Christianity
From Srafopedia
Christianity is the most popular monotheistic religion in the world today, with, including all branches, an estimated two billion followers worldwide. The belief system is based upon the idea that the universe and everything within was created by God an indeterminate period of time ago. God Himself, named Ya-Weh in the book 'Exodus' in the Bible (appearing as a burning bush to Moses, tellimg him to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land), is an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent being who knows all there is to know, can do everything and anything, and is everywhere within and beyond the universe at the same time. Immediately this raises questions, but this will be discussed later.
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The Bible, Creation, Life and Death
The Bible is the holy book of Christianity, and is actually a sum of sixty-six seperate smaller tomes that each tell different stories and show different morals. The Old and New testaments of the Bible have very different tones. The Old Testament, translated from the original Hebrew texts, tells the story of the Word of God through the Ten Commandments, the stories of Creation and the journey to the Promised Land, and the stories of the Prophets. Traditional Christian morals are centered around these stories, and make much of our justice system and moral culture today - thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and thou shalt not commit adultery being just some of the most important lessons to be learned in Western culture. The Old Testament was originally taken literally by Christians worldwide, the mainstream branch of the religion being Catholicism, but as time has passed, there have been other subcultures that encourage taking the Bible as a metaphorical way of living, as some phrases within it's pages seem to be contradictory to others. The Old Testament is very much on how we should live, although it differs from the New Testament in one very important respect - Jesus is not there. The Old Testament says that the only way to be forgiven for our sins is to sacrifice an animal upon an altar. As the animal has no soul, the sin of the sacrificer(s) travels up to God instead, and is cast down into Hell and insodoing is dealt with forever.
The New Testament takes a very different approach to life than the Old Testament. From the beginning of our lives, we are tainted with the sin of humanity, Original Sin. This stems from the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis, where Eve was tempted into eating a fruit (assumed to be an apple) from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge by the serpent. Adam followed suit, and so both were cast out of the Garden of Eden. From that point on, Man was doomed to be sent to Hell with sin if unforgiven. With the New Testament as part of the Bible, forgiveness came far easier than before. Any act, any atrocity, and any sin can be forgiven, no matter how large, as long as the person committing the act is truly sorry, and has faith that Jesus died on the crucifix as payment for every sin committed by Humanity. Regular praying, real belief, and a drive to improve as a person ensures a place within Heaven. The New Testament gives a different outlook on converting others as well. Gone is the Old Testament view of forcing other religions to convert, instead replaced with mild indifference of the "I love you, but in the end, it's your choice" school of thought.
The most interesting thing to note about the two books is that the Old Testament has the beginning of life at the start of its pages, whereas the New Testament deals with the end of the world at the end. In a vision by St John the Baptist, he sees the world being destroyed by seven plagues, lightning from the sky, and rain of fire (strangely and worryingly consistent with the effects of a Hydrogen fusion-bomb - illegal to both make and use, even in war, simply because they are "too dangerous", a stupid and frankly surprising view), followed by a New Heaven and a New Earth being created for the flock that follow God and Jesus. All sinners are cast down into Hell along with Satan and his demons, who will be eternally kept there.
Reference in His Dark Materials
The Christianity evident in our world is a very different belief system than that in place in His Dark Materials. Primarily, there is no Jesus evident throughout the trilogy (except in a single reference by Mary Malone, of Will's World, to "devote [her] life to Jesus") - no saviour borne of heaven to remove all the sin in the world. Instead, flagellation, penetance and sacrifice seem to be the main way in which people are forgiven. This seems consistent with Old Testament morals, so it is likely that the New Testament was not written and/or included in Lyra's world. The church is not named as such in Lyra's world, instead, the name given is the Magisterium, operated by the Consistorial Court of Discipline through a tangled framework of colleges, councils, and lesser courts, including the General Oblation Board (or Gobblers). The Magisterium also use different words for God. No more is He named Ya-Weh, but instead, He is called the Authority, reflecting the complex authoritative and dark undertones of the Court. Jesus, as already stated, is not a part of the symbology of the Magisterium, instead, the Authority has another right-hand-man; Metatron. Metatron could be construed as a less dangerous version of Satan (originally Lucifer, and in our world, God's favourite angel. It is unclear if this is also carried through to Lyra's world); he has far more power than any other angel, as did Lucifer, and has the drive and aspiration to take over Heaven from God, as Lucifer also tried.
Symbolism
Much of the symbology in the Bible is carried over into Lyra's Christianity. Praying is still very much part of the life of a priest- Father Gomez prayed for pre-emptive absolution, the necessary deaths of Will and Lyra, something present in our version of Christianity as well, also, unfortunately, used in much the same way. Crucifixes are, for some reason, part of the Magisterium's Christianity, although with no mention, suggestion, or implication of Jesus or crucifixion anywhere within the books, this is unclear as to why. Inscence and sweet-smelling herbs, used to help priests gain a state of mental enlightenment, are also present within Lyra's world. Along with the majority of influence stemming from the Old Testament, this adds to the implication that the New Testament is absent.
More information:
Thanks to Wikipedia for information concerning the Bible
