Summit Ministries

By J. F. Baldwin

Whatever happened to the Three Musketeers? Or the Knights of the Round Table? Whatever happened to heroes? The old books tell stories about men and women who were noble and virtuous. Most new books, however, are another story.

Not long ago, a friend of mine received his M.A. in Literature from Penn State. He had the honor of studying under a professor considered one of the "literary stars" in American academia. What was this star's latest project?

"The rat-man of Paris," my friend explained. "See, the hero of this book is this transient who lives in Paris and goes around to all the open-air cafes, and shows his dead pet rat to everybody . . . "

I asked if he was joking. He was not.

The real joke is this: the rat-man is not the exception to the rule. He is the modern standard for literature. Post-modernism, a literary trend that began early in the twentieth century and continues today, defaces true heroism by relying on social deviants like the rat-man as the "hero" of various questionable plots.

The post-modern movement, which encompasses most of the literature of the 20th century, is founded squarely on the anti-heroic. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the anti-hero is the defining ingredient of post-modern lit.

This rebellion against the heroic—the disappearance of the hero from our stories—is not an accident, some folly based on a passing literary whim. It is a sign of the times. More than ten years ago, Christian philosopher Francis A. Schaeffer declared that we are living in a "post-Christian" world. Nowhere is this more evident than in the eradication of the hero from our shared culture.

In the "good old days," before Christians had forfeited the public square, many of the most respected authors were Christians—from Dante to Blake to Milton to Dostoyevsky. And even those authors who were not Christians—even anti-Christian men like Poe—were influenced so powerfully by the Christian worldview as to almost unconsciously smuggle Christian themes into their work.

But today, Christian themes are virtually non-existent in literature. Our post-Christian world has disqualified Christianity from literature. How? By disqualifying heroes.

Albert Camus was an existentialist and a talented writer. His existentialism made him hostile toward Christianity, and so his writing was considered post-modernist.

Camus understood that his hostility toward Christianity required him to be hostile toward heroism as well. In his most famous work, The Plague, his protagonist, Dr. Bernard Rieux, acts heroically throughout: working merciless hours and exposing himself constantly to death to help people suffering from a horrible disease. Because Camus understands the danger heroes pose to his worldview, however, he goes to great lengths to assure his readers that Dr. Rieux is not heroic. At one point, Rieux blatantly proclaims, "I feel more fellowship with the defeated than the saints. Heroism and sanctity don't really appeal to me, I imagine."

Camus cannot abide a hero. The reason for this is revealed by the concepts he jettisons along with the concept of the heroic: "sanctity" and "saints." In true post-modern form, Camus feels that he dismisses Christianity when he dismisses the heroic. Why?

Why does it matter what happened to heroes?

It matters, says professor William Kilpatrick, because heroes can form the foundation for "character education"—for instilling Christian values in readers. Real-life heroes are best, Kilpatrick says, but even "a child . . . surrounded by crass and uncaring adults . . . could always catch a glimpse of another vision from . . . the pages of a book. Thus it was no accident that character education placed so much reliance on story and history."

Likewise, it is no accident today that anti-Christian authors shy away from heroes. They cannot tolerate heroism, at bottom, because the hero always points the reader toward two fundamental Christian truths:

1. The hero reminds the reader that absolute values really exist. When you read a story about a hero, how do you know that person is heroic? You know because you see the hero living up to certain unchanging standards that every human being, in their heart of hearts, acknowledges as good: moral courage, selflessness, loyalty, faith, perseverance, etc.

   When we look at the hero we find that there are certain values that have not changed since the dawn of time: a knight sacrificing his life to save a maiden appeals to modern college students just as much as sixteenth-century peasants. Both groups of people would describe the knight as heroic, because both acknowledge the same absolute truth: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

   As G.K. Chesterton said, "There are an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands." When we see a hero standing, "bloodied but not bowed," we see a standard—the unchanging standard rooted in the unchanging character of God.

2. The hero reminds the reader that all of us, at one time or another, have fallen short of the absolute standard. Why are we impressed by the hero? Because he does what we would like to do: he displays moral courage in the toughest situations. Could we guarantee that we would act the same way in the same situation? Unfortunately, no.

   "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . . " (Romans 3:23). No one reminds us of this truth like the hero.

The "infinity of angles at which one falls" are portrayed in countless novels today—but no post-modernist will discuss the angle at which one stands. The rat-man dominates because the hero contains too much Christian truth.

Consider how much of the gospel is contained in the two "heroic truths." Consider, too, that these truths shatter two of the world's most precious post-Christian myths: 1) All ethics are relative; and 2) Men are inherently good. Finally, remember that every hero quietly reminds us of the ultimate hero: the sinless One dying for the sins of the world.

Small wonder that the post-modern movement is based on the anti-hero.

The wonder is this: that Christians bade goodbye to the hero in literature with hardly a murmur. Long ago, Sir Thomas Browne warned Christians to "Eye well those Heroes who have held their Heads above Water, who have touched Pitch, and not been defiled, and in the common Contagion have remained uncorrupted." Now The Plague and countless other post-modern novels have swallowed up such heroes. This disease, the disease of post-modernism, can be cured only one way: Christians must create more heroes—in literature, and with their lives.
Copyright © 2004 Summit Ministries. All rights reserved.