SJ: Pullman attempts to enlighten his audience by redefining good and evil. I think if you decide to engage this story, decide to see the movie and read the books, you might want to ask a question the editors here at Crosswalk have asked repeatedly: “What would the world look like if Pullman’s vision became our reality?” I don’t think we’d find the kind of freedom Pullman envisions, but instead we’d be slaves to our own weaknesses and to those who assert their power and passions. It doesn’t take a theologian to imagine that ugly world. Pullman really fails to realize the Church already has a solution to our bondage – one that’s been securely in place for 2,000 years. I stumbled on a timely quote from Pope Benedict's latest encyclical where he talks about the personal nature of God, found in Christ, and I think it really hits on the difference between Christian faith and Pullman’s ideas. Benedict says, “If we know this person [Christ] and he knows us, then truly the inexorable power of material elements no longer has the last word; we are not slaves of the universe and of its laws, we are free."

SM: It really is a well-timed quote that might as well have been written in response to The Golden Compass. What you will see in the first movie that isn't in the first book is a more obviously antagonistic Church. They even introduce a character, Fra Pavel of the Magisterium, who doesn't appear in the book, to do a bad thing one of the other characters does in the book. What you will not see in the movie that does appear in the first book, as Meghan referenced earlier, is the last few chapters. In these, a horrible act is done to achieve a path to another world, and much of Pullman’s philosophy is explained. But it's also interesting to ask in any work of fiction which character speaks with the author's voice. We all agreed that in The Golden Compass that character is Serafina Pekkala, Queen of the Witches. Which says something interesting in its own right... So be warned, but don't be afraid. Remember you know the truth. Let this book make you wonder about through just what means you came to know the Lord, and what sin is, and just why you needed one to save you from the other. One school of theology says you need God to save you from sin; another suggests you need sin to save you from God.

Are you going to read/watch the rest of the series?

MK: If there is a movie sequel I probably will... I am going to read the rest of the trilogy, and pretty quickly too. I want to be prepared to discuss the series, not just Book One, which we all know is pretty watered down in relation to the rest of the trilogy. At the end of this book Lyra essentially postulates, "if they (people who have hurt us and done bad things) have always told us sin is bad, it must be good," and she goes on to explore that idea in the next books. I want to be able to share how far Pullman really goes with this idea.

As I said before, this book does leave a mark and you can’t leave unscathed. We did not enter this lightly but prayerfully and purposefully. I think we all agree it was worth it for the sake of the project, but admittedly a deep impression has been made on each of us.

SJ: I will definitely read the rest of the series. You have to in order to really address it and discuss it in an informed way. I don't think everybody should dive in. There are so many other good things to read instead. This could be a great tool for someone who's getting ready to go to college for various levels of intellectualism they will encounter there. This does have elements of the spiritual realm that are disturbing, resembling New Age spirituality or the occult. If you've been scarred in that way, don't go near the books.

SM: I intend to read the next couple books, and have already begun Book Two and skimmed ahead for quotes, while also reading all the articles floating around out there about it right now. But like Meghan said, there's been a mark left, in the same way that other books like Sphere and The Da Vinci Code left regarding something within me that seeks out the capabilities of the human mind, dark mysteries, and possibility. But those are whispers of the ‘old nature’ that come back to tempt and haunt me…

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Still want more? Check out these valuable resources we’ve come across:

The Golden Compass Brings Nietzsche to Narnia: The Philosophical Underpinnings of His Dark Materials, by Marc T. Newman, Ph. D.
Makes the case that “the philosophy that underlies much of Pullman's fiction is Friedrich Nietzsche's — a German philosopher whose work was influential with the Third Reich.”

The Golden Compass: Briefing Your Concerned Congregation, by Albert Mohler
Mohler follows a Q & A format, asking the right questions and providing brilliant, well-informed answers.

Golden Compass Incenses Both Atheists and Christians, USA Today
The president of American Atheists worries that the film has been “watered down” and is not anti-God, anti-Church enough.

Crosswalk.com Community Forums Discussions: Click here for Movies; Click here for Books
Read the opinions of other Christians or chime in with your own thoughts.

Who’s Afraid of The Golden Compass? by Paul Edwards
Edwards argues that while Pullman’s depiction of the Church is a false one, it does not necessarily follow that the Church Pullman depicts does not exist. So let’s not give him that opening.

Authors Debunk Mystery of His Dark Materials Series, by Annabelle Robertson
This review of a book titled Shedding Light on His Dark Materials (by the authors of Finding God in The Lord of the Rings) indicates that Pullman actually has a fan in the Archbishop of Canterbury. Their book offers “thoughtful analysis which highlights parallels to the Christian faith [within His Dark Materials] whenever possible.”

Fear Not the Compass, Christianity Today
“God is not threatened by Philip Pullman. And people who stop to think through Pullman's story, and how he ‘refutes’ Christianity, will see what a feeble ‘attack’ against Christian belief it really is,” writes movie critic Jeffrey Overstreet.

The Shed Where God Died, Sydney Morning Herald
The well-quoted interview from four years ago which reveals much of Pullman’s ways of thinking and writing.