This video was recommended to me out of absolutely nowhere but I’ve never been so thankful for the algorithm. You 100% just gained a new subscriber. I come from a similar background as you. I’m a Christian, grew up in church, and am majoring in literature. Growing up, I also heard that these books were anti-Christian like Harry Potter (lol) and that put me off reading them for a while. I actually bought a copy of The Golden Compass a couple of years ago after one of my secular friends mentioned he was reading it. I got around halfway through, then stopped reading because of life stuff. I kept meaning to pick it back up because I enjoyed it, but it’s still sitting on my bookshelf with a sad little bookmark peaking out of it :( I rarely abandon books, even if I don’t like them, so that was unusual for me. I think, perhaps subconsciously, I let the criticisms about it being atheist keep me from picking it back up. Now I have a reminder to finish the series! I guess I should have learned my lesson about trusting those warnings after having read and watched Harry Potter a few years ago and absolutely loving it (and not finding validity in the accusations of it being supposedly “anti-Christian”). I find the way these books get misconstrued by Christians sad. As you said, I do understand their concerns to a degree. I’m not trying to wave them all away, but at the same time I think it does both the books and ourselves a disfavor to so blindly criticize (dare I say, demonize) works of art without fully understanding them. I see this a lot in Christian circles, unfortunately. There’s a knee jerk reaction to call something anti-Christian if it touches on subject matters or themes that are even slightly edgy, like daemons in HDM or witchcraft in HP… when in reality, those things are not the actual, harmful versions; they’re fictionalized concepts. I can understand fears about the criticisms of the church a bit more, but as you said, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s okay to criticize or even consider criticisms against the church as an organization-Jesus certainly did! Sometimes humans do wrong things in the name of a good thing, because humans sin. That in itself is a very Biblical message. I’ve also noticed that overreactions from Christian communities to books like these really put secular people and even curious Christians off from taking Christianity seriously. I remember hearing growing up that Harry Potter was satanic, and being the curious kid I was, loving to read, I wondered what about it was so bad since everything I saw in pop culture suggested it was a standard coming-of-age fantasy hero’s journey. And alas, that’s what it turned out to be! Then I wondered how many people who called it satanic had actually read or watched it (I know my parents didn’t) and what that said about their critical thinking when it came to, say, important political or religious issues. I didn’t let that cloud my judgement on all their opinions, but plenty of others have taken these instances, built up over time, and gradually turned away from their faith on the false assumption that it, too, is wrong. Fiction is just one instance of this, of course, but it’s one I think about a lot. If we’re blindly assuming about and preaching against books we haven’t even looked into, but just keep hearing about as “bad” even if they’re not, that signals a problem with group-think to me. Alternatively, for those who did read Harry Potter and somehow got the message that it *was* satanic and anti-Christian, it makes me question their reading comprehension, which also raises red flags to me about how they may be interrupting other texts. Don’t get me wrong, there’s benefits to being cautious about media that might have bad affects on your faith. At the same time, I know I’m not the only one who witnessed this growing up, read the books, and started doubting the authorities who warned me away from them because it seemed like they didn’t understand what they were talking about. You mentioned a theme in HDM about doubting authority, and I think that’s just another reason for it to be relevant. It’s not always bad to doubt authority, so long as you’re not leading yourself astray by doubting everything without nuance. In fact, I would say it’s necessary to doubt authorities if you want to avoid being blinded by false prophets, which the Bible specifically warns about. Aha, brought it full circle to seeing God’s truth everywhere (though I also agree with you about not wanting to Christianize everything, I thought that was a great point!) Sorry for the absurdly long rant! I’m just so glad to see someone talk about this from my perspective. Most of my Christian circles don’t discuss these topics and most of my secular circles don’t discuss Christianity, so it’s hard to blend the two in conversation 😅 In general, I wish Christians appreciated art and fiction more because we can often find truths in them that are beautiful and thoughts that are worth considering. It feels like some Christians tend to shut out anything that isn’t specifically labeled “Christian Approved” or judge art on surface level appearances. Excited to get into these books again!
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for this comment. I genuinely could not have said it better myself. And thank you for your insight about the ways in which Jesus himself questioned authority and the ways in which we as Christians are meant to think critically about what we are taught and how we respond to it in faith; those are such great points! So glad you're sticking around, and looking forward to further conversations about literature and faith! 😊
Very insightful video! I didn't know that His Dark Materials were viewed as anti christen. Only ones I know of was for the Harry Potter books and opposite reaction for The Chronicles of Narnia having to heavy christian themes but most love them. I've only heard praise from readers in the book community for his Dark Materials. It also might be that most of them aren't christen? But as a christen I'd like to read the books. I only remember watching the movie years ago and wanting to know what happens next. So the books is the best option. And the puppy is cute 🐶❤ good choice for a name everyone needs a Samwise in their life😊
In the books, we don't really see God. God is someone or something that is beyond comprehension to everyone in all the worlds of the His Dark Materials multiverse, even to the angels. God's influence is related to the Dust which links all the worlds of the multiverse and every world knows God through different names and religions, just like Aslam is known by different names in the various worlds of the multiverse of Narnia. The problem is that the Authority was the first angel created from the Dust and took for himself the title of God and creator of everything, like Satan wanted to be God, and lied to every world about this and churches were created in each world that were preaching to this false god and following his distorted teachings. The rebel angels who were expelled from Heaven are the angels who see the Authority and his regent Metatron as false gods and want to end that lie by defeating them and all the churches that were raised in their honor in order to balance the multiverse with the real God and creator. The part where Lyra and Will release the souls from the prison in the Land of the Dead and allows them to join to God in the form of Dust through the Mulefa World is also touching.
This video was recommended to me out of absolutely nowhere but I’ve never been so thankful for the algorithm. You 100% just gained a new subscriber.
I come from a similar background as you. I’m a Christian, grew up in church, and am majoring in literature. Growing up, I also heard that these books were anti-Christian like Harry Potter (lol) and that put me off reading them for a while. I actually bought a copy of The Golden Compass a couple of years ago after one of my secular friends mentioned he was reading it. I got around halfway through, then stopped reading because of life stuff. I kept meaning to pick it back up because I enjoyed it, but it’s still sitting on my bookshelf with a sad little bookmark peaking out of it :( I rarely abandon books, even if I don’t like them, so that was unusual for me. I think, perhaps subconsciously, I let the criticisms about it being atheist keep me from picking it back up. Now I have a reminder to finish the series!
I guess I should have learned my lesson about trusting those warnings after having read and watched Harry Potter a few years ago and absolutely loving it (and not finding validity in the accusations of it being supposedly “anti-Christian”). I find the way these books get misconstrued by Christians sad. As you said, I do understand their concerns to a degree. I’m not trying to wave them all away, but at the same time I think it does both the books and ourselves a disfavor to so blindly criticize (dare I say, demonize) works of art without fully understanding them. I see this a lot in Christian circles, unfortunately. There’s a knee jerk reaction to call something anti-Christian if it touches on subject matters or themes that are even slightly edgy, like daemons in HDM or witchcraft in HP… when in reality, those things are not the actual, harmful versions; they’re fictionalized concepts. I can understand fears about the criticisms of the church a bit more, but as you said, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s okay to criticize or even consider criticisms against the church as an organization-Jesus certainly did! Sometimes humans do wrong things in the name of a good thing, because humans sin. That in itself is a very Biblical message.
I’ve also noticed that overreactions from Christian communities to books like these really put secular people and even curious Christians off from taking Christianity seriously. I remember hearing growing up that Harry Potter was satanic, and being the curious kid I was, loving to read, I wondered what about it was so bad since everything I saw in pop culture suggested it was a standard coming-of-age fantasy hero’s journey. And alas, that’s what it turned out to be! Then I wondered how many people who called it satanic had actually read or watched it (I know my parents didn’t) and what that said about their critical thinking when it came to, say, important political or religious issues. I didn’t let that cloud my judgement on all their opinions, but plenty of others have taken these instances, built up over time, and gradually turned away from their faith on the false assumption that it, too, is wrong. Fiction is just one instance of this, of course, but it’s one I think about a lot.
If we’re blindly assuming about and preaching against books we haven’t even looked into, but just keep hearing about as “bad” even if they’re not, that signals a problem with group-think to me. Alternatively, for those who did read Harry Potter and somehow got the message that it *was* satanic and anti-Christian, it makes me question their reading comprehension, which also raises red flags to me about how they may be interrupting other texts. Don’t get me wrong, there’s benefits to being cautious about media that might have bad affects on your faith. At the same time, I know I’m not the only one who witnessed this growing up, read the books, and started doubting the authorities who warned me away from them because it seemed like they didn’t understand what they were talking about. You mentioned a theme in HDM about doubting authority, and I think that’s just another reason for it to be relevant. It’s not always bad to doubt authority, so long as you’re not leading yourself astray by doubting everything without nuance. In fact, I would say it’s necessary to doubt authorities if you want to avoid being blinded by false prophets, which the Bible specifically warns about. Aha, brought it full circle to seeing God’s truth everywhere (though I also agree with you about not wanting to Christianize everything, I thought that was a great point!)
Sorry for the absurdly long rant! I’m just so glad to see someone talk about this from my perspective. Most of my Christian circles don’t discuss these topics and most of my secular circles don’t discuss Christianity, so it’s hard to blend the two in conversation 😅 In general, I wish Christians appreciated art and fiction more because we can often find truths in them that are beautiful and thoughts that are worth considering. It feels like some Christians tend to shut out anything that isn’t specifically labeled “Christian Approved” or judge art on surface level appearances. Excited to get into these books again!
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for this comment. I genuinely could not have said it better myself. And thank you for your insight about the ways in which Jesus himself questioned authority and the ways in which we as Christians are meant to think critically about what we are taught and how we respond to it in faith; those are such great points!
So glad you're sticking around, and looking forward to further conversations about literature and faith! 😊
Very insightful video! I didn't know that His Dark Materials were viewed as anti christen. Only ones I know of was for the Harry Potter books and opposite reaction for The Chronicles of Narnia having to heavy christian themes but most love them. I've only heard praise from readers in the book community for his Dark Materials. It also might be that most of them aren't christen? But as a christen I'd like to read the books. I only remember watching the movie years ago and wanting to know what happens next. So the books is the best option. And the puppy is cute 🐶❤ good choice for a name everyone needs a Samwise in their life😊
In the books, we don't really see God. God is someone or something that is beyond comprehension to everyone in all the worlds of the His Dark Materials multiverse, even to the angels. God's influence is related to the Dust which links all the worlds of the multiverse and every world knows God through different names and religions, just like Aslam is known by different names in the various worlds of the multiverse of Narnia. The problem is that the Authority was the first angel created from the Dust and took for himself the title of God and creator of everything, like Satan wanted to be God, and lied to every world about this and churches were created in each world that were preaching to this false god and following his distorted teachings. The rebel angels who were expelled from Heaven are the angels who see the Authority and his regent Metatron as false gods and want to end that lie by defeating them and all the churches that were raised in their honor in order to balance the multiverse with the real God and creator. The part where Lyra and Will release the souls from the prison in the Land of the Dead and allows them to join to God in the form of Dust through the Mulefa World is also touching.
Super useful summary! Thank you!