In which I hate on my Spike/Angel essay and beg for your help AGAIN
There comes a point in an essayist's life when they hit a brick wall and decide throwing the laptop down the garbage chute is a valid response to that wall. I am at that point, the same point I was at last Saturday when I asked for the Angel love. The Angel love post helped me have some form of respect for the guy, but it didn't help me write anything further. Then 2maggie2 and Strudel and local_max 's episode notes for Amends makes me doubt my thesis because is Angel redeemed? The word of Buffy (Christ) in Amends wasn't enough for him, he needed magical snow to arbitrarily save him there, or does that prove my thesis that Buffy (Christ) isn't enough for Angel therefore he requires works to justify his redemption. Argh! I don't want to be like those naive acadmics who push the characters around in order to make their thesis work, but I feel like I'm pigeon-holing the vampires to do my thesis' bidding.
So, I decided to post what I have up here, and hope discussion, flames or praise helps me get back on track, because with an extension the essay's due in a week, and that brick wall is staring me in the face, making me doubt everything about my writing - my abilities, my thesis, my sources, everything. So here it is, and I'll briefly describe at the end where I want the essay to go. Please suggest episodes to rewatch, dialogue to pay attention to, anything that helps me get back to writing, so I have something to show for the hard work I put into the first half of the essay.
“Let’s Get to ‘Work’”: Angel, Spike and Biblical Justification
[1] Joss Whedon is not a Christian. A staunch atheist, (Whedon, “Atheist and Absurdist”) Whedon has never been quiet about his beliefs, and has been recognized by the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy and the Harvard Secular Society for his contribution to cultural humanist thought (Whedon, “Cultural Humanism”). Whedon’s shows can’t easily be placed in a Christian framework; the Buffyverse (the collective universes of Whedon’s shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel), is highly secularized. However, many themes within his work relate to a Judeo-Christian worldview. Whedon admits, “the Christian mythos has a powerful fascination for me, and it bleeds into my storytelling” (qtd. In Anderson 213). When asked by The A.V. Club if there is a God, Whedon replied succinctly with “no,” adding that “it’s a very important and necessary thing to learn” that that’s not the “end of the story” (Thompson). Whedon’s humanism can be seen in the religious characters he creates. Willow Rosenberg is ostensibly Jewish, though she never goes to synagogue and identifies as a Wiccan. Xander Harris and Buffy Summers don’t attend church or mass, and while the character of Angel finds some peace in a Buddhist monastery, he still thinks he “should’ve gone to Vegas” (AtS 3001). However, the”Christian mythos” does have a place in the oeuvre of Whedon, one that becomes more prominent the closer one examines his work.
[2] In the Buffyverse, crosses and holy water are an anathema to vampires, prophecies are written and come true, monks have the power to turn an ancient, mystical energy force into a fourteen-year-old girl and Buffy herself plays the Christ-figure by spreading her arms and dying for the world. There is no known Supreme Being in the Buffyverse, just some vague, amorphous “Powers That Be” who guide the vampire Angel’s mission on his eponymous spin-off. The “Powers” or “PTB,” as their known, are overall rather indifferent to the suffering or do-gooding of both shows’ titular protagonists, only intervening on rare occasion. Melanie Wilson notes that “the show itself certainly provides evidence that [they] are not the same sorts of beings that Christians expect God is. They are not necessarily benevolent beings” (137-8).. Aside from the Biblical imagery and themes in Whedon’s works, religious readings can be made of the fantasy genre the shows owe their narrative mythology to. Sakal argues that Christian tropes of “sacrifice,” “salvation” and “redemption” permeate the storylines of both television series, stating “the synthesis of the mythic [and religious] themes with the daily lives of the inhabitants of the Buffyverse provides a much more immediate and meaningful encounter” (240).
[3] It is in the daily un-life of two of the Buffyverse’s vampire characters that we can read another Christian trope into. Justification is essentially “getting right with God,” in the most basic sense of the word. “Getting right with God” in the Buffyverse means “getting right with Buffy,” as she and her human morality dictate the paths to redemption the characters achieve (Wilson 137). The vampire characters of Angel and Spike share a special dichotomy when it comes to their attitudes towards justification: Angel represents a very Catholic form of justification, while Spike's attitude is more in line with the belief of Protestants.
[4] Justification, according to Protestant evangelical theologian Wayne Grudem, is “an instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight” (723). This status, though not with a legal equivalent in the Buffyverse, is bestowed by Buffy as God onto the vampires upon seeing their personal remorse for their previous evil actions. The contention between Catholics and most Protestant denominations, and in some ways between Angel and Spike, surrounding justification is whether it is a one-time event or a process over time by which one is justified. Luther argued that man is saved (justified) by faith alone (sola fide), in a one-time event wherein all guilt from previous sin is removed and one is granted righteous legal standing before God. The penitent is then in a “state of grace” through which he or she is then legally considered “saved.” With Roman Catholicism, however, justification is both a one-time event and a process over time. Catholic apologist James Akin states,
The Catholic Church . . . teaches that justification is a process. It is something that begins when we first become a Christian, which continues in our life, and which will be completed when we stand before God at the end of our life and on the last day (Akin).
Grudem argues that this “process” leaves the people unsure if they are in a “state of grace,” and therefore never sure they are actually “saved.” The Council of Trent is cited by Grudem as reason for this uncertainty about the “state of grace,” while Akin explains that justification according to the Council of Trent was intended to include a number of stages, first of which is an initial justification that happens upon conversion. Then there’s progressive justification, in which a person grows in righteousness through good works, and finally there’s a final justification, which will occur on the day of Christ’s judgment. It is progressive justification about which the Protestants and Catholics disagree. Catholics, like Akin, see progressive justification as a part of the justification process, through which one grows in righteousness through acts of love. Protestants would argue that this means that progressive justification is a work of both God and man, which goes against Paulline theology, or theology based in the epistles of Paul, on the subject. Protestants make a distinction between progressive justification and what is called sanctification, which is “a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives” (Grudem 746). Justification is, in Protestant theology, a legal, once-for-all-time work that is entirely done by God alone, while sanctification is an internal condition that continues through life with the cooperation of the believer. Catholic theology has sanctification as part of the process of progressive justification.
[5] How does this dense theology relate to our vampires? It deals with their views on their redemption. Angel believes he has to work towards redemption, while Spike saw himself redeemed the moment he went on his soul-quest.
[6] Angel begins his story as Liam of Galway, a “drunk, whoring layabout” (BtVS 3010) who resented being under his father’s rule. Turned by Darla in 1753, Liam arose as the renamed vampire Angelus and promptly slaughtered his family and his entire village, giving in to Liam’s darkest impulses. It is made clear that there are few vampires as evil as Angelus, and from his line came the vampires Drusilla and Spike. Drusilla is, perhaps, one of his most sinister acts. Before encountering the vampire Angelus, Drusilla the human was a pious girl cursed with visions of the future who hoped to become a nun. Angelus murdered her family and drove her insane before turning her into a vampire.
. . . and that's what I have so far. Where I want to go with it is
I want maybe two more paragraphs describing Angel's journey; from Angelus to Angel to Buffy's love bunny to the hill in Amends in which he is not redeemed by faith alone, but by the works he will do (note: for money?!? Does this ruin my thesis too?!?) on his own series. Then there will be maybe two paragraphs describing the theological Catholic justification thing described in the big theology paragraph, which I plan on shredding into two paragraphs (one about Catholics, one about Protestants) at some future date unless y'all tell me it fits and is clear enough about the two stances as is. So in short: Angel is Catholic justification in that he is not justified and "made right" with God (Buffy?) by faith alone, but by faith and works in a process. Then we give Spike the same treatment: three or four paragraphs describing William the Bloody Awful Poet to William the Bloody to Slayer of Slayers to Love' Bitch to attempted rapist to new man redeemed by the very action of his faith in Buffy's need for a soul. Two or so paragraphs of how he is justified by seeking his soul, and sanctified after that by seeking to do good work. Then a conclusion paragraph and we're done. We smoke a cigarette, watch some Letterman, and did I really just equate essay writing to coitus? Damn my brain is fried.
So there it is, in all its glory. I know I don't write riveting fan fiction stories or insightful meta, but I thought maybe I could contribute actual academia to the fandom, and this essay has me doubting that. And since cult TV academia is what I want to do when I grow up, I'm pretty screwed. So it's become a bad insecurity thing too. And I've just been diagnosed with ADD and my new med has made me slightly depressive, and it just makes this whole situation very GRRR inducing. So please, discuss, question, comment, just give me some constructive feedback for me to chew on so I can get my booty in gear and finish this thing, allowing me to work on something fun for a change, like an essay on the feminist rhetoric of Buffy fandom. Yep. Already got a new topic for another essay. Toldja I wanted to do this for life.
So, I decided to post what I have up here, and hope discussion, flames or praise helps me get back on track, because with an extension the essay's due in a week, and that brick wall is staring me in the face, making me doubt everything about my writing - my abilities, my thesis, my sources, everything. So here it is, and I'll briefly describe at the end where I want the essay to go. Please suggest episodes to rewatch, dialogue to pay attention to, anything that helps me get back to writing, so I have something to show for the hard work I put into the first half of the essay.
“Let’s Get to ‘Work’”: Angel, Spike and Biblical Justification
[1] Joss Whedon is not a Christian. A staunch atheist, (Whedon, “Atheist and Absurdist”) Whedon has never been quiet about his beliefs, and has been recognized by the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy and the Harvard Secular Society for his contribution to cultural humanist thought (Whedon, “Cultural Humanism”). Whedon’s shows can’t easily be placed in a Christian framework; the Buffyverse (the collective universes of Whedon’s shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel), is highly secularized. However, many themes within his work relate to a Judeo-Christian worldview. Whedon admits, “the Christian mythos has a powerful fascination for me, and it bleeds into my storytelling” (qtd. In Anderson 213). When asked by The A.V. Club if there is a God, Whedon replied succinctly with “no,” adding that “it’s a very important and necessary thing to learn” that that’s not the “end of the story” (Thompson). Whedon’s humanism can be seen in the religious characters he creates. Willow Rosenberg is ostensibly Jewish, though she never goes to synagogue and identifies as a Wiccan. Xander Harris and Buffy Summers don’t attend church or mass, and while the character of Angel finds some peace in a Buddhist monastery, he still thinks he “should’ve gone to Vegas” (AtS 3001). However, the”Christian mythos” does have a place in the oeuvre of Whedon, one that becomes more prominent the closer one examines his work.
[2] In the Buffyverse, crosses and holy water are an anathema to vampires, prophecies are written and come true, monks have the power to turn an ancient, mystical energy force into a fourteen-year-old girl and Buffy herself plays the Christ-figure by spreading her arms and dying for the world. There is no known Supreme Being in the Buffyverse, just some vague, amorphous “Powers That Be” who guide the vampire Angel’s mission on his eponymous spin-off. The “Powers” or “PTB,” as their known, are overall rather indifferent to the suffering or do-gooding of both shows’ titular protagonists, only intervening on rare occasion. Melanie Wilson notes that “the show itself certainly provides evidence that [they] are not the same sorts of beings that Christians expect God is. They are not necessarily benevolent beings” (137-8).. Aside from the Biblical imagery and themes in Whedon’s works, religious readings can be made of the fantasy genre the shows owe their narrative mythology to. Sakal argues that Christian tropes of “sacrifice,” “salvation” and “redemption” permeate the storylines of both television series, stating “the synthesis of the mythic [and religious] themes with the daily lives of the inhabitants of the Buffyverse provides a much more immediate and meaningful encounter” (240).
[3] It is in the daily un-life of two of the Buffyverse’s vampire characters that we can read another Christian trope into. Justification is essentially “getting right with God,” in the most basic sense of the word. “Getting right with God” in the Buffyverse means “getting right with Buffy,” as she and her human morality dictate the paths to redemption the characters achieve (Wilson 137). The vampire characters of Angel and Spike share a special dichotomy when it comes to their attitudes towards justification: Angel represents a very Catholic form of justification, while Spike's attitude is more in line with the belief of Protestants.
[4] Justification, according to Protestant evangelical theologian Wayne Grudem, is “an instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight” (723). This status, though not with a legal equivalent in the Buffyverse, is bestowed by Buffy as God onto the vampires upon seeing their personal remorse for their previous evil actions. The contention between Catholics and most Protestant denominations, and in some ways between Angel and Spike, surrounding justification is whether it is a one-time event or a process over time by which one is justified. Luther argued that man is saved (justified) by faith alone (sola fide), in a one-time event wherein all guilt from previous sin is removed and one is granted righteous legal standing before God. The penitent is then in a “state of grace” through which he or she is then legally considered “saved.” With Roman Catholicism, however, justification is both a one-time event and a process over time. Catholic apologist James Akin states,
The Catholic Church . . . teaches that justification is a process. It is something that begins when we first become a Christian, which continues in our life, and which will be completed when we stand before God at the end of our life and on the last day (Akin).
Grudem argues that this “process” leaves the people unsure if they are in a “state of grace,” and therefore never sure they are actually “saved.” The Council of Trent is cited by Grudem as reason for this uncertainty about the “state of grace,” while Akin explains that justification according to the Council of Trent was intended to include a number of stages, first of which is an initial justification that happens upon conversion. Then there’s progressive justification, in which a person grows in righteousness through good works, and finally there’s a final justification, which will occur on the day of Christ’s judgment. It is progressive justification about which the Protestants and Catholics disagree. Catholics, like Akin, see progressive justification as a part of the justification process, through which one grows in righteousness through acts of love. Protestants would argue that this means that progressive justification is a work of both God and man, which goes against Paulline theology, or theology based in the epistles of Paul, on the subject. Protestants make a distinction between progressive justification and what is called sanctification, which is “a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives” (Grudem 746). Justification is, in Protestant theology, a legal, once-for-all-time work that is entirely done by God alone, while sanctification is an internal condition that continues through life with the cooperation of the believer. Catholic theology has sanctification as part of the process of progressive justification.
[5] How does this dense theology relate to our vampires? It deals with their views on their redemption. Angel believes he has to work towards redemption, while Spike saw himself redeemed the moment he went on his soul-quest.
[6] Angel begins his story as Liam of Galway, a “drunk, whoring layabout” (BtVS 3010) who resented being under his father’s rule. Turned by Darla in 1753, Liam arose as the renamed vampire Angelus and promptly slaughtered his family and his entire village, giving in to Liam’s darkest impulses. It is made clear that there are few vampires as evil as Angelus, and from his line came the vampires Drusilla and Spike. Drusilla is, perhaps, one of his most sinister acts. Before encountering the vampire Angelus, Drusilla the human was a pious girl cursed with visions of the future who hoped to become a nun. Angelus murdered her family and drove her insane before turning her into a vampire.
. . . and that's what I have so far. Where I want to go with it is
I want maybe two more paragraphs describing Angel's journey; from Angelus to Angel to Buffy's love bunny to the hill in Amends in which he is not redeemed by faith alone, but by the works he will do (note: for money?!? Does this ruin my thesis too?!?) on his own series. Then there will be maybe two paragraphs describing the theological Catholic justification thing described in the big theology paragraph, which I plan on shredding into two paragraphs (one about Catholics, one about Protestants) at some future date unless y'all tell me it fits and is clear enough about the two stances as is. So in short: Angel is Catholic justification in that he is not justified and "made right" with God (Buffy?) by faith alone, but by faith and works in a process. Then we give Spike the same treatment: three or four paragraphs describing William the Bloody Awful Poet to William the Bloody to Slayer of Slayers to Love' Bitch to attempted rapist to new man redeemed by the very action of his faith in Buffy's need for a soul. Two or so paragraphs of how he is justified by seeking his soul, and sanctified after that by seeking to do good work. Then a conclusion paragraph and we're done. We smoke a cigarette, watch some Letterman, and did I really just equate essay writing to coitus? Damn my brain is fried.
So there it is, in all its glory. I know I don't write riveting fan fiction stories or insightful meta, but I thought maybe I could contribute actual academia to the fandom, and this essay has me doubting that. And since cult TV academia is what I want to do when I grow up, I'm pretty screwed. So it's become a bad insecurity thing too. And I've just been diagnosed with ADD and my new med has made me slightly depressive, and it just makes this whole situation very GRRR inducing. So please, discuss, question, comment, just give me some constructive feedback for me to chew on so I can get my booty in gear and finish this thing, allowing me to work on something fun for a change, like an essay on the feminist rhetoric of Buffy fandom. Yep. Already got a new topic for another essay. Toldja I wanted to do this for life.