A Charlie Brown Religion

THE FIRST SPIRITUAL BIOGRAPHY OF A MISUNDERSTOOD BELIEVER,
THE RENOWNED CREATOR OF PEANUTS

Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip franchise, the most successful of all time, forever changed the industry. The endearing, witty insights brought to life by Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and Lucy have caused newspaper readers and television viewers across the globe to laugh, sigh, gasp, and ponder for more than half a century. Etching “Good grief!” and “security blanket” and the off-screen teacher’s “wah wah wah wah” into the cultural vocabulary are merely the tips of the iceberg that is Schulzian universe.

A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz (University Press of Mississippi) explores one of the most provocative topics Schulz chose to broach in his heartwarming work – religion. Based on new archival research and original interviews with Schulz’s family, friends, and colleagues, author Stephen Lind offers a new spiritual biography of the life and work of the influential comic strip artist.

This book weaves together answers to two primary questions —“Was Charles Schulz a religious man?” and “Is there really much religion in Peanuts?” The simple answer to both of those questions is “Yes.” But the simple answer is rarely the truest answer in history, and you may find that the questions themselves need challenging as we search for thicker answers.

Charles Schulz has been labeled both fundamentalist Christian and an atheist. Some have even argued that both labels are correct and that Schulz simply suffered a crisis of faith somewhere along the way. Maybe he was just too depressed to have faith. Or perhaps he found secular enlightenment. Such explanations are not only incorrect, they are too simple.

Schulz himself worried that simple explanations would not suffice in matters of spirituality, for there are too many “howevers” needed for such issues. Lind explores and explains much of Schulz’s beliefs in the mysteries of faith, and those “howevers” will play an integral role. Charles Schulz’s life was rich, and his faith in the mysteries of God was personal. He, like any artist (like any human), was a multifaceted, complex person. His spiritual beliefs were no different.

A Charlie Brown Religion features previously unpublished writings from Schulz that will move fans as they begin to see the nuances of the humorist’s own complex, intense journey toward understanding God and faith. “There are three things that I’ve learned never to discuss with people,” Linus says, “Religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” Yet with the support of religious communities, Schulz bravely defied convention and dared to express spiritual thought in the “funny pages,” a secular, mainstream entertainment medium.

Charles Schulz spoke from an original, often introspective voice, primarily addressing an adult readership in his comics. He took clever, even heavy and provocative thoughts from his own mind and put them on paper in a deceptively simple way. He often asked readers to ponder deeper ideas, connecting their own understandings with those of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Peppermint Patty, and the rest. The individual is invited to view Peanuts through his or her own experience.

Lind has written an insightful, thorough study of the 17,897 Peanuts newspaper strips, seventy-five animated titles, and global merchandizing empire that will delight and intrigue as Schulz reconsiders what it means to believe, what it means to doubt, and what it means to share faith with the world.

A Charlie Brown Religion also includes 32 black and white photographs and 25 line illustrations of Schulz drawings.

Stephen J. Lind is an assistant professor of business communication at Washington and Lee University. He holds a PhD in Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design from Clemson University. His work has appeared in scholarly journals such as ImageTexT, Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, and the Journal of Communication and Religion.

Further details on his work can be found at www.StephenJLind.com.