Theology Paper Excerpt Ft. Jim Corrigan, The Spectre
...besides that 1 Miracle Monday post, and I'm currently on my second year. I did try making a House of Brainiac series of theory posts but didn't finish it time. I barely catch up on my own pull list in time, often weeks behind and barely knowing what happens in other books these days.
The good news is I do have some ideas lined up that I could make at any time, but in the mean time an encounter with u/Avenging_Spectre on r/Catholicmemes got me to remember this old paper I did for theology class in college. Basically, it was a midterm paper kind of thing that had to have your personal journey, compared to Moses (we studied the Torah/Pentateuch that semester), and someone else of your choice. Most people chose their parents or a saint, and I almost did that too, but I guess I wanted to try something different, and because our professor said we could even choose fictional characters. I also had to cite some theology and philosophy sources and concepts which is why there are some annotations here that I removed the footnotes of. Heh, I guess you can still notice me randomly putting them throughout the recap.
After thinking about it, I decided to keep this here and not post it on Reddit too like my other stuff. Now I've never been shy about sharing my faith on Reddit, even on r/DCcomics. Actually, a lot of my posts in the past has had religious themes either explicitly or implicitly. I almost bring it up in every post lol. One example is the Pre-Dark Crisis Theories Post, which I released on Easter after abstaining from Reddit during Lent. Really all the Infinite Frontier to Dark Crisis related posts before and after that too honestly, don't have to look too deep to see it.
Even my current profile picture is just a 52 stylized with a radiating Cross of light in the center. I made it myself as a concept years ago and only saw soon after that the Catholic Productions YouTube channel had a similar logo but C and P haha. Shoutout to Dr. Brant Pitre and Dr. John Bergsma by the way for my fellow Catholics interested in scholarly work supporting the Catholic Christian faith.
But in the end I concluded posting a long excerpt from an actual theology paper without a lot of images that spends most of it summarizing/spoiling a comic run might not be fit for posting there. Even without all the personal stuff in the full paper, I do feel like I need to keep this somewhat private anyway. I also wouldn't post this on r/Catholicism for similar reasons, but also because I've definitely learned much, much more about the faith and deepened it in the 5 years since (man time does fly), even as a cradle Catholic who's been in Catholic education institutions all my life. But hey if I change my mind and put it there in the future, well never mind then lol.
So without further ado:
These themes of serving a higher purpose, self-sacrifice for the greater good and others, and redemption being possible at any time even if one’s past has driven them so far away, are pivotal parts of the story of James “Jim” Corrigan, specifically from John Ostrander (comic book writer and former Theology Student) and Tom Mandrake’s 1990s comic book run on DC Comics’ “The Spectre” which, use them greatly and relates very well to the topic of faith narrative.
Jim Corrigan, originally created by Jerry Siegel (Jewish co-creator of Superman) and Bernard Baily, was a police detective in the 1930s10. He had a strong sense of justice and was very headstrong. One day, he was murdered by a crime boss who he had previously ruined the operations of. The gangster that same night would then go on to threaten to murder the fiancé that he had left behind. Refusing to let her die, and angry at his fate, he refused to go to Heaven, proclaiming how little faith he has in God’s justice, but said that he knew for sure his own justice was true. A voice judged him to be worthy of neither Heaven or Hell, and so he was given the punishment and mission to roam the Earth to confront evil and deliver God’s justice11.
From there Jim was given ghostly powers given to him by the divine Voice of God and became one with “The Spectre”, the embodiment of God’s Wrath. He then saved his fiancé before breaking it off with her as he was a dead man who cannot live with her. He became an avenging ghost taking on the guise of a pale white man in a green cloak but also had the ability to assume different forms, including the appearance he had when he was living. Besides that, and other ghostly abilities, the Spectre could hear the cries of murdered dead and can even sense and judge a person’s soul and punishes them proportionate to his sin.
Because he looked like a superhero, Spectre went on to join the Justice Society of America and even fought in World War 2 against the Nazis who committed unspeakable acts against the Jews. Over time however, years after the team disbanded and the first heroic age finished, the Spectre continued his quest that he understood as to eradicate evil from the world, in the hopes that one day, he would find peace with himself and reach Heaven.
Ostrander’s series starts 50 years after Jim Corrigan’s death with various flashbacks to his past as the series focuses on him finding that peace. After half a century he is not any closer to achieving this goal until his new journey of self-discovery started by him having human connections. He learned the true mission he was given was not to completely remove all sin from the face of the Earth, but to confront and comprehend it, as well as self-reflecting on how he was in life. He went on to befriend a priest named Richard Craemer who became his human anchor, something he needed after spending so much time as a spirit of vengeance12. One example would be on Christmas Eve when Father Craemer even taught him to spare and give second chances to people even if they have sinned, instead of mercilessly dealing out punishment, which gave him a greater understanding and appreciation of life13. He realized that individual actions perhaps do not fully define or condemn a person, and that the inner agency of a person can le.ad to growth, decline or change in direction as studied by Maurice Blondel14.
Over the course of the series he also makes peace with the few people in his original life who still lived, including those part of his murder, and even helped redeem someone who was initially set to go to Hell, while also meeting a spirit of one of the few friends he had in life and guiding him to the afterlife.
Near the series end, it seemed that the Voice that guided him, and Archangel Michael (a recurring character in this series) has disappeared. So, he went on a journey to essentially find God. In this he discovers many other gods that exist in the DC comics universe and is essentially confused by it. He meets pantheons of the Greek, Norse, African and even the fictional gods from the comics as well as those who worship and believe in them15. He learns of the many different beliefs and gods of others and why they came to be. Whether those beliefs are polytheistic, henotheistic, or universal16.
His journey then brings him to himself. He remembers his childhood and his abusive preacher father. It is through this that he realizes that the inner resentment he had for God, came from his view of his religious father. Through his powers he learns about the truth of his father, and seeing his humanity, learns to forgive him, and in turn, himself as he saw how this influenced his adult life. This was his final test before finally achieving peace17. He began to wonder, how much of the Spectre was really God’s Wrath, and how much was really him putting out his anger on the world and using justice as an excuse. Father Craemer suggests holding a funeral, something he never had after dying. After finding and burying his mortal body, the funeral begins, and so everyone he had met, saved and befriended in his time as the Spectre came to see him go. He made more friends in his afterlife than he did his ordinary life, realizing how much he had truly changed as a person. He thanks them, removes his green cloak, and finally gets eternal rest in Heaven18 .
Jim Corrigan’s story shows a lot of themes and events parallel to Moses. Like him he had a childhood that negatively impacted him but unlike him, he only truly got the positive transformation after his death and serving God. His view on Him was shaped by previous experiences but changed as he grew as a person. Even in death, he gained redemption by serving something larger than him.
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