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My favorite theological texts are fantasy novels. The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis's unique fantasy about a bus trip from hell to heaven, is a remarkably striking expression of what is in essence a very Orthodox understanding of the nature of sin, salvation and damnation.
And J.R.R. Tolkien, late in his life, penned an exquisitely elegant exposition of Incarnational theology in the form of a conversation between a High Elf and a human woman about the origins and destinies of their respective races (published in Morgoth's Ring as "The Debate of Finrod and Andreth").
Fantasy possesses a remarkable ability to bring clarity to aspects of the human condition that are all too often obscured by the mundaneness of our daily lives. The genre, at its best, excels at asking the question, "What if?" and pursuing it in all sorts of fascinating directions.
So when I heard the basic premise of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, and of the newly released film "The Golden Compass," I was intrigued. After all, what would it be like if our souls lived outside our bodies, walking beside us in the form of talking animals? The premise opens up intriguing opportunities to examine free will, sin, and the conflict that rages within each of us between our passions and the call of God on our lives.
An Orthodox author would have a field day with it. So I headed out to the movie theatre opening night to see where Pullman would go with it. Unfortunately, the movie made it clear that Pullman is not Orthodox, that he is in fact an atheist, and that his grasp both of the realities of human nature and of Christian theology and history is severely lacking. The only "theology" the movie elaborated was pop culture's tired old line: "Follow your heart--if it feels good, do it!"
Which is, I must say, unfortunate. As entertainment, the movie was quite enjoyable, and indeed one of the more beautiful films I've seen this year. The cinematography had a marvelously luminous quality as the plot leaped from the halls of Oxford to the salons and alleys of the metropolis to the frozen wastes of the Arctic. The acting was superb, with memorable performances from Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, and Ian McKellan. And indeed, the basic moral of the movie is spot on: free will is incredibly important. But that's where things started to fall apart.
The bad guys of the story, the lords of the Magisterium (a not-so-veiled reference to the Roman Catholic Church), are bad because they want to control people, to limit and destroy free will. Their most monstrous act is the painful separation of children from their soul-in-animal-form (called a daemon in both the movie and the books), reducing the children to a zombie-like existence, but also removing the capacity for temptation and sin.
There are two problems with this. The first is that the movie does not clarify, and in fact obscures, both the rationale for the separation and the actual consequences. I had to first reference Wikipedia and then purchase the book in order to figure out what the whole business was all about.
The second, and bigger, problem, is that it indicates Pullman's complete misunderstanding of the Christian Faith and the work of the Church. Christian doctrine, especially for the Orthodox, upholds the importance of free will precisely because its absence reduces humanity to the status of robots, incapable of loving God or one another, and certainly bereft of the image and likeness of God. Free will as a reality of human nature lies at the heart of authentic Christianity, as the ultimate sine qua non of our relationship with God.
The Christian life is not about destroying the will, but rather about enlisting it in the governing (not the destruction) of the passions, turning our God-created nature to the use which God intended for it. It is about the integration of our spirit, our soul, and our body, not their separation.
It was this reality that I had vainly hoped Pullman might examine with his ingenious plot device of souls separate from their bodies. It could have afforded a wonderful opportunity to examine both the conflict between them and the process of their integration. Instead, the heroine Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon interact as a child with a particularly intelligent pet. The movie fails to depict any hint of real disagreement between them, and thus there is no examination whatsoever of the real conflict that we experience as our component parts war within us. This, the most unique element of the story, in the end is only another lost opportunity.
I should note that, amidst all the disappointment, there was one point of genuine offence. New Line Cinemas, conscious of the probable backlash from Roman Catholics and other Christians to the anti-religious sentiments of the story, insisted that the movie adaptation remove any explicit reference to the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, the officials of the Magisterium, along with their buildings and their clothing, are free of any trappings of Christianity--with one exception. A local headquarters of the Magisterium, encountered on the journey to the north, is raided and destroyed by the heroine and her allies. And on the exterior walls of the building are Orthodox icons.
I said it was offensive, but in truth, it serves more as the perfect example of the story's complete misunderstanding of the Christian Faith. The icons of the saints are a witness to the liberation of the human will that has come to the human race in the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ--and yet the film enlists them as a symbol of bondage and domination. And thus it is tempting either to mock and belittle such foolish attacks, or to respond with anger, with calls for boycotts or apologies--but in the end, this film should be taken for what it is: an indication of what is a very common misunderstanding of the message of Christ's gospel.
And if we take it that way, then "The Golden Compass" presents us with both a challenge and an opportunity, to preach, by both our words and by our actions, the true Gospel of Christ, the Good News that He has come to set the captives free, to restore us to life, and to make all things new. And if we take it that way, the movie and the books might actually live up to some of their potential.
Fr. Anthony Cook is the assistant priest at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in St. Clair Shores, MI. Watch for more movie reviews from Fr. Anthony on The OCN Blog.
For more on "The Golden Compass," click here for a reflection from Fr. Mark Leondis, the Director of the Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministries of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; here for more from the Department on how to use this movie as an opportunity for youth ministry, or here for a sermon by seminarian Paul Lundberg.
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