Philip Pullman & Christianity

THE DEVIL’S ACCOUNT: Philip Pullman & Christianity, by Hugh Rayment-Pickard. Darton, Longman & Todd London, 2004. 117pp.

Reviewed by Russell Pollitt SJ

In this book, Hugh Rayment-Pickard attempts a synopsis of the works of the controversial but immensely skilled writer Philip Pullman, who has been described as “the most dangerous author in Britain.”

Pullman won the Whitbread Prize for his work The Amber Spyglass. He attempts to communicate truth in myth and story in his novelsas did JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. Unlike them, it was not for the defence of Christian truth, but for its destruction.

This synopsis presupposes some knowledge of Pullmans works, especially his trilogy, His Dark Materials.

Rayment-Pickard, a parish priest and published philosopher, highlights in his synopsis that Pullman is either hated or loved by his readers; but very few of them are left lukewarm.

He admits: “I was intrigued by Pullmans atheisman atheism that seemed to me to be so thoroughly religious.”

In part one, he gives an account of why he finds Pullmans work so fascinating. He then gives a brief outline of Pullmans life and work in part two. Part three picks up the various themes which can be found in Pullman (and are the very issues that every human being encounters): violence, church, the soul, dust, sexuality, innocence and experience, the death of God and heaven. Here he attempts to analyse them and the concerns which surround them.

Rayment-Pickard is curious to find out what is behind the hostility to religion concealed in these themes, or if Pullmans antagonism perhaps masks a religious quest. He parallels Pullmans works with other works and points to the essential differences between Pullman and others: for example Pullmans idea of the death of God against that of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

In his short conclusion, titled “Pullmans hidden theology”, Rayment-Pickard alludes to the many theological questions Pullman raises, finding that Pullman denies the reality of God, and yet his pursuit of issues which deal with “ultimate concern” seem to validate a theological quest.

He goes on to explain how the dilemma of atheism is that it is dependent for its existence upon theism. After examining more of the themes the soul and the new Eve Rayment-Pickard returns to attempt a reprise of the initial point he made about Pullmans “thoroughly religious atheism”. Pullman, he writes, fails to engage effectively with human tragedy and moral authority, but adds that perhaps Pullman is saying something about popular religion: could there be a lesson for the church in the modern world?

As the true religion of life and love, could the church not be called to rediscover its humanitarian and democratic values enabling it to stand “in more visible solidarity with the world in all its glory and suffering?

The book has a very helpful synopsis of Pullmans adult and teenage fiction for those who may not have read all his works but want to know the basic plot of these works in order to understand Rayment-Pickard’s synopsis better.

This book is recommended to anyone who has read Pullman, simply because Rayment-Pickard does attempt a critical examination of his work. The book has theological value in as far as it seeks to reveal just what God might be saying to all of us even in the confessions of an atheist who seems to be sure and yet so unsure.