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Zombie Christ



Matt McCravey posted a dream about zombies over at his blog. And he got into the symbolism of the “living dead” as being somehow connected to unenlightened Christians, etc. Very interesting because it flicked on a little light switch over my head about zombies and Christianity.

First of all, isn’t Jesus technically classified as “living dead” or is he “undead” or what’s the technical D&D term that I’m looking for here? He beats death - that’s all I’m really trying to say here. Zombies beat death too. Well, until you take a shot-gun to their pitiful pus-oozing heads, that is.

Then we have the Gospel of Thomas tradition, saying 108:

108. Jesus said, “Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him.”

I’d never really considered how similar that is to how a zombie bite (or some such) generally acts as a means of transmission, creating more zombies.

Next, we have this whole fascination that zombies seem to have with feeding on flesh. “BRAAAIIINS!!!” they are usually heard to utter. The flesh sustains them. Does that sound like any other Saviors we know? “This is my blood. This is my body.” I think the technical term for this is actually theophagy, eating of the God (here’s a piece on cannibalism in religious experience).

Here’s one of the canonical sources on this (John 6):

53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

I know “normal” Christians are going to take offense to this comparison, as Jesus’s flesh gives eternal life, not eternal undeath or whatever it is zombies have. But I just think it’s an interesting idea to try on to give yourself a little cognitive dissonance and expose some hidden elements in both stories.

[thanks to New World Odour for the Zombie Jesus graphic! Also check out their equally awesome image of Catholic Zombie Cannablism from this article.]







9 Reader Responses

  1. Fell Says:
    July 20th, 2005 at 10:20 pm

    On the note of Jesus:
    http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/110_japson.shtml

    “In a truly bizarre twist on the life of Jesus, the town has two large crosses in a small, out of the way park - one for Jesus, who is supposedly buried there, and one for Isukiri, his brother.

    “It turns out, according to local lore, it was Jesus’ brother who was crucified so that Jesus could escape and move to Japan, where he lived for many years.

    “One reason there aren’t many Christians in Japan is that they suffered terrible persecution. Many retreated to this remote corner, where they lived and Japanified their savior. In the process, they kind of stripped out the central idea of the religion, the resurrection.

    “A good summary is in this Fortean Times story.”

  2. meg Says:
    July 20th, 2005 at 10:32 pm

    I dunno, I always thought Jesus was a vampire. The biting, the importance of the blood, leaving his grave at night so it was open when the chicas came at sunrise…

    Though that makes Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter a little too much like an episode of Angel.

  3. old Says:
    July 21st, 2005 at 8:20 am

    May 2003: http://zombiechrist.com

  4. human? Says:
    July 21st, 2005 at 10:35 am

    welp, if you ask certain people, they would tell you Jesus was of Royal Dragon blood, and that means Vampire………….

    i dunno.

  5. Occult Investigator Says:
    July 21st, 2005 at 11:46 am

    You’re referring to the Lawrence Gardner, Nicholas De Vere stuff, am I right? I was into that for a while, but eventually decided he was a racist jackass. I have that book though so I ought to go through and do a big slash n burn of his ideas. Jesus = Vampire is definitely cool though

  6. human? Says:
    July 21st, 2005 at 1:32 pm

    De Vere is a racist jackass, but not JUST a racist jackass….

    im a De Vere by way of the family Drayton (Dragon), and whenever i do my geneology its pretty disturbing how everyones middle and last names just keep interchanging, they definitely kept it in the family for some reason….. even after they came to the US…

    so there is something to it, maybe, i guess… or maybe just hundreds of years of racist jackasses (quite possible) ……

    but i think that racist jackass stuff aside (which is hard to do) De Vere has some interesting things to say…. (about magic, history etc…)

    one
    human?

  7. Occult Investigator Says:
    July 21st, 2005 at 1:40 pm

    Yeah I agree, and that’s what originally drew me to his work. He said some things that I’ve not heard anybody else say in a way that made a lot of sense. At least on the internet at 3:00am. When I actually got the book and tried to sift through it in the light of day, it started crumbling before my eyes like a vampire exposed to sunlight. I just can’t handle the racist bullshit of him and Tracy Twyman, or whatever her name is - she seems to be a big champion of his. Anyway, definitely worth talking about more. Weird you’re a De Vere.

  8. human? Says:
    July 21st, 2005 at 2:00 pm

    Weird you’re a De Vere.

    lol, very weird :)

    it certainly hasnt benefited me in any way, besides interesting family stories….. (and a secret passion to overthrow Nicholas De Vere and his assinine representation of my family)

  9. Occult Investigator Says:
    July 21st, 2005 at 2:12 pm

    if you have any interest in sharing weird family stories (confidentially) shoot me an email



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