>Lev Grossman, in a review of the movie “The Golden Compass,” published in Times.com on Thursday, November 29, 2007, asked this question: “Is ‘The Golden Compass’ Anti-Church?”

In his review, Grossman wrote:

[Philip] Pullman is the author of His Dark Materials, a trio of fantasy novels that has sold more than 15 million copies since the first volume, The Golden Compass, was published in 1995. It has been turned into a radio drama and a hit London stage play. A movie of The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, opens in the U.S. next week and will probably take its place in the pantheon of profitable fantasy franchises that includes The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. But the most striking fact about Pullman’s work is that his characters aren’t fighting Sauron or the White Queen or Voldemort. Their enemy is the Christian church (emphasis mine).

Then, Grossman added:

In Pullman’s world, the church has evolved into a sinister totalitarian bureaucracy called the Magisterium that perpetrates massive cruelties in the name of good. Later on in the trilogy, readers meet evil angels and, ultimately, God.

Read the complete review by visiting Times.com.

Although Pullman has received some praise from the Archbishop of Canterbury for his work, the book has an anti-God bias. And, even though Grossman believes that Pullman is not “a creature of fashion any more than he’s a creature of Satan,” it is clear that the movie is sympathetic to the Devil.

It is interesting that, although Grossman’s article is titled “ Is The Golden Compass Anti-Church?”, the title of the same article, when the article is formatted to be printed, is “Sympathy for the Devil.”

This hidden title of the article may indicate that the Devil has a lot of admirers.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Golden Compass, Philip Pullman