Focus on the Family. The authors wanted to be sure not to condemn Pullman outright. "I don't think that's an intelligent way to approach a subject like this," said Ware. The two, who have also written guides to Christian themes in C.S. Lewis's Narnia series and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, think Pullman is too good a writer and too attractive an influence not to take him seriously. So they see themselves answering his criticisms of organized religion.
"It was an interesting tightrope," said Bruner, who is a pastor of spiritual formation. "I hope readers will see that even that which seeks to attack Christianity can't help but borrow from its tenets and narrative." The two books follow last year's Dark Matter: Shedding Light on Philip Pullman's Trilogy His Dark Materials by Tony Watkins (InterVarsity Press, 2006).
