His Dark Materials Trilogy
(The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)

Written by Philip Pullman,

Published by Laurel Leaf, (2003)

ISBN-10: 0440238609 Paperback

            Evil. This one word describes Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. All the more  diabolical is the marketing of his books to children. And yet, as Catholics continue to debate Harry Potter, Britain’s second-most popular children’s author has snuck onto reading lists as award-winning literature.

            Critics hail Pullman as a new J.R.R. Tolkien and a better writer than C.S. Lewis. He has won England’s coveted Carnegie Medal, positive reviews from many of the major newspapers, and accolades from the publishing industry. Hollywood is now turning his first book, the Golden Compass (previously titled Northern Lights), into a movie. It is due out just before Christmas.

Who is Philip Pullman? 

            Pullman, a supporter of the British Humanist Association, is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. He styles himself the anti-C.S. Lewis of children’s literature. He wrote His Dark Materials as a rebuttal to Lewis’s Narnia chronicles. While both series feature talking animals and children discerning right from wrong in parallel worlds, in Pullman’s universe God is the antagonist while the fallen angels are the protagonists.

            Thus many good Christian parents - unaware of Pullman’s attempt to proselytize children into atheism - allow these books into their home. Not surprisingly, the only major Christian leader to endorse Pullman’s work is Rowan Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Anglican communion.

His Dark Materials

The series’ protagonist is a twelve-year-old girl named Lyra, the illegitimate daughter of an adulterous relationship. The relationship ended when her father killed her mother’s husband. Adultery and murder are not uncommon in the story. The father of Lyra’s best friend is murdered by a witch when he refuses the witch’s sexual advances. While this theme pops up occasionally in folk tales, the witch is always evil. In His Dark Materials, Pullman portrays her as good.

            The Golden Compass begins with Lyra and her daemon (her talking soul in animal form) hiding in the wardrobe of a renowned Oxford scholar. Readers may recognize this parallel to Lucy’s discovery of Narnia in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Only Lyra will discover her father (whom she believes to be her uncle) plotting to circumvent an authoritarian power-hungry Church.

            Pullman is not subtle. The Church in his story boasts a college of cardinals, a college of bishops, priests, nuns and a Magisterium. Not even Protestants are spared the vitriol of his anti-Christian polemic; Pullman’s alternate world saw the early reformers re-unite under Pope John Calvin and move the papacy to Geneva. Thus Pullman corrupts the young reader into believing that theological differences are meaningless among Christians - Christianity itself is oppressive.

Christ tells us that we must have faith like little children if we wish to enter the Kingdom of God. Conversely, those who hate the Kingdom of God often have little use for children. In the telling of Pullman’s story, children are kidnapped, drugged, murdered, mutilated, abandoned, and used for occult scientific experiments in which they are severed from their soul. These actions are usually carried out with the Church’s blessing. 

            It should be obvious to Catholics that all this is contrary to the truth and to the practice of Church teaching. Pullman’s Catholic Church is a medieval caricature with the modus operandi of Chinese communism.

Yet none of these outrages compares to the blasphemy central to the story’s plot. Pullman accuses God of being a liar. He denies Our Lord’s omnipotence and eternal presence, stating God was an angel created out of dust - the first angel, but a creation nevertheless - who then lied to the angels that follow, telling them that He was their creator. To ensure there is no confusion, Pullman references all of the names of Our Lord found in Holy Scripture. The series ends with Lyra and her friends attacking and overthrowing God’s kingdom. 

Parents are responsible for their children’s moral and intellectual formation. They are their children’s primary educators. Catholic parents should avoid the Hollywood hype surrounding The Golden Compass, lest their children be corrupted by Pullman’s message.