Modern popular culture has always had a particular interest for the so-called ‘walking dead’. Although this has been a reoccurring theme for a long time few would protest that the past decade has shown a dramatic increase of zombies and other soul-less beings in books, movies and television shows. I believe that this increase can be explained in two different ways; the first is a common fear of what will happen if we continue to mess with nature (genetic modification, destroying the ecosystem, and so on) and the other is an individual fear of non-existence. Popular culture has addressed both these types of fears therapeutically and I believe that is why so many people – consciously or unconsciously – find them to be meaningful depictions of reality that offers hope.
In regards to our common fear that we have screwed up nature these books, movies and television shows have presented us to a few heroes in post-apocalyptic worlds that has been able to preserve their humanity while the larger masses has either died or been turned in to walking dead (I am Legend, The Book of Eli, The Road, etc). The heroes then sustains our hope for the future of humanity since their preserved humanity implies that they have within them the capability to start over. In this sense these stories are equivalent to the ancient ‘flood stories’ and they reveal to us what is needed for a new beginning to be possible. Primarily they centre our attention on values of religion, culture and the family and thus also imply that it was the lack of these values that caused the apocalypses our heroes managed to live through. The messages of hope for the future are therefore also inherently critical towards the secularization and demythologization of the modern world.
The other type of walking dead stories is fundamentally different in what they are saying. What they acknowledge is that we actually are the walking dead. The aim is therefore to offer us hope by depicting the walking dead as carrying within them the possibility of becoming human. Hence, Robert Pattinson’s character in The Twilight Saga can resist the inner drive to suck the blood out of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart). On the surface this story is about a young girl’s forbidden love for a vampire but what really matters is the counter narrative, which reveals to us that it is possible for the walking dead to love. My analysis is therefore that the message in The Twilight Saga is equivalent to what Richard Dawkins say when he adamantly argues that atheists can be spiritual.
My conclusion from these analyses is that the increase of walking dead in popular culture the past decade is a result of the modern desire for freedom, which has created a rupture in our relationship to God, nature and each other. Our anthropocentric understanding of reality and our unwillingness to exist with and for each other has resulted in a world where nature has been manipulated and ransacked for our own short-term winnings and where humanity has been dissolved into separate entities of walking dead. In light of all this it is no wonder that people experience an existential agony and therefore search for hope and meaning in popular culture that addresses this very crisis of our existence.
Freestyle Christianity 
Thoughtful, very inspiring and I like the way you put it to the table.
Josef, you have obviously put a great deal of thought into the issue. Thanks for writing it out. In terms of a Christian perspective, do you think it possible to view the walking dead as a metaphor of the Curse from Genesis 3? The corporate psyche of humankind understands that we bear the guilt of sin and thus the curse of death. I know it isn’t a typical framework that most accept, but it seems to have some credibility–that death hangs over humanity like Damocles’ sword, even if we don’t speak about it directly. Anyway, thanks for the post.
Yes, I think that it’s a brilliant metaphor.
Peter Rollins gives a good speech on that subject here: http://peterrollins.net/?p=3486
And I have written a number of posts on that theme although I haven’t used zombies to illustrate my point. Here is one of them: http://freestylechristianity.com/2012/04/18/the-unmasking-of-the-selfish-heart/
Excellent! Thanks, Josef. Keep up the good work.
I enjoyed reading this post. You write really well!
What do you think about ghosts? Do you think they exist? Many movies are based on that too, so I was wondering about the Christian perspective on that. I just read this article, and it says ‘ If you ever see a ghost, you can be assured it is not the deceased person you are seeing or someone who died that was unbeknownst to you; it is positively an evil spirit that is imitating the dead person.’
http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/what-do-christians-believe-about-ghosts/
Have a blessed day.
Ghosts definitely exists but the question is whether they are dead people who for some reason are not allowed to leave this world or if they are memories of the dead (or perhaps past events) that the living do not want to (or cannot) let go of. I would say that the latter is definitely true while I really have no idea about whether there are any real ghosts around or not. I cannot say that I have experienced anything that suggests that they are but strange things seems to happen to people all the time so maybe I’m just blind in that regard.
I’ve noticed the same increase in this stuff and never thought about it the way you have presented. Interesting!
What a great interpretation of the increase for shows like ‘The Walking Dead’. Just like others, I noticed the increase however I didn’t think about it in such terms as this. Great writing!