Dark Materials? Philip Pullman’s Stories and the Christian Story

Abstract

"For a decade, Harry Potter has been very big business. J.K. Rowling’s wizard litkid has certainly cast his spell over millions of young and not-so-young readers, listeners, and viewers. However, during the apparent reign of Rowling, Philip Pullman pipped her to some of the top children’s fiction prizes and earned the highest of literary praise for the His Dark Materials Trilogy (1995-2000). Pullman even won the 2001 Whitbread fiction prize, defeating all adult competitors to the accolade,1 and the trilogy also came third in the BBC’s The Big Read final in December 2003. And while some Christians spent years getting their theological knickers in a twist over magic Harry, far fewer even noticed that there is far more in Pullman worth raising the eyebrow of faith about. Now that the first volume has reached the screen under the title The Golden Compass,2 it is yet more important that an intelligent Christian reading of - and response to - the books and films is taking place"