Maltheism, Humanism, and the Messianic Role of Dean Winchester
#celebratingdean | week 3: divinity |
“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions.” - Wisdom 2:12
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” - Matthew 10:34
There is no doubt in my mind that Dean has a messianic arc. Titles attached to Dean such as ‘The Righteous Man’, ‘The Michael Sword’ and ‘Firewall Between Light and Darkness’ imply that Dean is a Chosen One. A Savior. In the case of The Righteous Man and The Michael Sword, Dean serves as a literal Jesus expy as both roles are drawn from biblical and Christological lore and take place within a mytharc that is adapted directly from Christian religious texts, namely The Book of Revelation.
But does viewing Dean as a messiah or Christ figure obscure or even negate the humanity that is so integral to Dean’s character?
Absolutely not.
As far as biblical lore is concerned, there is no dichotomy between messiahship and humanity.
In Judaism, the Messiah is a human being who will usher in The World to Come (effectively Heaven) not through his divinity (because he is not divine) but through what he has accomplished. In fact, a person can only be considered the messiah after they have accomplished certain tasks. Reform Judaism views the Messiah not as a singular individual, but rather as a zeitgeist that will be brought about through the collective efforts of Humanity.
Though Christianity believes Jesus to be the messiah and the incarnation of God, it also believes that Jesus was both fully divine and fully human (two natures coexisting equally). Ancient Christianity was brimming with so-called ‘heresies’ that viewed Jesus as having a lesser form divinity (Aranianism), to be a human being who later became divine (Adoptionism), or as a human being who was never divine (Psilanthropism). Jesus is also referred to as The Son of Man, a title that originates from The Jewish scriptures where it refers exclusively to Humanity.
Dean’s humanity does not negate the idea of him being a messianic figure; it is a necessary aspect of it.
Lore aside, there is another way in which Dean’s Humanity goes hand in hand with his messiahship: It allows Dean to stand in direct opposition to God and The Angels. This is a good thing and not at all contradictory as one would expect because God and the angels are effectively malicious beings.
Chuck is a deadbeat father at best and a willfully negligent Creator at worst.
Chuck/God: I am not hiding. I am just done watching my experiments' failures. (11.20)
Joshua: [God] knows what the angels are doing. He knows that the Apocalypse has begun. He just doesn’t think it’s his problem.(5.16)
The angels are corrupt bureaucrats who have no issue wasting human lives for their purposes.
Zachariah: Well... you can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. In this case... truckloads of eggs, but you get the picture. Look... it happens. This isn't the first planetary enema we've delivered. (4.22)
Naomi: There was that day, back in Egypt, not so long ago, where we slew every first-born infant whose door wasn't splashed with lamb's blood. And that was just PR. (8.21)
The angels view Humanity as something base and vermin-like. Something that is inherently beneath them. Not even Dean who is their Chosen One is above their ridicule.
Zachariah: You [Dean] are nothing but a maggot inside a worm’s ass. (5.18)
Michael: You [Dean] little maggot. You are no longer a part of this story! (5.22)
This mixture of pride and self-righteousness makes Heaven something that needs to be opposed and Dean does just that by asserting his Humanity, most specifically, his Secular-Humanism.
Dean is an atheist. His atheism is mainly rooted in the philosophical argument of The Problem of Evil: If God exists and if God is an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-benevolent entity how can there be evil and suffering in the world? Dean’s answer to that question is that God is either fundamentally flawed or does not exist.
Dean: See, this is why I can't get behind God. If he doesn't exist, fine. Bad crap happens to good people. That's how it is. There's no rhyme or reason -- just random, horrible, evil -- I get it, okay. I can roll with that. But if he is out there, what's wrong with him?(4.02)
Though Dean now has proof of God’s existence, his skepticism never the less still exists. He is critical of the nature of God and always holds God accountable for his negligence towards Creation.
Dean: You did nothing. People pray to you. People build churches for you. They fight wars in your name, and you did nothing.
Chuck: You're frustrated. I get it. Believe me, I was hands-on – Real hands-on for ages. I was so sure if I kept stepping in, teaching, punishing, that these beautiful creatures that I created would grow up. But it only stayed the same. And I saw that I needed to step away and let my baby find its way. Being overinvolved is no longer parenting. It's enabling.
Dean: But it didn't get better.
Chuck: Well, I've been mulling it over. And from where I sit, I think it has.
Dean: Well, from where I sit, it feels like you left us and you're trying to justify it. (11.21)
Dean’s skepticism also allows him to combat the concepts of The Will of God and/or Destiny, ideas that are frequently evoked by angels and other supernatural beings to justify the death of the innocent.
Dean: Destiny? Don't give me that "holy" crap. Destiny, God's plan... It's all a bunch of lies, you poor, stupid son of a bitch! It's just a way for your bosses to keep me and keep you in line! You know what's real? People, families -- that's real. And you're gonna watch them all burn? (4.22)
Dean: Give me a break. I've spent my whole life fighting that crap. There's no such thing as destiny, just like there was no apocalypse -- just a bunch of stuck-up mooks who didn't want us human slaves asking questions. Well, I say the little girl lives. (6.11)
Most importantly, Dean’s skepticism encourages him to embrace and value personal agency.
Michael: You think you know better than my father? One unimportant little man. What makes you think you get to choose?
Dean: Because I got to believe that I can choose what I do with my unimportant little life. (5.13)
Dean fully embraces the idea of Free Will. That Individuals are not pre-ordained to commit certain actions or have certain events befall them. This stands in direct opposition to the philosophy of determinism expressed by both the angels and God and it has saved the world, first by stopping the battle between Michael and Lucifer and later by mending the relationship between Amara and Chuck.
