Scrooge: A Man and His World Transformed

All through A Christmas Carol (1843), the ghosts of Jacob Marley and Christmases Past, Present, and Future have all been working to weaken Ebenezer Scrooge’s Olympian self and strengthen his Christian one. By the fifth and final chapter, they have succeeded. If the first chapter described Ebenezer at his dreary Olympian worst, this last correspondingly describes him at his radiant Christian best.

   
Ebenezer experienced as significant a transformation of personality as is humanly possible. If Olympian Ebenezer replied to every contrary opinion with a contemptuous “humbug,” Christian Ebenezer rediscovered the gentle art of laughing. “There’s the door, by which the Ghost of Jacob Marley entered! There’s the corner where the Ghost of Christmas Present sat! There’s the window where I saw the wandering Spirits! It’s all right, it’s all true, it all happened. Ha ha ha!”

Christmas Future: You Reap What You Sow

In A Christmas Carol (1843), Dickens tells us the story of how Jesus intervened in the life of Ebenezer Scrooge. The story opens with Ebenezer demonstrating energetic indifference toward all others on Christmas Eve. His Olympian personality definitely dominates.

    
Strangely, Jesus does not remain indifferent to Ebenezer even though Ebenezer is hostile to him. Instead, Jesus decides to energetically care for Ebenezer. His goal is to significantly weaken Ebenezer’s Olympian self and equally strengthen Ebenezer’s Christian self.

    
He starts by confronting Ebenezer on Christmas Eve with the ghost of Jacob Marley. Jacob had been Ebenezer’s partner in life and had died on Christmas Eve seven years before.  Jacob managed to speak such words of truth, and support them with a sufficient rattling of chains, to loosen the suffocating grip that Olympian Ebenezer had on Christian Ebenezer. After Jacob’s visit, Olympian Ebenezer no longer enjoyed unquestionable control of truth. His power was broken but not yet ended.

    
To eclipse that power, Jesus sent other spirits to Ebenezer: the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present. They further strengthened Ebenezer's Christian self.

The Ghost of Christmas Present

In A Christmas Carol (1843), when the Ghost of Christmas Present visits Ebenezer Scrooge, Dickens lards the narrative with a tremendous variety of words all meant to emphasize vitality.

    
Take, for example, his description of this ghost. He is a jolly Giant, glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty’s horn (Stave 3, “The Second of the Three Spirits,” here and following). Already we begin to see that everything about Christmas Present is going to be big, bright, and overflowing—all in stark contrast to the small dark stinginess of the now shrinking Olympian self of Ebenezer.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Like all of us, Ebenezer Scrooge had two personalities: a wholly Olympian one and a wholly Christian one. The first was structured in terms of the six false gods of Olympianity; especially Pluto, god of money. The second was structured in terms of Jesus: the only true god/man of truth, freedom, love, and vitality.

    
In the first chapter of A Christmas Carol (1843), Charles Dickens takes great pains to show us the destructive indifference of Ebenezer’s dominant Olympian personality and ours.

    
But he doesn’t leave the story there. Jesus was determined to break the control of Olympian Ebenezer over Christian Ebenezer. To do this, he first sent the ghost of Jacob Marley as a most unusual messenger of liberation. Jacob had been Ebenezer’s business partner in life. By successfully challenging Olympian Ebenezer’s control of the truth, Jacob had been able to weaken Olympian Ebenezer enough to open the possibility for Tufluvian Ebenezer to develop. His task completed, Jacob left stimulation of that development to three subsequent spirits: the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

First Step Forward: A Christian Ghost Frightens Olympian Scrooge

At the beginning of A Christmas Carol (1843), Charles Dickens thoroughly acquaints us with the obnoxiously Olympian personality of Ebenezer Scrooge. We witness Olympian Ebenezer expressing his callous indifference, in diverse ways and to varying degrees, toward random passers-by, his nephew, his clerk, two gentlemen collecting money to benefit poor people on Christmas Day, and even a young boy wishing to exchange a carol for a penny.

    
If that were all there was to the story, it would have been forgotten long ago. But Dickens created a story of far greater substance. He showed us how Ebenezer Scrooge went from having a dominant Olympian personality to having a dominant Christian one. How that happened might be instructive.

Scrooge: Fifty Shades of Indifference

With his timeless book, A Christmas Carol (1843), Charles Dickens created for us the cautionary tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. Like the rest of us, Ebenezer had a wholly Olympian as well as a wholly Christian personality. His wholly Olympian personality especially devoted itself to Pluto, the god of money. For this reason, Olympian Ebenezer practiced intentional indifference toward anyone useless to him for the purpose of making money. Our Olympian personalities do the same.

    
We first learn that Olympian Ebenezer walked from home to work and back in a way which deliberately discouraged strangers from speaking with him. No one, Dickens tells us, exchanged greetings with him, asked money of him, or sought directions from him. Even service dogs wisely guided their blind masters away from him. How did Ebenezer feel about all this avoidance by others in their response to his clear contempt for them? It was the very thing he liked (Stave 1, “Marley’s Ghost, here and following). Yes, rather than pricking Ebenezer’s Christian conscience, their behavior only fed his Olympian indifference.

Olympian Scrooge Talks with His Christian Nephew

Each one of us has a wholly Olympian personality. It is structured in terms of those six tedious gods of Olympianity. Sadly, our society and culture are structured in terms of them too.

   
At the same time, each one of us has a wholly Christian personality. It is a gift to every one of us from Jesus: the only true god/man of freedom, truth, love, and vitality. Hopefully our churches are structured in terms of him too. In that way they would provisionally represent the Kingdom of Heaven already present here on Earth.

    
At any given moment, it’s always a matter of which personality is stronger: our Olympian or our Christian one.

    
At the beginning of A Christmas Carol (1843), that timeless tale by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge’s Olympian personality definitely dominates. Indeed, during the conversation with his nephew Fred on Christmas Eve, it is solely his Olympian personality expressing itself. In refreshing contrast, it is Fred’s Christian personality responding creatively to Olympian Ebenezer rather than Fred’s Olympian personality fighting Scrooge’s hostility with some of its own.