In his recent appearance at the Buxton Opera House during the Buxton Festival, Philip Pullman attributed his writing of The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ to a suggestion from Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The two men spoke before a production of the play of His Dark Materials in London, and the Archbishop challenged Philip Pullman on his focus on God, rather than Jesus, in his works of fiction. This was the spark that caused the sensation that is Pullman's most recent foray into a genre that can be best described as theological fiction.
There are many who cannot understand how Philip Pullman can be a friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury, given the nature of his writing. The key to understanding this is writ large across the back cover of his most recent book.
This is a Story
As it says in black and white on the back of The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman is an author writing stories. As an atheist, he feels a great respect for the Bible and its contents, and finds it very rich material for his creativity. Many people in Western society today would probably describe themselves as atheists, and yet the stories of the Bible are an important part of the literature, the mythology, of Western culture. These stories provide a foundation for two thousand years of literature, from the first gospels that were written to works like those of Philip Pullman, or Timothy Findley, or any other the other authors who have recently been accused by the Church of killing God.
These stories are only as harmful to the Church as their readers want them to be. If a story about a child named Lyra with meeting an elderly and exhausted God ( The Amber Spyglass , by Philip Pullman) can shake an individual's faith, then perhaps that was a faith ready to be shaken. Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage shows an equally elderly God, and a very compassionate Lucifer. These are characters in a work of fiction, to be interpreted as the reader chooses.
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
One of the greatest things that Philip Pullman's newest book can do is spark conversations. It has the ability to get people talking about things they wouldn't normally, and learning more about something they may have thought they knew all about. In his conversation with Alan Franks at the Buxton Opera House, Pullman expressed his sincere hope that reading his book would drive people to read another, rather more famous text: the Bible itself.
So take this as a challenge, to learn more and be able to question more critically. If a story can shake someone's faith, what else can it do? If nothing else, it can start a conversation.
Rebekah Neelin - A Canadian living and working in the UK, Rebekah Neelin has a great passion for the written word, and loves learning about things and ...
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