A Very Dickens Christmas
by the Rev. Colin Bossen, December 19, 2010
There are few stories in our culture that have as much resonance as Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol." Every year during the holiday the story is told and retold. It has been made into movies, depicted on the stage, translated into comic books and shown endlessly on television. The characters of Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim are familiar to all of us. And who can forget the ethereal apparitions of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
Dickens's story has penetrated our culture to such an extent that it has influenced everyday expression. If someone is a cheapskate and possesses an ungenerous spirit they might be referred to as a Scrooge by their compatriots. And Scrooge's favorite phrase, "Bah Humbug," at least joking makes its way into the vocabulary of the grouchy.
Writing of Dickens, George Orwell made the claim, "...every writer, especially every novelist, has a 'message,' whether he admits it or not, and the minutest details of his work are influenced by it. All art is propaganda." If we accept Orwell's hypothesis then we are lead immediately to the question: What is Dickens's message? Orwell provides one answer, writing that Dickens believed, "If men would behave decently the world would be decent."
To the sophisticated reader or the world-weary modern consumer this statement is trite. In its essence it is a religious platitude. Like most platitudes it contains nothing novel and challenges nothing about conventional social order. Instead it fades comfortably into the background. But there it remains, like paint on the walls of the sanctuary, setting the tone for everything that surrounds it.
Every once in awhile it behooves us to look more carefully at the messages behind the stories, like "A Christmas Carol," that have significant impact in our society. In this way again the message, to carry our metaphor further, is like the paint on our walls. Only by looking closely, with new eyes, might we discover the ambiance that is being created. Otherwise we become so adjusted to our surroundings that we cease to be aware of them. Similarly, taking the time to examine Dickens's message again might allow us to hear it with fresh ears.
One reason why a re-examination of Dickens's central message is worthwhile is that it is a classical Unitarian one. Dickens was influenced by 19th century Unitarianism. He wrote "A Christmas Carol" while a member of the Unitarian Little Portland Street Chapel in London. His views on the need and possibility for individual moral reformation were consistent with many of his contemporary Unitarians. It is a faith that might be described as moralistic, a sense that social reformation would come about when individuals developed a better sense of morality. This faith in the individual was coupled with a lack of trust in either the ability or the necessity of institutions to transform individuals or society. The 20th century Unitarian theologian James Luther Adams, who we shall return to later, characterized liberal religion of Dickens era as promoting "atomistic individualism."
Looking at Dickens then we might learn a little of our religious tradition. In doing so, we might also learn a little of ourselves. Our religious tradition shapes us. In this age of consumer choice the religious tradition we affiliate with is also a reflection of our own individual values. Unitarian Universalism is a religion of choice, close to ninety percent of Unitarian Universalists were born in another faith tradition, and many of us choose Unitarian Universalism for the same reason that Dickens did. He felt that we are a practical religion, more concerned with what happened in this world than with salvation in the next. He wrote that he joined "the Unitarians...[because they] would do something for human improvement if they could; and... practise Charity and Toleration."
Let us turn then to "A Christmas Carol" itself. Though Dickens wrote several dozen of Christmas stories and essays, "A Christmas Carol" is the one that remains by far the most popular. It may also be taken as characteristic work and contains within it glimpses of both the possibilities and limitations that classical Unitarianism offers us today.
If you recollect, the story opens with Scrooge in his counting-house the day before Christmas. He is visited by two visitors, both of whom he treats poorly, and each of whom asks him to give a little of himself as a gesture towards the Christmas season.
The first of Scrooge's visitors is his nephew Fred who comes to bear the season's tidings and invite him for dinner. Scrooge's response to this display of generosity is, you can all say it with me if you like, "Bah Humbug." In case Fred misses the point Scrooge continues by explaining his feelings about the holiday. "Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas-time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer... If I could work my will... every idiot who goes about 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart."
After chasing away his nephew with Scrooge finds himself visited by a gentleman collecting money for the the poor and destitute. Scrooge thinks even less of this man than he does of his nephew. When asked for a donation Scrooge replies, "Are there no prisons?" Then he suggests that poor are adequately served by the poorhouses, which his taxes help sustain, and that those in need should go there. The man replies, "Many can't go there; and many would rather die." To which Scrooge says, "If they would rather die... they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population..."
These are not the words of liberal or generous man. They are spoken by someone who only values his money. As Dickens later makes clear Scrooge does not even care for what his money can buy him, he lives in a home that could be described as squalid. He cares only for money itself.
More deplorable than his treatment of his nephew or the charity collector is Scrooge's treatment of his sole employee, Bob Cratchit. He pays Bob meager wages and refuses to spend money on sufficient coal to heat his office. Because of Scrooge's miserliness, Bob and his family struggle with poverty.
Dickens makes clear throughout these encounters that Scrooge suffers from his lack of generosity. He is alone in the world, without any real friends, just business acquaintances, and alienated from his family. His business partner, Jacob Marley, died several years ago. There is no one for him to confide in. In short, though he does not know it, he is in a hell of his own making.
This hell comes to end when Scrooge is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. They help him to see the hell that he has created for himself and the hell that he helps to create for others. The Ghost of Christmas Past shows him the boy that he once was and how that boy gradually grew to leave the pleasures of human companionship aside for the satisfaction that money brings. The Ghost of Christmas Present shows him how others regard him, the fine sport they have at his expense and the joy they find in their daily lives. It also offers him a glimpse into the lives of the Cratchit family and the suffering that their poverty brings, most noticeable in their inability to care for their youngest son, the crippled Tiny Tim. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Future shows Scrooge that if nothing changes Tiny Tim will die and Scrooge himself will pass from the Earth unmourned and alone.
Scrooge awakes the next day transformed. He sets out to right all of his wrongs. He accepts his nephew's invitation to dinner. He gives to the poor. He raises Bob Cratchit's wages and becomes a patron to Bob's family. His self-made hell is transformed into an earthly heaven.
Here the message of "A Christmas Carol" seems quite clear. Earthly salvation is possible. We can escape our self-made hells by being more generous, more compassionate with each other. When we treat each other decently the world becomes a more decent place.
Quaint as that observation is, there is truth in it. Yet, it is not enough. For merely arguing that transformation will come when people transform themselves is to argue against a wider social transformation.
In "A Christmas Carol" Dickens does not call for a new type of relationship between Bob Cratchit and Scrooge, worker and employer. Bob does not get his due when he and Scrooge become equals. Social divisions continue, there are still poor and rich, but Scrooge develops a generosity of spirit and pays Cratchit a bit better. The social order is to be preserved, those in power are just to behave a little better in it. Dickens is calling for a moral reformation rather than a social one.
This view is consistent with much of liberalism, both religious and otherwise. Liberalism often calls for the reform of society through the reform of individuals rather than through the transformation of institutions. Here the current efforts of President Obama offer a contemporary caricature.
The President met with the CEOs of some of the largest companies in the country last week. Despite the continuing economic malaise, corporations experienced record profits last quarter. The capital reserves of the largest corporations are massive. Instead of using money to create jobs and put people back to work corporations are hoarding it. When the President met with the CEOs he urged them to spend some of their money. This similar to suggesting that the unreformed Scrooge donate some of his money to the poor. Hoping that the CEOs will spend money of their own goodwill is hoping for their moral transformation.
I am doubtful that much will come from the President's plea. Lacking the intervention of the supernatural corporate heads have little motivation to spend some of their company's wealth. Personal moral transformation is unreliable.
Here we find a tension between the 19th century Unitarianism of Dickens and the 20th century Unitarianism of some of our better theologians. Much of Unitarianism in the 19th century hinged upon the idea of the perfectibility of human nature. Unitarians were Christians because Jesus was an example of someone who had realized his full human potential and, in doing so, become godlike. Each person was born with this potential. The purpose of religion was to stir and nurture this spark within until it blazed bright. Salvation was this worldly, it came when an individual's consciousness approached that of God, but solitary.
Some Unitarians in the 20th century took a contrary view. They still understood salvation as this worldly. However, salvation shifted from individual to community. The most articulate advocate of this shift was undoubtedly James Luther Adams. Adams witnessed the rise of Nazism in Germany and believed such an earthly evil could only be confronted and defeated through collective action. He wrote that he believed in the "necessity of organized, responsible dissent" and that religious communities could be a locus of that dissent.
Adams argued that for the religious community to remain relevant it must address the times it found itself in. Otherwise, "the church," he wrote, "will be more interested in itself than in the Kingdom." What Adams meant by the Kingdom of God was a more just society here on Earth. Religious communities either play a role in building that society or they are essentially irrelevant, mere social clubs for the self-absorbed. Adams claimed that "Salvation does not come through worship and prayer alone, nor through private virtues that camouflage public indolence." Salvation comes also when we work to build a better world and transform the institutions which surround us into forces for the social good.
Many people do not see this as a religious message. They prefer to focus on a more personal spirituality and claim that the personal has little to do with the public. There is little truth to this claim and here a return to Dickens is helpful.
There is a direct connection between Scrooge's own miserly spiritual life, his failure to honor the holidays, and his treatment of others. Our spiritual lives often influence, and sometimes even govern, the way we behave in public. Dickens was right that moral reformation is necessary. He was just wrong in seeing that reformation as solely an individual task or thinking that it can take place without transforming institutions.
The experiences we have in religious community offer us the opportunity to start anew. Our religious community gives us the chance to reconcile with others or with ourselves. Such opportunities might come at any time.
To suggest how, let me offer a brief parable from Adams. In the middle of the last century he was a member of the Board of Trustees of an urban congregation. One of the other Board members liked to complain that the minister preached too many sermons on race relations. One evening he began to complain again. So, Adams relates, "the question was put to him, 'Do you want the minister to preach sermons that conform to what you have been saying about... blacks? "No, he replied, I just want the church to be more realistic."
Someone then asked, "Will you tell us what is the purpose of a church, anyway?" The man tried to dodge the question, "I'm no theologian." "Ah, but you're a member of the Board, you must have ideas, you help make decisions."
Round and round the conversation went, the business of the Board forgotten, until late at night the man finally gave a rather profound answer. He said, "The purpose of the church is... Well, the purpose of the church is to get hold of people like me and change them."
It is a little like Scrooge coming to the light after his ghostly visitations. The difference is that was other humans that moved the man and that the transformation was part of a community process. It was not just an individual spiritual epiphany.
Hope for such new beginnings may be most sharp in this season as Christmas approaches. Christmas is a holiday of new starts and new beginnings. The old year is dying, a new one waits to be born. Light is returning and with it a promise that new beginnings are always available, somehow, somewhere, if we should reach for them.
This is a sentiment found throughout Dickens's many Christmas text. In "What Christmas Is, As We Grow Older," for example, he see Christmas as time to forgive enemies and invite into our minds the full spectrum of the world. Doing so might leave us changed for the better by the spirit of the season, both more aware of the world's blessings and what we can do to increase them.
The possibility of change for each of us and for society, this is the promise of Christmas. It is also one of the promises of our liberal religious faith, be it the 19th century of the 20th century variety. So it was with Scrooge, so it may be with all of us. Let us say Amen and Merry Christmas and enter the New Year a little transformed.