I just finished watching Jim Carrey’s, A Christmas Carol. There are so many versions of this story. Some are funny, some are scary, some are set in 1800s London, some are set in a modern city like New York, some are animated, and some are live-action.
I've found proof that this story was not originally written by Charles Dickens, who merely plagiarized it and re-wrote it as a ghost story to make quick cash. I've identified the real co-authors as my historical research subjects, an American couple named Mathew and Abby Whittier. Abby was the source of all the spirituality in "A Christmas Carol." It was she who named the chapters "staves," which has a double meaning Dickens never picked up on. A "stave" can also mean a rung on a ladder, and so each chapter was a rung on the ladder to the reader's conversion experience, as he or she identified with Ebenezer (not "Scrooge"). Abby was a Catholic mystic who, somewhat like Thomas Merton, respected other esoteric traditions. She was persecuted as a witch by traditional Protestants in her brief 24 years. Traditional Christians are up against a dilemma--if they believe Charles Dickens wrote this story, they will find that Dickens is being gradually exposed as a scoundrel. But if they understand that it was written by Mathew and Abby, they have to admit that such spiritual power came from people they might be inclined to think of as heretics.
That would be ironic if the story about the sin of greed was a plagiarized "cash grab". I hear your point too about labeling heretics. But I think the issue of greed is still much needed to be addressed by Christians in America today. Whether by Dickins or Jesus or another the moral call to reject abundance and individual comfort for the good of others is foundational to enlightenment and peace.
The story about greed, first of all, was not written by Dickens. Secondly, it was not primarily about greed. Ebenezer Scrooge (not "Scrooge") was first and foremost a worldly man, and a skeptic of matters spiritual. His transformation, originally, was from that state to a spiritual state--the state of having an awakened heart, and of understanding that spirituality is real. Dickens dumbed it down into a ghost story about a greedy man who was frightened by four ghosts into behaving himself (the only level of morality Dickens understood). So a great deal was lost in the translation, and I intend to try to restore it, or at least make people aware of it.
Love, love, love this twist on the worldly Christmas Carol versus the real story. We are called to go and tell the gospel and make disciples and if we don't it will not happen. A twist on the Home Depot commercial chime, More Doing, More Saving!
I wonder if Jesus’ disinterest in addressing this comes from his complete love for God. We cannot serve two masters. If the Scrooge-like nature of people is to change, it oughtn’t be out of self-interest or self-preservation (avoiding one’s eternity of misery), but out of love for God and others.
remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:35
That blessedness was meant for those who were doing so with the right heart.
I've found proof that this story was not originally written by Charles Dickens, who merely plagiarized it and re-wrote it as a ghost story to make quick cash. I've identified the real co-authors as my historical research subjects, an American couple named Mathew and Abby Whittier. Abby was the source of all the spirituality in "A Christmas Carol." It was she who named the chapters "staves," which has a double meaning Dickens never picked up on. A "stave" can also mean a rung on a ladder, and so each chapter was a rung on the ladder to the reader's conversion experience, as he or she identified with Ebenezer (not "Scrooge"). Abby was a Catholic mystic who, somewhat like Thomas Merton, respected other esoteric traditions. She was persecuted as a witch by traditional Protestants in her brief 24 years. Traditional Christians are up against a dilemma--if they believe Charles Dickens wrote this story, they will find that Dickens is being gradually exposed as a scoundrel. But if they understand that it was written by Mathew and Abby, they have to admit that such spiritual power came from people they might be inclined to think of as heretics.
thesacredcarol dot goldthread dot com
That would be ironic if the story about the sin of greed was a plagiarized "cash grab". I hear your point too about labeling heretics. But I think the issue of greed is still much needed to be addressed by Christians in America today. Whether by Dickins or Jesus or another the moral call to reject abundance and individual comfort for the good of others is foundational to enlightenment and peace.
The story about greed, first of all, was not written by Dickens. Secondly, it was not primarily about greed. Ebenezer Scrooge (not "Scrooge") was first and foremost a worldly man, and a skeptic of matters spiritual. His transformation, originally, was from that state to a spiritual state--the state of having an awakened heart, and of understanding that spirituality is real. Dickens dumbed it down into a ghost story about a greedy man who was frightened by four ghosts into behaving himself (the only level of morality Dickens understood). So a great deal was lost in the translation, and I intend to try to restore it, or at least make people aware of it.
Love, love, love this twist on the worldly Christmas Carol versus the real story. We are called to go and tell the gospel and make disciples and if we don't it will not happen. A twist on the Home Depot commercial chime, More Doing, More Saving!
I wonder if Jesus’ disinterest in addressing this comes from his complete love for God. We cannot serve two masters. If the Scrooge-like nature of people is to change, it oughtn’t be out of self-interest or self-preservation (avoiding one’s eternity of misery), but out of love for God and others.