What’s this got to do with the above discussion? Well, first the mainline churches are going to go nuts, as the trilogy features a war against god, who ultimately dies in the third book. And it’s not even a heroic death - he’s so weakened, he’s blown away by a gust of wind.

Second, Pullman very interestingly pits the “Republic of Heaven” against the “Kingdom of Heaven” represented by the traditional god. If you look up “The Republic of Heaven” on Wikipedia, there’s a very interesting entry. Apparently the phrase originated with Gerard Winstanley, leader of the Diggers, a group, like the Quakers, which sprung up during the social upheaval of the English Civil War. Quoting from the entry, it’s “the idea that humans must build their happiness in the here and now, and that the official Church’s emphasis on the afterlife is no more than a diversion by the powerful to repress the common people.”

For me, this concept (in its broadest sense) really sums up Quakerism. Perhaps we, too, should be outside the cinemas in December, extolling the “Republic of Heaven”!

ID

P.S. Pam Connection with other beings is just part of connection with the whole of reality, it’s not even a connection, we are as such already reality itself. You know what I mean. But this awareness of also being reality itself as humans is never thought through, because we are the victim of dichotomies created by the way language works…

I find more and more recently that I’m not a theist or a nontheist, I simply don’t care if it’s god or not god, I’d rather get on with exploring and loving the world. There is something that feels miraculous to me, in life, in connection wtih other beings. is that god? is it because of god? it’s just occuring to me that I don’t particularly care.

peace
Pam