Religion in “Peanuts”

One of the more interesting nuances of Charles Schulz’s work that has been singled out by comics scholars is his portrayal of faith and religion, the subject of more than one book on the author’s legacy to the broader field of comics history. #peanuts 1/6

Scholar Stephen J. Lind, for exampled recently published: A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz for the University of Mississippi Press, building on work by other scholars such as Robert Short and David Michaelis. 2/6

Lind’s book was significant enough to be reviewed by the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, which (in the words of reviewer John W. Auxier) found the book to be “a fascinating case study of evolving faith experience in a leading pop cultural figure.” 3/6

Auxier praises Lind for his detailed analysis of recurring “religious references” throughout the strip and for its tracking of Schulz’s transition from “evangelical churchman and Billy Graham supporter” to “secular humanist” and the impact this had on Charlie Brown. 4/6

Faith is a key element of Schulz’s work, featuring prominently in iconic stories, strips and character elements, but so too is doubt, informing the existential nature of the strip and thus portraying a malleable and negotiated religious experience, rather than a stable one. 5/6

The point of Lind’s book, and of most other studies on Schulz, is simply that Peanuts’ extensive engagement with religious concepts culminates in a rarely nuanced portrayal of religion as a human process rather than a fixed state of being. 6/6