One day earlier this week I watched an interview with Tom Holland, author of the book Dominion. In that volume he shares his journey as a disillusioned historian and liberal who at one point valued the Roman empire, but who eventually came to question the violence and devaluation of others that came with it. As he continued to wrestle with his own ethics and values on such things he came to the provocative conclusion that he, and Western civilization, owes a debt to Christianity in this regard, and it is many of that faith’s assumptions that provide the foundation for the secular West. You can read a review of his book in The New Statesman, for example, that provides a summary interaction with the thesis of his book.

I’ve watched and listened to several interviews with Holland on his book so this wasn’t new to me in the most recent viewing. What was new came at the end, where he expressed dismay that no real good answers have been provided by the Church in regards to our current struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic. This got me to thinking, and for the most part I have to agree. Holland is not alone in this criticism, as a post by New Testament scholar Andrew Perriman, with his own intriguing thoughts on this issue, demonstrates. This issue is especially relevant in light of a survey that revealed that a third of Americans believe the current virus was sent by God.

This failure to provide a meaningful response got me to thinking about how horror films have addressed the question of God, epidemics/pandemics/plague and theodicy. I’ll draw the readers attention to two I find interesting.

First, is the 2010 film Black Death starring Sean Bean. This is an interesting film that weaves assumptions about the divine and the Devil in relation to plague throughout, and which brings Christian soldiers acting on behalf of the Church into conflict with a village of Pagans. The story also features human beings who are depicted as using these assumptions to wield power of others. I’ve discussed this film previously in a podcast with a Wiccan that readers might want to listen to.

Another film I’ve thought about recently in connection with God and the pandemic is the wonderful Roger Corman adaptation of Poe, The Masque of the Red Death. There is a great scene in the film where, Vincent Price’s character, a Satan worshiper, makes the argument with a Christian woman that given the death, disease and violence of the world, no benevolent God is in charge. This is a nice summary of the argument from evil found in the middle of a horror film. A bonus for fans.

So as we continue to struggle with a global pandemic and the havoc it wreaks, if theologians can’t provide meaningful answers to our suffering, at least horror can help us express our anguish.