The Theology of Calvin and Hobbes

I’ve been reading through The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, one of my Christmas presents—a 22-pound collection of the greatest comic strip in history.

So, I’m glad Joe Carter introduced me to The Theology of Calvin and Hobbes, an online resource by Abilene Christian University professor Richard Beck. Carter, quoting Beck:

Let me give an apologia for attempting The Theology of Calvin and Hobbes.

First, Watterson has stated that he’s never attended any church. And yet Watterson clearly has theological sensibilities. He has described some of his strips as “little sermons” and he uses the Christmas strips for “Calvin to wrestle with good and evil.” Calvin’s school teacher, Miss Wormwood was named after the character in C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. Further, many strips themselves bring up theological questions.

And, finally, we can note the obvious: Watterson explicitly named his lead character after “a sixteenth-century theologian who believed in predestination.”

And yet, it must be stated stated that Calvin and Hobbes does not present an overt and systematic theological worldview. Rather, Calvin and Hobbes is best read as posing theological questions rather than providing answers. One of the themes of Calvin and Hobbes is Calvin’s continual confrontation with epistemic horizons. He is often attempting to forecast the future while rushing, with Hobbes, headlong down a hillside in a wagon. He is continually terrorized by what lives under his bed. These are not theological propositions but they speak to our theological situation.

Find the table of contents for Beck’s online project here.