Introduction: Understanding and reason

Learning Outcomes

(AT1) By the end of these lessons students should have a knowledge and understanding of:

• The relationship between authority and freedom of thought in religious studies.

(AT2) By the end of these lessons students should be able to reflect upon and evaluate:

• The connection between story and personal understanding.

How we learn from stories

His Dark Materials is a story with different levels of meaning. At the level of a simple story, we have an action-packed adventure across different parallel worlds, in which good (supporters of free will) defeat their opponents (supporters of authority). Alongside this simple story is a level of meaning which tells us something about ourselves and our world – about what kind of people we are, about good and evil and how difficult it is to tell which is which. Lyra is a girl growing up, finding she is not an orphan, with some very confused loyalties. Will is a troubled boy worrying about this mother’s health and his father’s absence, without friends, self esteem and in trouble with the authorities. They work things out, and we can learn from their journey.

Authority and Free Will

Pullman emphasizes the importance of people being able to use their reason and free will responsibly to solve problems. External authority takes away this ability for independent action and thought by demanding unthinking obedience. This happens in religion, politics and society. By the end of the story, the small band of authoritarian religious extremists are driven out of power and a more reasoned church organisation takes over. Their ‘Authority’ is revealed as a man-made interpretation of God and not the Creator himself. Religious extremism still has no room for personal freedoms. Secular authoritarian extremists in power, such as communism, also inhibit human creativity, imagination and freedom.

Task 1.1

Discuss the issues on Stagework in Issues - Faith, Truth and Blasphemy as a class. This section discusses the position Pullman takes over Christianity and organised religion, and about the importance of a spirituality which involves the imagination.

a) Discuss the kinds of authority you have experienced (e.g. parents, teachers, doctors, police). Which elements of these have you found helpful and which have you found difficult? Explain why and give examples. (AT2).

b) Read and discuss the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and the Golden Rule as authorities for behaviour. (AT1)

c) Discuss in what ways people are responsible for their own actions and behaviour. In what circumstances do you think you might know what is right but end up doing the opposite? (AT2)

d) Young children are self-focused, demand what they want and resist authority. Tell a story, from experience or imagination, of children beginning to share.

e) When should children obey adults, and why? (clues: health, safety). When should children not obey adults, and why?

Plenary

Summarise and develop the views discussed on good and bad behaviour and experiences.

Reflect as a class on: issues of being informed and being responsible.

Background notes for teachers

a) The story

The easiest way to read the story outline is to read the stage plays by Nicholas Wright: His Dark Materials , published by Nick Hern Books (2003, ISBN 1 85459 768 X). They can be read in an evening. Decisions on how to adapt three complex books are discussed on Stagework under Issues; this discussion can be shared with the students.

b) Dust

The newly discovered elementary particles are fictionally explained as the seed-corn of human consciousness and is described as a deliberate strategy (by whom is a mystery) against the Authority, starting 33,000 years ago –when the human race emerged. The church viewed this challenge to authority as sin; the other side saw it as the growth in consciousness, wisdom and imagination. The particles called Dust eventually triumph over authority – but this is seen as free will and not disobedience. The message of this is that humanity should be informed by informed and rational responsibility, and not by unthinking obedience.

c) Parallel worlds

Setting a story in a parallel world is not new. Alice sees new worlds down a rabbit hole and through a looking glass; CS Lewis places his world behind a wardrobe.

The various parallel worlds in His Dark Materials are:

• Lyra’s world, especially Oxford and the arctic (in Northern Lights)

• Will’s world (i.e. our world), especially Oxford although the action starts in Winchester (in The Subtle Knife ).

• Cittagazze, “the city of magpies” [or thieves], from which people use the subtle knife to raid other worlds.

• The mulefa world [not represented in the play], where evolution has depended on a close relation with the tree of knowledge which produces oil and wheels (in The Amber Spyglass ).

• Hades, the underworld, the ancient Greek world of ghosts.

d) Daemons

In Lyra’s world, what we might call inner spiritual essence is visible. Our personalities or souls are seen as daemons. Characters from our world learn to ‘see’ their daemons imaginatively – Will’s is a cat (a fighter only when necessary); and that of Mary [a character who is not in the play] is a bird, an alpine chough (free, strong but on the margins). The end result of Lyra and Will’s actions is to cut off our world from magic and the supernatural – so we have to make our own choices using our own resources – especially reason and our imagination (that is our ability to ‘see’ things which are true but hidden).