Truth and the Golden Compass

Truth, not the saccharin "Truthiness" of Stephen Colbert is one of the themes of the book, "The Golden Compass," by Philip Pullman. As the opening book of the "The Dark Materials" trilogy, Pullman introduces us to a type of parallel universe, where things resemble the world we live in, but yet unique and different. Truth, or the Magisterium's hiding of the truth (i.e. the church) is there for Lyra, to try to find.

As a side note, as I begin reading this book, I was intrigued to find reference to John Calvin as being the "last pope," who moved the headquarters of the church to Geneva. Poor Calvin, the whipping boy for any one with RPE (i.e. Regretted Puritan Experience).

Anyhow, I have received chain e-mails, had concerned parents knock at my door, and read articles pro and con about this book. So, of course, I am reading the book, so I can form my own opinion.

As I begin the book, I've done a little research on the side. (www.hisdarkmaterials.org is an excellent resource.) What I'm finding is that Pullman, like Dan Brown of "The DaVinci Code" fame has an agenda. They both have an almost allergic aversion to anything that has to do with the established church. Pullman isn't the atheist that people claim him to be. Instead, he is more concerned about breaking down the dogma and doctrine of the orthodox church. In his view, the established church is authoritarian and preoccupied to the level of paranoia with holding on to power.

It is my opinion that Pullman is very religious in a sense. He doesn't deny the divine. In fact, he uses his powerful imagination to picture the divine in ways we have never imagined. The problem that people (i.e. orthodox Christians) have with Pullman is that his sense of the divine doesn't have a lot of use for the Apostles' Creed.

Anyhow, I'm reading. From where I am at right now, I can tell that this is a book I would read WITH my children, and not let them read it alone--not until they are older, anyway.

What it comes down to is this--If a book of fiction is enough to shake a person's faith, I would be inclined to ask how much faith there was in the first place. Related to that is that if the Christian faith cannot sustain a challenge from a work of fiction, it isn't much of a faith at all.