Holy Water and Magic Dust
Part 2 of 3
Essay Posted February 19, 2008 by James E. Nelson
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Bones (her actual name is Temperance Brennan) is a forensic anthropologist and an atheist to boot. Her science and empirical method are her religion. Booth is an FBI agent who is also a good Catholic. It was Booth who nicknamed Dr. Brennan “Bones” because of a certain disdain he had for the field of forensic anthropology. They are co-stars of the television series Bones. As is necessary for modern co-stars, they disagree about pretty much everything. Booth solves murder by following hunches, Bones, by following hard science. Booth figures people (living people, to be specific) are the key to solving crime. Bones (as her nickname suggests) tends to rely on the dead folk to figure out whodunit.
And of course there’s the problem of Booth’s religion and Bone’s lack of it. This was the theme of one episode involving murder and grave robbery in the cemetery of a Roman Catholic Church. The humorous bit that was repeated over and over was that Bones couldn’t keep the ideas of holy and magic straight. There was magic ground, magic water, etc.
As an aside, one of the reasons I’ve come to like Bones is that it respects religion. Booth is no less an FBI agent because he’s a good Catholic. In turn, Dr. Brennan has at least one misstep every episode because she has absolute faith in the empirical method and a decided lack of faith in (for lack of a better term) faith.
But in this episode Dr. Brennan raises an interesting question that we Christians tend to gloss over rather easily. Just what is the difference between magic water and holy water? Put another way, what efficacy do our different formulas actually have?
Magic is the attempt to control nature (or the supernatural) as the two primary definitions of magic in The American Heritage Dictionary indicate: “(1) The art that purports to control or forecast natural events, effects, or forces by invoking the supernatural. (2) The practice of using charms, spells, or rituals to attempt to produce supernatural effects or control events in nature.” At the most unsophisticated level, magic is Harry Potter flicking his wand and saying “Expelliarmus!” thus causing Draco Malfoy’s wand to fly out of his hand. The spell and accompanying action, if done correctly, takes control of nature and causes it to do something.
Compare this to my experience of Christianity as a small child. Growing up I was taught that if I said “the sinner’s prayer,” that my sins would be forgiven and Jesus would come into my heart. I was at an unsophisticated age so it seemed to me that the formula invoked in the sinner’s prayer caused my sins to be forgiven. Is that any different than a magic formula?
Jump ahead forty years. I’m sitting in church on Theophany and the priest recites some prayers and does the sign of the cross over “the Stanley Cup” and suddenly the tap water inside is transformed into holy water? What’s the difference between the blessing of the water, the sinner’s prayer, and Harry Potter crying out, “Expelliarmus!”?
And finally, in terms of the house blessing season with which I began this essay. The priest comes to my house, drinks some coffee, says a prayer, sprinkles the water, makes the sign of the cross, and leaves. Is my house now different than it was one hour ago? And if it is, was it the coffee, the prayers, the magic holy water, or the sign of the cross, or something else that caused the change?
While the questions may seem irreverent and frivolous, I believe they get at the heart of something most Christians simply do not understand in any practical manner. As a result, magic fairy dust could be exchanged for holy water and we would have no clear conception of what precisely was different in the two actions.
But in the end, although most people may not be able to clearly explain the difference, Booth is right and Bones is misguided. There is a profound difference between magic dust and holy water, just as there is a profound difference between the sinner’s prayer and a magic spell to cast out some inner darkness.
Copyright © 2008 James E. Nelson (Just Another Jim). All Rights Reserved.
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