The Baha'i Studies Listserv I'm not familiar with the series myself, but what you described sounds alot like Gnosticism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism
It's a little known philosophy-religion-worldview but its impact on the West and Japan have influnced their cultures hugely. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism_in_popular_culture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism_in_modern_times A notable anti-Gnostic is Judaic Existantialist Hans Jonas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Jonas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Anti-Gnosticism Phillip Pullman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Pullman His Dark Materials http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy draws heavily on gnostic ideas. The trilogy comprises Northern Lights (released as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. >The Baha'i Studies Listserv Yes. That's an important piece. But I think there is more to the novels than just that. In the later novels, the Authority (presumably "God") and his forces led by the angel Metatron are the primary enemies. And at one point one of the "good guys" is explicitly described as playing the role of the serpent for one of the alternate universes. And the Magisterium which supernaturally / metaphysically abuses children by splitting them from their familiars are aligned (at least in intention) with the Authority. I mean, Pullman wasn't just a creating "pc" version of Narnia in terms of the cultural/racial issues. He's highly critical of Christianity itself and I think that is definitely expressed through the series. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[email protected] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
