Educators Offer Critical Review of Pullman’s Trilogy

It is important to observe that chance can be invoked as the cause of the universe neither by scientists nor by philosophers. It cannot be invoked by scientists, because absolute chaos cannot be studied by a branch of knowledge whose very existence depends on the presence of a certain regularity and specificity (58), and it cannot be invoked by philosophers, because something can only be attributed to chance (and calculations of probability can only be made concerning it) if a factor apart from chance is acknowledged to have prior existence and a certain uniformity of action (59).

String theory also is linked with multiworld theory. In string theory, the various subatomic particles are held to be vibrations of microscopic strings. The mathematics on which string theory is based uses a multi-dimensional manifold. It, like the inflationary theories, is remarkable for its specificity (60).

In conclusion, it is worth recalling that the His Dark Materials trilogy is found in the juvenile section of the local library, and its audience is children in grade school. Pope Benedict XVI, wisely noting that the media have a powerful effect on children in their formative years, has explicitly requested that children be exposed to excellence in literature that advances the values of the human person and the human family and promotes the achievement of the authentic ends of human life (61).

Notes

(Editor’s notes 1, 2, 3) For ease of reading, the following abbreviations will be used:

GC=Pullman, Philip. His Dark Materials, Book 1: The Golden Compass. A Yearling Book. New York: Random House Children’s Books, 1995;

SK=Pullman, Philip. His Dark Materials, Book 2: The Subtle Knife. A Yearling Book. New York: Random House Children’s Books, 1997;

AS=Pullman, Philip. His Dark Materials, Book 3: The Amber Spyglass. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.

(1) John Paul II, Discourse to the Participants of the Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (October 31, 1992).

(2) Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Universal Prayer: Confession of Sins and Asking for Forgiveness (March 12, 2000).

(3) Pontifical Council for Culture and Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Jesus Christ, The Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the "New Age" (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 2003), p. 13.

(4) Ibid., p. 35.

(5) Ibid., pp. 28, 40.

(6) Ibid., p. 20.

(7) Ibid., p. 13.

(8) Ibid., p. 24.

(9) Ibid., p. 34.

(10) Ibid., p. 84.

(11) Ibid., p. 41.

(12) Ibid., p. 32. Dualism, strictly speaking, has its roots in the non-Christian system of thought, Manichæism, and proposes two equal but opposing principles in the universe, one good and one evil, often considering only what is spiritual to be good and connecting what is material with evil.

(13) Ibid., p. 47.

(14) Ibid., p. 96.

(15) Ibid., p. 47.

(16) Ibid., pp. 57-58.

(17) John Paul II, Letter to Families, n. 9.

(18) St. Thomas Aquinas, De Veritate, q. 2, a. 2.

(19) Ralph McInerny, St. Thomas Aquinas (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), pp. 46-49.

(20) William Wallace, The Elements of Philosophy (Staten Island, NY: Alba House, 1977), pp. 69, 73-74.

(21) St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I, q. 83, a. 1.

(22) John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, n. 43.

(23) St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I-II, q. 90, a. 4, ad 1, quoted in John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, n. 43.

(24) Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language (New York: The World Publishing Company, 1953), p. 623.

(25) C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1960), p. 21.

(26) Gaudium et Spes, n. 16, quoted in John Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem, n. 43.

(27) John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, n. 65.

(28) John Paul II, Letter to Artists, n. 1.

(29) St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I-II, q. 1, a. 3, quoted in John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, n. 71.

(30) John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, n. 67.

(31) Ibid., n. 75.

(32) St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I-II, q. 18, a. 6, quoted in John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, n. 78, nn. 80-81.

(33) John Paul II, Address to the United States Bishops of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska on Their "Ad Limina" Visit (May 28, 1993), quoted in Jesus Christ, The Bearer of the Water of Life, p. 87.

(34) Jesus Christ, The Bearer of the Water of Life, p. 74.

(35) Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), Homily at the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff (April 18, 2005).

(36) Jesus Christ, The Bearer of the Water of Life, pp. 108-109.

(37) Ibid., p. 38, Footnote 34.

(38) Ibid., p. 107.

(39) Ibid., p. 41.

(40) Ibid., p. 28.

(41) John Paul II, Letter to Youth, n. 10.

(42) John Paul II, Letter to Families, n. 13.

(43) John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, n. 37.

(44) John Paul II, Letter to Families, n. 5.

(45) John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, n. 19.

(46) Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2347.

(47) John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, nn. 19, 24.

(48) Ibid., n. 30.

(49) Jesus Christ, The Bearer of the Water of Life, p. 41.

(50) John Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem, n. 36.

(51) John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, nn. 40, 96.

(52) John Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem, n. 36.

(53) St. John of the Cross, The Spiritual Canticle, 39, 6.

(54) Stanley Jaki, The Only Chaos and Other Essays (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1990), pp. 104-105.

(55) Erwin Schrödinger, "Die gegenwärtige Situation in der Quantenmechanik," Naturwissenschaften 23 (November 29, 1935): 812.

(56) Stanley Jaki, The Road of Science and the Ways to God (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1978), pp. 126-127, 247-248.

(57) Stanley Jaki, God and the Cosmologists (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1989), p. 135.

(58) Stanley Jaki, Cosmos and Creator (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1980), pp. 42-43.

(59) Ruth Nanda Anshen, ed., World Perspectives (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1955), vol. 1, Approaches to God, by Jacques Maritain, p. 54.

(60) Stanley Jaki, God and the Cosmologists, p. 49.

(61) Benedict XVI, Message for the World Day of Social Communications (January 24, 2007).