‘Peanuts’ at 75

 From Mark Judge at Chronicles:

Charlie Brown is 75. The media celebrations of the Peanuts’ anniversary all note that, seven-plus decades on, the strip still resonates. It is funny while, at the same time, making poignant observations about the irony, joy, and frustrations of life.

What’s been missing from the coverage is what I’ve always found most interesting about Charlie, Lucy, Linus, and the gang—the spiritual angle. There has always been a mystical, philosophical and contemplative tone to Peanuts. The characters seem bemused and accepting of the disappointments of life, yet also are rewarded with friendship, loyalty, and humor. There has to be a theology behind it, I have always thought, and I’ve long been curious about what accounts for it. 

In his 1968 book, The Parables of Peanuts, Robert Short sees Christian theology at work in the strip. Charles Schulz once asked, “If we are all members of the priesthood, why cannot a cartoonist preach in the same manner as a minister, or anyone else?” Short claims that Schulz’s cartoon strips, like Jesus’ parables, combine “the proclamation of God’s love for the world, and [a depiction of] the world as it really is.” Short’s book contains references to theologians such as Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Soren Kierkegaard.

The real story, however, is that Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts who died in 2000, was never really comfortable talking openly about religion. As the new book What Cartooning Really Is: The Main Interviews with Charles M. Schulz reveals, the cartoonist would often try to divert questioners who asked him about God. (Read more.)