In the final analysis, the modern system of Santa Claus resembles modern semi-Pelagian evangelicalism. We do what is good “so that we shall get stuff” – toys, heaven, etc. We do not do what is bad “so that we shall not be punished” – lump of coal, hell, etc. These are both self-indulgent and overtly selfish systems of thought that elevate the personal desire to gain pleasure and prevent pain or loss. And this is the natural state of man – my children need no Jolly Old Elf to teach them how to rationalize their selfishness. They need the grace and mercy of God and of his Christ to know how NOT to be selfish.

“He sees you when you’re sleeping; He knows when you’re awake.
“He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for Goodness’ sake!”

Bah! Humbug!

I’m sure I’m just a big ol’ Grinch whose heart is two sizes too small.

But I’ve grown increasingly aware of and simultaneously disturbed by our modern and post-modern obsession with Santa Claus. What may be seen on its surface as a harmless little bit of fun has deeper significance to the state of our society.

We don’t do Santa Claus in my house, and I’m not saying you’re a terrible person if you do; but I think there are historical and philosophical implications to the modern conception of Kris Kringle that people should be aware of.

My children are 6, 4, 3, and 0.75. They (with the exception of the 0.75-year old) are all very aware that Santa Claus is not real, but that the cultural icon now in place is derived from the Bishop of Myra—who would have worn a mitre, not a stocking cap. They also know all the reindeer’s names, and sing loudly the words to “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” with great joy and anticipation.

But I think the evolution of Santa Claus mirrors closely the evolution of Western Civilization as a whole—if not the American view of metaphysics and transcendence at the very least.

Yes, St. Nicholas was famous for punching heretics and giving gifts, and his feast, celebrated on December 6, aligns nicely with the liturgical advent season. St. Nicholas became Sinterklass, which became Santa Claus; Christ-mass became Christmas. This much we’re familiar with.

Nicholas-Icon-Meme-2

Maybe not-so-familiar is Martin Luther’s idea of the Christkindl (or Christ-child), emphasized as a way to show that the true gifts brought to humanity are not by St. Nicholas as much as they are by the Christ himself. Yet even Christkindl became Chriskindle, then Kris Kringle, which is now as much a part of the Santa lore as any other.

But St. Nicholas, the Roman Catholic Church, and the early Protestant church, would agree that the emphasis was always very much on the grace of God – granting to a sinful species gifts that it did not deserve. Nicholas and Luther were very much cognizant of this and thus emphasized a secrecy in the gift-giving so as not to attract attention toward the human gift giver in their feeble imitations of God’s grace.

Now we have the gifts without the divine grace. The gift-giver is a Jolly Old Elf with absolutely no identification, association, or affiliation with the sovereign God of historic Christianity. And while most adults know that Santa Claus doesn’t exist, most families with small children vehemently insist on his reality.

Since the 19th Century, popular conceptions of Santa Claus have focused less and less on Christian aspects and instead have more and more focused on earthly qualities. This coincides neatly with the West’s acquiescence to Immanuel Kant’s impermeable wall between the phenomenal and noumenal realms, and that we have no business trying to rationalize empirically that which our senses cannot immediately perceive.

kant_300pxKant’s philosophy – a response to David Hume’s empiricism and critique of causation – spread like wildfire throughout Western Civilization. His impact cannot be underestimated. From Kant came the school of the “higher critics” of Christianity – people like Ferdinand Christian Baur and Freidrich Schleiermacher, influenced by Kantian philosophy, made attempts totally to reorganize Christianity into one that fit in to Kant’s metaphysical postulations.

We can already see the de-Christianization, or even the “de-metaphysicalization”, of St. Nicholas in 1810 – thirty years after Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason – in a poem published by the New York Historical Society:

St. Nicholas. Dec. 6th. A.D. 343*1810

Saint Nicholas [‘Sancte Claus’ in Dutch], good holy man!
Put on the Tabard [a sleeveless jacket], best you can,
Go, clad therewith, to Amsterdam,
From Amsterdam to Hispanje [Spain]
Where apples bright of Oranje [oranges]
And likewise those granate [pomegranates] surnam’d
Roll through the streets, all free unclaim’d.

Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend!
To serve you ever was my end,
If you will, now me something give,
I’ll serve you ever while I live.

Of course, perhaps no poem has done more to describe our modern Santa Claus than Clement Clark Moore’s 1822 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, which introduces the eight reindeer, his manner of dress, his escapades as a sort of human ramoneur, and his flying sleigh. Again, the qualities of St. Nicholas are completely removed from the metaphysical realm. But we are still given an image of a magical elf, from who knows where.

Thomas Nast took care of that several decades later, giving Santa Claus a permanent physical home in the North Pole, removing, finally, any possibility of St. Nicholas’s participation with the physical world from a metaphysical home. Santa Claus was now secularized completely from the noumenal realm, and given a permanent address in the phenomenal realm.

Also coinciding with this evolution of Santa Claus were the very distinctly American philosophies of Charles Pierce, William James, and John Dewey, collectively known as Pragmatism. For the pragmatist, the transcendent or metaphysical was of limited importance – rather, what was important was the results a certain action could bring about. Truth was not a transcendent concept; it was “the cash value of an idea.” In a sense, ultimate Truth, as it had classically been analyzed, was of secondary importance. William James asked, “what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone’s actual life?”

Influenced in their own way by Kant’s “Copernican Revolution” of knowledge, which asserts that the mind is capable of imputing qualities upon external objects, the pragmatist asserts that ideas can become true; or that truth happens to ideas.

So as the popular concept of Santa Claus grew, society continued to impute truth upon him for Pragmatistic purposes.

By the late 19th century, the interactive nature of a sovereign God was dying. The deists eliminated God’s interaction with the “God as a Watchmaker” assertion; Kant imposed the impossibility of our perceiving divine interaction; Comte and the positivists saw the belief in an interactive god as a juvenile supposition; and Bentham and the Utilitarians believed we could only know God’s will by “observing what is our own pleasure and pronouncing it to be his.”

Read More