Jesus & Halloween - Receive, reject or redeem

Following a popular Facebook discussion, and in preparation for a talk to students here is a summary of Alex's notes on the topic of Halloween.

 

Contemporary Halloween is an interwoven mesh of at least five factors:[1]

1. Christian heritage: The church festival of All Hallows (Hallowmass, All Saints’ Day) celebrated and remembered those who had died. Historically it was a major Catholic festival on par with Christmas and Easter. The Reformation of C16th denounced it because of its links with ‘purgatory’ and ‘prayers for the dead’ and so outside more traditional catholic circles it rarely has significance now in church life.
2. Occult heritage: In some way (scholars disputed how much!) Halloween is also rooted in the Celtic festival of Samhain that marked the close of summer and the start of winter, the time of darkness and evil. Though it almost certainly wasn’t the case anti-Celtic Roman invaders caricatured this festival as including human sacrifice. It certainly did include an understanding that there was a ‘threshold’ between our world and the ‘world of the dead’ which also contained evil spirits. It is unlikely the church ‘Christianized’ this festival into All Hallows. Rather they came to co-exist in culture as Christianity spread into Celtic regions and began to adopt each other’s practices.
3. Cultural normalizing/ neutralizing: Many people engage with Halloween with little if any understanding of its heritage – it is simply what we do.
4. Commercial Entrepreneurship: Halloween (like Christmas and Easter) is now more shaped and controlled by the economic opportunities than any traditional or religious past. Halloween is the second highest-grossing commercial holiday in America.[2] It remains and grows not because of any ‘spiritual’ reason but because it makes money.
5. Fun! Who doesn’t like dressing up, meeting up with friends, feasting on nice food and generally enjoying themselves?

Discuss: how do you think of Halloween?

By different groups, Halloween then has been rejected as demonic and pagan; subsumed into Christianity; and accepted unthinkingly as harmless fun. What is a right Christian response?

How should we approach culture?[3]

Receive as neutral (accept).

• Jesus accepted his birth, being a child, dysfunctional family life, manual and intellectual work, friendship.
• It gives dignity and purpose to the ordinary of life, but can often be the unthinking or lazy approach.
• Risk: Too far this way and become naïve, undiscerning, lacking wisdom, and indistinct from anyone and everyone else.

Reject as bad.

• Jesus, for example rejected loving money over God (Mark 11:15-17) and self-righteous religion (Mark 12:38-40) as simply not options.
• There are things that are simply not a Christian option, but a blanket reject everything can often to the unthinking or lazy approach.
• Risk: Too far this way and become sectarian, self-righteous, legalistic and judgmental, living in a religious ghetto.

Redeem for good (restore, heal, reconcile, transform).

• Jesus’ general response was to redeem and restore: Mark 1:16-20 (people); 1:23-26 (evil); 1:29-34 (sickness); 2:5 (sins).

All three are legitimate Christian responses dependent on own experience, heritage, relationships and more. Different Christians will respond differently to the same situation but both still be right! And the same Christian might respond to the same situation at a different time differently and still be right!

Discuss:

What is your default position to culture: receive, reject, redeem?

Are there things you have rejected or received you could redeem?

Where do you think Halloween fits? Why?

The need to understand your underlining worldview:

Richard Niebuhr wrote a modern classic Christ and Culture in 1951 which is still the best framework to understand how potentially Christ and culture relate. He suggests five overlapping options.

1. Christ against culture: Christ and culture are at war; in constant conflict; enemies with no common ground. Christ is ultimately victorious. The church is to battle against culture, confident in Christ’s ultimate victory.
2. Christ of culture: Christ is to be found in culture, especially ‘the best of’ culture. The church is to promote and adopt the ‘best of’ culture’s thinking and motivations.
3. Christ above culture: Christ is indifferent to culture; disinterested. The church is to concern itself with more ‘spiritual’ than ‘worldly’ things.
4. Christ and culture in paradox: Christ and culture are separate, parallel spheres, dualistic in nature. The church is to separate itself from culture, creating its own distinct community.
5. Christ the transformer of culture: Christ is the agent of change in culture. The church is to seek to bring change into culture.

Discuss: what is your underlining understanding of how Christ and culture relate?

Factors to consider in your approach to Halloween:

• What opportunities are offered to show God’s glory?
• How could this be an opportunity for mission and evangelism?
• How could my approach help other Christians?
• How could my approach harm other Christians?
• What is the cultural understanding of Halloween?
• What do I personally understand is behind Halloween? [A Christian who feels a strong sense of the occult[4] in Halloween will respond very differently to a Christian who perceives a strong sense of the Christian, or simply ‘fun’.]
• Am I being responsive to the approach my church would encourage me to take?
• Am I being response to the approach my parents would encourage me to take?
• Have I prayed, thought hard, asked others and making a considered decision?

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[1] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween for some general information on this eclectic past. Or http://theresurgence.com/2011/10/31/what-christians-should-know-about-halloween for a ‘Christian’ take on it its heritage, including a closing reference to receive, reject, redeem.
[2]www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/30/the-history-of-halloween_n­_321021.html
[3] These three categories are traditional and helpful views of how Jesus approached the world.
[4] Is Halloween evil? Maybe. Either way Christ has defeated evil, devil and demons (e.g. Colossian 2:15) and created the option for a Christian, with care and wisdom, to seek to redeem practices that are potentially rooted in the occult.