Out of Egypt:

say what you will, at least they're teaching kids about svalbard...

So, yes, I finally finished reading the Pullman series. I should've waited to comment till now, though I still believe in principle that one doesn't have to read everything in order to have an opinion on it. But my assessment of the books is much more complex than Pullman's antipathy toward Lewis and Tolkien would have made me believe.

I will never use the narrative tropes of his novels as guides for my own life, as I do the Ringbearer's wound in The Lord of the Rings or the idea of the Crooked versus the Straight in That Hideous Strength or the prince's enchantment in The Silver Chair. Pullman's moral imagination is too confused to serve as an inspiration in that respect. Still, he does present the wonder and the complexity of the world in which we actually live more successfully than either Lewis or Tolkien. Their characters are, for the most part, drawn more simply and their settings do not evoke quite the same sense of pleasure in the material. Pullman sees the particulars better than his Christian counterparts, and his effort to piece them together into a coherent whole is impressive. But in the end, I am not convinced that romantic love and common decency is really enough to sustain the universe.

It is fascinating to me to see that the Cross is never mentioned in Pullman's series, nor is the Incarnation. Pullman's critique of Christianity is well-taken insofar as it is an attack on the "theology of glory" - the worship of a distant God, a God of power, a disembodied God who bids us be like Him. The theology of the Cross is not touched by this critique. The Incarnation as God's fullest revelation, humility as His power, the Cross as the light in which we see how we are all victimizer and victim - these truths remain. I wonder if Pullman has ever read Rene Girard. If he did, perhaps he would recognize that not all Christians seek authority; rather, that the message of the Gospel is quite opposite. For we worship a God who is most glorified in the glorification of His people and the blessing of His creation - a God beyond envy, who calls us to participate in His life. He entrusted the Church with His Gospel, though it has often been lost, and the message of liberty turned into a license for oppression. For the highest things are the most destructive when corrupted. Earthly tyrants are not as sinful as spiritual, nor is the lust for wealth as sinful as the lust for spirituality.