Every year at my seminary, the graduating seniors can submit an essay to two different categories (one for Old Testament and one for New Testament) for a prize. There is also an option to write a piece strictly for the contest. One of the things they asked for was creativity. I had originally written a paper for a film class talking about Christianity and Zombies, which was well received so I decided to use its’ bones for the basis of this paper. It was a lot of fun writing about this subject. So I hope you enjoy it!
One of the most popular icons in today’s culture is the zombie. It has been estimated that the zombie genre has generated at last five billion dollars or more in revenue per year since 2011.[1] They can be found in movies (World War Z), video games (Resident Evil, H1Z1), commercials, live action Human versus Zombie events, and television shows (The Walking Dead), to name a few. People’s obsession about zombies has become a lens into the greater psyche and moral compass of American society. Looking more closely at the explosion of zombie culture and comparing it to the teachings of the Christian church, there are some direct implications on how Christians live and spread the gospel in modern American culture.
Zombies are according to the American Heritage Dictionary “A supernatural power or spell that according to voodoo belief can enter into and reanimate a corpse.”[2] As we know, corpses are dead people. So basically, zombies are beings that are not alive, they are the husk or a shell. Zombies have been around in legends and myths for hundreds of years thanks to the practices of voodoo. They didn’t capture the American audience imagination until 1958 when George Romero came out with Night of the Living Dead. Interestingly enough, he didn’t name the undead creatures in his movies zombies but “flesh-eaters”. It was the fans that started calling them zombies.[3] Romero bowed to fan pressure and so for his next movie he used the word zombie to name them. A pop culture icon was born.
Even though zombies are portrayed as mindless, brain sucking abominations, they actually say a lot about our society views on religion and more specifically Christianity. Zombies are one of the only undead creatures that are not affected by some sort of religious icons. Most monsters, like vampires, werewolves, and mummies are hurt or repelled by some Christian symbol like a cross, holy water, holy ground, or blessed items. Zombies are not inhibited in the least by any of these objects.
Jasie Stokes makes an important observation based on this knowledge. “Unlike most horror films, there is no place for a God in a world suffering a zombie invasion. God represents, and is, the embodiment of order, hope, and community. In a world where the basic boundaries of existence are broken down, where there is no hope for a glorious resurrection or reincarnation and where communities have no communal practice of ritual or even a sense of cooperation and the ‘common good’, God cannot exist and religion is impotent in defeating the monster.”[4] The rise of the zombie as a pop icon makes more sense when we consider that the United States is becoming more secularized with each year.[5] People feel they don’t need to cling to the faith of their fathers and mothers but would rather cling to science and facts.
Instead of the Bible, the American public uses the zombie genre in order to investigate and ask questions about essential religious questions: Are humans inherently evil at the core of their beings? Does love really triumph over all? What defines our humanity? “Zombie stories throw into sharp contrast the best and worst of what we are. In ‘28 Days Later,’ it is our capacity for rage and mindless violence that is highlighted; in ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead,’ it’s our rampant consumerism; in the original script for ‘I Am Legend,’ it’s our ability to hate.”[6]
Even though death is a very natural process of life, the modern American still has a hard time understanding it – especially without the religious context. This is because of how people treat the dead body in our society. People don’t have as much contact with bodies as our ancestors did. Instead, they ship it out to a funeral home whose job is to prepare the body. People then go to the same funeral home, which allows us to have a service that is not affiliated with any religious group. There are no support systems in place. This same sense of vulnerability speaks to many through zombie movies because “zombies dehumanize humans by eliminating their chance to experience normal feelings of grief, mortality, or sacredness, and forcing them to substitute callous unthinking, reflexive violence.”[7]
Zombies are a creation of our drive toward secularism. They represent a world devoid of religious meaning as well as a Creator who is not present. Zombie culture also attempts to fill the moral and ethical void that is left due to society’s lack of engagement with religious institutions and lack of biblical literacy. Lastly, zombies reinforce the American fear of death by not promoting healthy habits to deal with death.
If zombies speak to an absence of God, then Jesus Christ speaks to God’s presence. According to Christians, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man. Jesus came down from heaven so that God could live among us, show us a model of the character that we should strive for, and die for our sins. Even though Jesus died for our sins he was also raised from the dead. Could this mean that Jesus was a zombie? At the last supper Jesus commanded us to eat his body and drink his blood. How is this any different then the blood and guts people see in every zombie film every made?
Jesus was not the only person that was raised from the dead in the Gospels: there was the daughter of Jarius,[8] Lazarus,[9] and the Widow’s Son at Nain[10]. In each of these cases, the person that was dead was brought back to life. Was this an undead life like a zombie? No. It was as if the person had simply fallen asleep and Christ had woken them up. People in the Gospels who are resurrected are real people, meaning that they are not just a body that is consumed by feeding. They have all the traits that made them human. These people are not mentioned in great detail again but it is inferred that they went on to live normal lives until they died. It is also interesting to note that when the people are brought back to life there is not a reaction of fear toward the former dead person but rather fear and amazement directed at the act of resurrection or to Jesus the one who brought the person back. This reaction makes sense within the context of 1st century culture because of a shared belief in the spiritual realm.
Jesus resurrection is probably one of the best-known stories from the Gospel. What happens when he comes out of the tomb? He shows people his wounds and speaks words of comfort to them:
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and he doors of the house were shut for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side…”[11]
Jesus’ resurrection brings hope. That death is not the final answer because there is a God who cares about humans so much that God came to abolish it. This verse is an interesting contrast to the modern mindset: people are invited to touch Jesus’ resurrected body. What a tactile way to show hope! In this account of the resurrection in John, Jesus disciples rejoice at his presence and it stirs them to greater action.
Another well know resurrection story occurs in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus appears to the disciples on the beach[12]. When the disciples encounter Christ in this story they think he is a ghost. The author of Luke uses the word pneuvma, which can mean either a bodiless spirit or a specter. So it would appear that the disciples think that Jesus is not real. It makes sense then when Jesus asks to eat some broiled fish, so that his disciples can see that he is as real as they are. Again, his disciples rejoiced that he was alive. Even though in numerous accounts where Jesus’ body bears the marks of the crucifixion, the damage to his body doesn’t repulse his followers but does the opposite. His wounds inspire them to go share the Gospel to the world. It should be pretty obvious by now that resurrected bodies are quite different than husks that zombies inhabit.
Finally what about the language of communion? The body and blood of a man being shared by a hungry host does conjure up images of packs of zombies feeding on their unlucky prey. However, instead of simply imbuing the feaster with protein and calorie fulfillment, Jesus’ body and blood go deeper into a person’s soul. The bread being broken allows Christians to remember Christ’s body being broken on the cross. The cross is such an important event in time and space that in the words of Forde “it creates the fissure and stands forever in it….It is a wound that does not simply heal and leave no scar.”[13] This cross symbolizes the fact that God came down in human form, to dwell with people, to teach them, and to die for all sinners. The wine which Christians are asked to drink, reminds Christians of Christ’s blood which was shed on the cross. Christ died and rose again so that Christians may do the same. The apostle Paul writes:
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.[14]
Some denominations, like Lutherans, believe that communion also shows Christians “his (Jesus) new covenant, his word of forgiveness, a promise in his body and blood that faith can trust confidently in any circumstance, regardless of the supposed unworthiness or misuse of any participant.“[15] Jesus’ body and blood are not used then as mindless random carnage. Instead there is meaning and intentionality behind Christians partaking in communion that leads to a closer relationship to Jesus and a reminder of God’s promise of grace and mercy.
Jesus has sometimes been referred to as one of the most famous zombies. However, from examining the Bible, it appears that Jesus was not a brain hungering abomination that spreads fear and destruction. He was quit the opposite. When Jesus appeared, he consistently told his disciples to be at peace and not to fear him,. Jesus Christ’s resurrection and his teachings stand in stark contrast to what the modern culture has embraced in regards to zombies.
There are several beliefs or ideas that American culture embraces due to their fascination with zombies that Christians have to recognize and that have impact on how Christians live out the Gospel. These beliefs center around how people view each other, how people interact with one another, and where do people find hope.
In many zombie stories, one of the main characteristics that separate the living from the undead are their eyes. Zombies tend to have empty gray eyes. “The dead look at you and they don’t really see you: they see food. That’s all they see. I don’t know if there are many things more horrifying than to be seen by another human being as nothing more than an object to consume.”[16] This perception of consumption or use of others can be seen in surveys where 77% of Americans feel that people are generally motivated by self interest.[17] In addition to this survey, there have been other surveys that have shown Americans have been increasingly isolated from their physical neighbors.[18] This isolation feeds into the mindset in American culture that the neighbor is not like us. George Romero (the godfather of the zombie movie) played into this type of mentality. “I just took some of the mysterioso stuff of voodoo out of it, and made them the neighbors,” he tells Wired.com in an exclusive video interview. “Neighbors are frightening enough when they’re alive.”[19] This climate of distrust and fear exposes Christians to negative images of their neighbor. In contrast, Jesus teaches that Christians should love their neighbor as themselves.[20] This means that Christians have to keep continuously reminding themselves that their neighbor is not to be feared. In order to get past this fear, Christians must take the time and get to know their neighbors, listen to their neighbors, and give their neighbors grace. This will be challenging for Christians because their neighbors will be suspicious of their behavior. However, it is an opportunity for Christians to be witnesses of their faith to their neighbor as well as themselves.
Humans perception shapes their actions. One the things that our society has drawn from the zombie genre is that violence solves problems. “There is a stark clarity to the zombie apocalypse. Right and wrong are easy to discern: no need to agonize, just shoot the monsters in the head. The zombie apocalypse provides a moral clarity that we lack, as violence becomes the preferred method of engaging the world. We save the world, bullet by bullet, and we feel fine.”[21] On average in the United States there are 86 deaths as well as 308 injuries caused by firearms.[22] This is one of the highest levels of gun violence in any modern nation.[23] Firearm violence isn’t the only type of violence that people can perpetuate on each other. People can also inflict emotional and verbal violence against each other. The news seems to be dominated with stories of people using violence to solve their mundane problems, like disputes over parking spots, with their neighbor.[24] In a culture that likes to use violence to solve problems, Jesus invites Christians to use love. Love allows for a positive interaction between Christians and their neighbor. Problems can be solved for the benefit of all involved. One of the reasons that people, resort to violence is because they feel powerless or repressed. Working out of love for and with people, allows them to feel a sense of entitlement and hope. Christians as they work with their neighbor have to be wary of violence but love opens doors to conversations, to interactions, to changing people’s minds about how effective violence can be.
Finally, zombies influence on culture affects society’s hope. “Possibly zombie stories are so attractive to us because they ask this final religious question: What reason do we have for the hope within us? Why, in the face of the global food crisis, a genocide every decade, climate change, world poverty and finally, the ravenous dead — why, in the face of all that, do we not just lie down and die?”[25] In many of these instances the hope runs out as the last survivor dies to the zombie horde. At other times hope is based squarely on the last surviving elements of humanity. Zombies teach society that human born hope is sufficient. When this hope is smashed though there is nothing else to stand in the gap. Christians are taught in contrast that their hope lies in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This hope is perceived by Christians in the promises of God who has raised Jesus from the dead and given all Christians eternal life.[26] The hope that comes from God allows Christians to work in conditions and situations that would normally suck human hope away. Christians need to understand that their neighbor might not have the same source of hope that they have. In some cases, they will have to help sustain their neighbor and reflect the hope that they see to their neighbor.
Due to the influence of zombies on American pop culture, Christians have to realize that their ability to live out the gospel in their lives and communities have been affected. Christians need to be more mindful of Jesus’ command to love our neighbor and where Christians draw their hope for the future from.
One of the teachings that Christians hold onto comes from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans he where says:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect.”[27]
Pop culture always finds a way to influence society. The current infatuation with zombies has opened a lens into the psyche of the American public that has revealed some ideas that make it harder for Christians to live out the Gospel. In response, Christians can use these hardships to be more of a witness to how the Gospel can help others experience the love of God.
[1] “Zombies Worth over 5 Billion to Economy,” 24/7 Wall St., Accessed April 27, 2015, http://247wallst.com/investing/2011/10/25/zombies-worth-over-5-billion-to-economy/
[2] “Definition of Zombie,” Yahoo!, Accessed April 27, 2015 https://dictionary.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AwrBT.RgvT5VrTEAmqJXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzOGJjZG5lBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDVklQNjE5XzEEc2VjA3Nj?p=zombie&fr=yfp-t-901
[3]“ ‘Godfather of the Dead’ George A Romero talks Zombies,” Wired, Accessed April 27, 2015, http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/06/george-a-romero-zombies/
[4] Jasie Stokes, “Ghouls, Hell, and Transcendence: The Zombie in Popular Culture from “Night of the Living Dead” to “Shaun of the Dead” (Master of Arts diss, Brigham Young University, 2010).
[5] “The decline of biblical literalism and the rise of secularism in one chart,” Religious news Service, Accessed April 27, 2015 http://www.religionnews.com/2014/06/05/decline-literalism-rise-secularism-one-chart/
[6] “Zombies and God: 5 Religious Questions That Zombie Stories Ask Us,” Huffington Post, Accessed April 27, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stant-litore/zombies-and-god-5-religious-questions-zombie-stories-ask-us_b_1988536.html
[7] Kim Paffenroth, Gospel of the Living Dead George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2006), 13.
[8] Mark 5:21-43
[9] John 11:1-44
[10] Luke 7:11-17
[11] John 20:19-20
[12] Luke 24:36-42
[13] Gerhard Forde,”The Work of Christ” in Christian Dogmatics, v2. Ed. Carl E. Braaten et al. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishing, 1984), 76.
[14] Romans 6:5
[15] “Table and font: Who is welcome? An Invitation to join the conversation about Baptism and Communion, ELCA, Accessed, April 27 2015, http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Biblical_and_Confessional_Resources.pdf?_ga=1.86812248.1708903227.1417465718
[16] “Zombies and God: 5 Religious Questions That Zombie Stories Ask Us,” Huffington Post, Accessed April 27, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stant-litore/zombies-and-god-5-religious-questions-zombie-stories-ask-us_b_1988536.html
[17] “21 Charts that explain American values Today,” The Atlantic, Accessed on April 27, 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/21-charts-that-explain-american-values-today/258990/
[18] “State of the Neighborhood Report January 2015,” Leeo, Accessed April 27, 2015, https://www.leeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/20150113_Leeo_State_of_the_Neighborhood_Report1.pdf
[19] ‘Godfather of the Dead’ George A Romero talks Zombies,” Wired, Accessed April 27, 2015, http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/06/george-a-romero-zombies/
[20] Mark 12:31
[21] “Walking Dead and Zombie Ethics, or ‘Don’t Fight the Zombies. You Can’t Win’,” Religion Dispatches, Accessed April 27, 2015, http://religiondispatches.org/iwalking-deadi-and-zombie-ethics-or-dont-fight-the-zombies-you-cant-win/
[22] “Gun violence and mass shootings – myths, facts, and solutions,” Washington Post, Accessed April 27, 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/06/11/gun-violence-and-mass-shootings-myths-facts-and-solutions/
[23] Ibid
[24] “’ He hates us’ Muslim father of NC victims says daughter had run-ins with alleged killer,” Fox News, Accessed April 27, 2015, http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/11/north-carolina-man-charged-in-shooting-death-three-people/
[25] “Zombies and God: 5 Religious Questions That Zombie Stories Ask Us,” Huffington Post, Accessed April 27, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stant-litore/zombies-and-god-5-religious-questions-zombie-stories-ask-us_b_1988536.html
[26] Romans 6:4-5
[27] Romans 12:2
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