Of the Devil's Party - The Golden Compass

On December 7, The Golden Compass, the first of three films based on Philip Pullman’s trilogy “His Dark Materials” will be released, dastardly timed to take advantage of the joyful Christmas’ spirit. I became familiar with these books back in 2000 when Ken Myers interviewed Wheaton professor Alan Jacobs about the books. They should be of great concern to all of us.

In one sense these books (and the forthcoming movies) are just another edition of the standard themes of anti-authority, anti-institution, and anti-church that frequently seep out of Hollywood. The catch here is that the books are very powerfully imaginative works of fantasy designed for children that portray a very enjoyable make-believe world likely to capture the minds of youth and children and they are purposely designed to be anti-Christian and anti-God. If the movies do the books justice they could be a major force against Christ in our world (although the director of the Golden Compass claims to have toned down the anti-Christian theme for the first film, but says he will not water down the later two).

Pullman plainly admits that he sought to rewrite Milton’s Paradise Lost (where his trilogy title comes from) and directly counter the works of CS Lewis (whose works Pullman hates with great passion) and fight against the authority of the church.

Below are links to two sources for understanding what these books/films are all about. The first is a podcast of the original interview I heard in 2000 (it may take a minute or two to load). The interview is 40 minutes long. The second is an article by Focus on the Family’s “Plugged In” movie review staff (it is brief). BTW “Plugged-In” is a very helpful resources for finding out about movies. They review all the major movies and give a very thorough summary of what is in the films.

http://mhadigital.org/

http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0003516.cfm