Donna Freitas, author of the new guide book Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman’s Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials, has written an article in the Boston Globe on the Catholic League and other evangelical group’s campaign against The Golden Compass. In its defense, she says, “to reduce Pullman to these few juicy sound bites is to ignore the whole of a complex, exuberantly curious intellectual who has infused his writing with a complex, crisply rendered theology.” Freitas sees the true, divine God in Dust, which permeates the story. Read more.
Another article by Freitas appears in Newsweek, once again defending the “reluctant theologian.” “Its telos or “end purpose,” highlights a vision of the Christian God and God’s relationship to this world – one that has long lingered in the rhetoric of Christian feminist and liberation theologians… their work has languished in the dark corners of academe and on the wrong side of Christian orthodoxy.” Read more.
Fantastic article.
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League’s job is professional outrage. No matter how strained the connection, he can work up a froth about nearly anything as an attack on the Catholic Church. Even things that no sane, rational person would bring up for fear of attracting unwanted attention to, Donohue will dredge up just to act outraged about. Any Catholic not in his position will be able to see that the Church in Lyra’s world is not the Church in our world (well, not for the past few hundred years) and will not see HDM as an attack on their beliefs. But then, most people are not professional spittle generators.
I couldn’t resist–“professional spittle generators”…cracked me up. Thanks, Chris. 🙂
tbh, the catholics are playing right into the authority’s hands with this one by stupidly believing the authority is god, not ONLY in the books, bt in reality too! THIS MAKES ME LARF .
king ogunwe says in the amber spyglass that the authority isnt god, the creator, and no1 knows if there ever was one, ther cuda bin tho . but, the fact the catholics are getting all hot and bothered is ironic because tbh, yeah, pullman’s attacking the catholic church in the books, but theyre completely justifying it !
silly !
i adored this article . it was fantastic, and gave me faith in the people of the world, well at least those who can love, and accept a book for the concept behind it as opposed to just ignorantly spouting all sorts of rubbish to form their own witch hunt .
i find THAT offensive .
uhhhhh xx
What a well writen, open-minded article. If only we could see more of that!