"The Golden Compass," etc.

**

The Golden Compass and the two following books in the children's fantasy trilogy have been controversial because of their supposed anti-Christian message, but I found the version of Christianity that the author (Philip Pullman) rejects to be such a distortion of the real thing that the books didn't trouble me at all--on the contrary, I wholeheartedly enjoyed them even though I tend to find that kind of fantasy book annoying.

And here is one part that spoke to me of the journey of faith (though the parallel with the narrative isn't perfect for various reasons that you'd have to have read the books to understand--too complex to go into now).

In this passage, Iorek Byrnison, the king of the warrior bears, is leading them to a new land for survival due to worldwide climate change:

Most of the bears had never seen mountains, apart from the cliffs on their own island of Svalbard, and fell silent as they looked up at the giant ramparts, still so far off.

"Where will we hunt there, Iorek Byrnison," said one. "Are there seals in the mountains? How shall we live?"

Iorek Byrnison explains to them that they will be able to hunt even though this terrain is very different from what they are used to. Then he says,

"...If we had stayed there, we would have starved. Be prepared for strangeness and new ways, my bears."

"Strangeness and new ways"--I can't think of a more concise description of the way it feels to follow Christ!

***