“Between Dust, Daemons, and Desire: God As Religious Imagination in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials”
Professor Donna Freitas,Department of Religious Studies, St. Michael’s College, Vermont
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, published between 1996 and 2000, is emerging as a cultural classic. Though marketed to a young adult audience, this sweeping tale is filled with questions that captivate mature readers as well as the young. In short, this is a story for anyone who dares to confront life’s biggest questions. More particularly, the trilogy raises specifically theological issues — though in quite different ways from such authors as C.S. Lewis. Is it about the death of God, or about an interpretation of a divinity Pullman believes is lost in the hierarchy and politics of institutional religion? With its heroine (Lyra) and hero (Will), magical witches, armored bears, and an Oxford imbued with the fantastic, His Dark Materials, like the best literature, seduces the reader. We, its audience, are left to grapple with its implications, scope, and meaning in the many-layered world we live in — one fraught with religious conflict, uncertainty, and a crisis of imagination.
Donna Freitas is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at St. Michael’s College in Vermont. She is the author of several books, including “After the Death of God,” which explores the religious and ethical dimensions of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials(forthcoming from Jossey-Bass, 2007). She is also working on a book called “Sex and the Soul,” to be published by Oxford University Press.