A decade ago, I read Steven McKenzie’s King David: A Biography
(Oxford University Press, 2002). What I soon realized was that the Bible creates propaganda to sell faith in its God, especially though famous characters created to promote belief in Israelite monotheism; be they Abraham, Moses, David or Jesus. These embellished Super Heroes function like our comic book (now in movies) Super Heroes such as Superman, Batman and Spiderman battling the forces of evil for a world of good. But these idealized figures simply function to serve our fantasies in a world where reality is fraught with suffering and injusticeDebunking Christianity: King David and Jesus: The Bible’s Mythic Super Heroes
It is not a new argument. I have posted and talked about
this subject a lot on this blog. Instead of dredging them up, let's
instead look at how Chris Sims answered this question.
Chris Sims is a blogger, comics writer, and simply brilliant and he happens to be an atheist. I do not agree with everything he says and writes but he is spot-on here.
The idea of Superman as a Christ figure is the herpes of pop culture criticism. No matter how hard you try to get rid of it, it just won't go away.
It's a popular interpretation, but the thing is, it just doesn't work. As I understand it, the entire deal with Jesus in a nutshell is that he was the Son of God, divinity made flesh who was sent to Earth in order to instruct us as a teacher and then sacrifice His life, redeeming the whole of humanity for its sins through His suffering on both a literal and metaphorical level. There's a little more to it, of course, but for more details, you can check out around 90% of the rest of Western art and literature.
Superman's story, on the other hand, has nothing to do with any of that. The core of his character isn't about sacrifice or redemption at all, it's about having power and choosing to use it for the benefit of everyone rather than just using it for yourself. The comparison seems to be entirely based on the idea that Superman's a really nice guy who came from somewhere up in the sky. That's about where the similarities end.
Jor-El is not Space God. He doesn't send Superman to Earth for our benefit, he sends Superman to Earth because it's the one place in the universe where his son can survive and thrive. He's protecting him, not sacrificing him, and humanity's need for someone to fight robots and Brainiacs doesn't even cross his mind. And, to paraphrase Grant Morrison, I'm pretty sure Heaven didn't explode shortly after Jesus was launched down to Bethlehem.
Superman's morality isn't divine or innate, either. It's not something that he was born with, and it's not something that sets him apart from humanity. Morally speaking, anyone can be as Good as Superman; the only advantage he has is that he was brought up by a couple of really nice farmers. He's an aspirational figure rather than a redemptive one, who shows us that we all have the ability to use our talents for good, we just have to choose to do so.
The argument wasn't that Jesus was Superman, but rather the Jesus and David characters were the superheroes of their time.
ReplyDeleteSo Chris' comments have nothing to do with Harry's. Swing and miss Marcus.
Chris Sims wasn't arguing against Superman being Jesus. McCall's argument is that Jesus serves the same purpose as Superman in today's culture. In order to come to that conclusion you have to see how they function the same way. Chris argues that they don't. Bet you didn't even read Chris' whole article.
ReplyDeleteChris Sims wasn't arguing against Superman being Jesus.
ReplyDelete??? Of course he is! He's specifically arguing just that. There's no way you don't see this unless you think we're talking that Superman is literally Jesus, come again? But no, the argument Chris is making is that Superman's character is not based on Jesus' character (both characters made up, mind you)...
McCall's argument is that Jesus serves the same purpose as Superman in today's culture.
Close, but miss. He's not arguing that Jesus fulfills the same role as Superman, he's (McKenzie, actually) is arguing that Jesus, David, Moses and the rest were fulfilling the same literary and cultural role that Super Heroes fulfill today.
Reread please...
What I soon realized was that the Bible creates propaganda to sell faith in its God, especially though famous characters created to promote belief in Israelite monotheism; be they Abraham, Moses, David or Jesus. These embellished Super Heroes function like our comic book (now in movies) Super Heroes such as Superman, Batman and Spiderman battling the forces of evil for a world of good.
If you are arguing that that Jesus fulfills the same function in Israel as Superman does in American culture than you are making a relationship between Jesus and Superman. Chris Sims is arguing that Superman is not an archetype based on Jesus. I'm saying that McCall and McKenzie are arguing that Superman and other superheroes are based on the same archetype. I think you need to re-read.
ReplyDeleteJesus, David, Moses and the rest were fulfilling the same literary and cultural role that Super Heroes fulfill today.
Yup no similar purpose being argued for there! Sheesh! Purpose = literary and cultural role!
(both characters made up, mind you)...
You just had to add more failure and stupidity to your comments didn't you.
If you are arguing that that Jesus fulfills the same function in Israel as Superman does in American culture than you are making a relationship between Jesus and Superman
ReplyDeleteHoly crap. Slow down. All Super Heroes are not Superman.
Try this again... The argument is that Jesus, David, Moses and the rest of the biblical made up (or embellished) characters) were fulfilling the same literary and cultural role that Super Heroes (Superman = Super Hero but not all Super Heroes are Superman, follow???) fulfill today.
All Super Heroes are not Superman.
ReplyDeleteI never said that they were. Just using Superman is enough to show the stupidity of the original paragraph.
Just using Superman is enough to show the stupidity of the original paragraph
ReplyDeleteWow, simply wow. It seems you are just as incapable of making an argument as you are at understanding one.
One last time, s…l…o…w…l…y… Demonstrating that the Superman character is not based on the Jesus character does not in any way even begin to speak to the argument that biblical characters fulfill the same cultural and literary role that comic book characters fulfill today.
Do you see where you missed on this one?
One last time, s…l…o…w…l…y… Demonstrating that the Superman character is not based on the Jesus character does not in any way even begin to speak to the argument that biblical characters fulfill the same cultural and literary role that comic book characters fulfill today.
ReplyDeleteYes it does. That is what the "Christ Archetype" means. The argument that is that Superman fulfills the same role as Jesus. That is what Chris Sims shows in his blog post. I'm hoping that you're at least smart enough to see that McCall is wrong even if you don't think that Chris Sims' arguments are relevant to speaking against his position. But I'm sure I'm wrong about that.
Wow...
ReplyDelete